This is a problem experienced by many Techpreneurs who do not have a Sales background.
Firstly, converting prospects from ‘interested’ to ‘committed’ is a symptom, not the problem.
Build a strong business case
The problem is most likely that the reasons ‘not to buy’ outweigh the reasons ‘to buy’ your solution that were presented to the customer.
Have you clearly demonstrated the tangible business benefits of your offering to their business?
What business problems can you solve? How much money can you save them? How much of their time will your solution free up? To what extent can you help your customers sell more?
If your struggling to pin point a strong reason why a prospect should buy, aside from ‘it’s cool’ or ‘it would be nice’, there is a strong chance that you wont convert the lead into a sale.
Remember, Decision is easy when value is clear.
Know your numbers
Understanding your sales figures is key to pinpointing where exactly in the sales cycle you are going wrong.
What is your lead conversion rate? Most Technology Sales to businesses work off a ratio of 3:1 (they typically close 1 piece of businesses from every 3 opportunities in their pipeline).
If you do not have the stats available to allow you to understand your conversion rates, then you are missing out on a valuable sales effectiveness analysis exercise.
If your lead conversion ratio is high (5+:1)
If this is the case you will most likely be spending much of your time on opportunities you are losing, and not enough time on the opportunities you are likely to win.
Did you qualify your prospects thoroughly?
Should you have tendered for the business in the first place?
What else could you have done to strengthen your proposal?
If your lead conversion ratio is low (2:1 or 1:1)
Congratulations, you are doing something right! When a prospect has shown interest you have been able to convert them into sales effectively.
The issues with an effective lead conversion rate is often that you aren’t getting enough leads to be in a position to convert!
Lead source
Where are your leads coming from?
From which source do most of your leads convert? How could you get more leads from this source?
Could you improve your strategy for converting leads from other sources?
Do you have a New Business Strategy? Could you be gaining more leads from social media? How about Referrals from your existing customers?
Why are people not buying from you?
There are typically 3 outcomes from a prospect’s business you have tendered for;
- They buy from you
- They buy from a competitor
- They do nothing
Ask the prospect why you lost the deal and learn from your mistakes.
If converting more of your leads into sales is an area of focus for your Technology Business, feel free to get in touch with Incrementa who are happy to conduct a pipeline conversion review free of charge for any Tech City News readers.