How can you effectively manage leads, contacts, and pipeline in outside sales?

1 Generate quality leads

The first step in managing your outside sales process is to generate quality leads that match your ideal customer profile and have a high potential to buy your product or service. You can use various sources and methods to find and attract leads, such as referrals, networking, social media, cold calling, email marketing, events, and online platforms. However, not all leads are equal, and you need to qualify them based on their fit, interest, budget, authority, and timeline. A good way to qualify leads is to use a scoring system that assigns points based on their criteria and behavior, and prioritize the ones that have the highest score.

2 Build and maintain relationships with contacts

Once you have qualified your leads, you need to build and maintain relationships with your contacts throughout the sales cycle. This means you need to communicate with them regularly, provide value and information, address their pain points and objections, and move them along the stages of your sales funnel. You can use various tools and techniques to stay in touch with your contacts, such as phone calls, emails, texts, video calls, social media, newsletters, and content. However, you also need to personalize your communication and tailor it to each contact's needs, preferences, and goals. A good way to personalize your communication is to use a CRM system that tracks and stores your contact's data, history, and interactions.

3 Manage and close deals in your pipeline

The final step in managing your outside sales process is to manage and close deals in your pipeline. This means you need to monitor and measure your pipeline performance, identify and resolve bottlenecks and risks, and optimize your conversion rate and cycle time. You can use various metrics and indicators to evaluate your pipeline performance, such as the number of leads, opportunities, and closed deals, the average deal size and value, the win rate and loss rate, and the pipeline velocity and coverage. However, you also need to take action and follow up on your pipeline activities, such as sending proposals, negotiating terms, handling objections, and asking for the sale. A good way to manage and close deals in your pipeline is to use a sales methodology that defines the steps and criteria for each stage of your sales process.

4 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?