Are You Still Making This Common Sales Prospecting Mistake? Find Out Here.

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Let's talk about your sales lead generation practices.

I hear Salespeople and Sales Leaders lament the same thing:

"We need more leads!"

Asking them "Why do you need more leads?" usually delivers the same answer:

"To fill our pipeline."

"To reach our quota."

"To get the 3, 4, even 5-times coverage we need."

Along similar lines, I had an interesting conversation with a senior Sales Leader recently who couldn't answer a pretty straight-forward lead gen question. It prompted me to post this poll on LinkedIn to find out whether this is a common issue (just click on the image to cast your vote):

At the time of posting this article, the poll was still running. So, we'll see what the result will be.

In the meantime, let's get back to taking about lead generation.

What is the easiest and seemingly logical thing to do when you need more leads?

You do more lead gen.

Right.

But, is that really the best thing to do?

Let's think about this for a moment. After all, lead gen is hard, and it is getting harder.

Why?

Because, while apps, platforms and tech have made it really easy to REACH OUT to your ideal buyers in huge numbers, it is now super-hard to get them TO ENGAGE with, and respond to, your lead gen.

Take yourself as an example:

• How many sales emails do you receive every day. How many of them do you read?
• How many cold sales calls do you receive every day? How many of these do you answer?
• How many sales pitches do you receive on LinkedIn every day? How many of those do you ignore?

So, what makes you think these kinds of outreaches will to work for you?

The reality is that traditional lead gen is increasingly failing, because modern buyers are fed up with being pitch-slapped .

In my experience(and in that of my clients') there is a WRONG WAY and a RIGHT WAY to think about lead gen, demand gen and prospect engagement.

Why?

Because, the old pushy selling techniques do nothing more than annoy, and even put off, your ideal prospects, long before you even have a chance to speak with them.

These old lead gen practices simply don't work any longer..

I mean, what's the point? The stats are horrible:

How many outreaches does it take you to unearth a single lead?

How many leads does it take you to make a single sale?

Think about it: How much time, effort and money is spent on those horribly inefficient practices?

So, let me challenge this thinking. Why not re-think your lead gen?

Ask yourself:

"Do we need MORE leads? Or do we need BETTER leads?

Here's the thing: MORE leads just means a whole lot more work, effort and time invested in following up, pursing and qualifying in, or qualifying out.

Why not do away with this inefficient numbers game and do something smarter instead?

Why not aim for lead QUALITY, instead of lead QUANTITY?

Why not ENGAGE your ideal prospects better in the first place?

If you'd like to know HOW to achieve that, then I recommend you read this other article of mine .

It's about how you can create "A Lean-Forward Moment" for your prospects and customers, and really engage them into a business conversation.

Did this article make sense to you? Then please share it.

If you'd like it to the next level: Let's talk about your sales and your lead gen practices, and what you can do to lift both.

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About Peter Strohkorb

Peter Strohkorb ?is the Founder and Principal of?Peter Strohkorb Sales Advisory , the international Sales Modernization firm with a growing list of clients in the b2b services and tech space in the USA, in Australia, and in the UK.

Our motto is "Sell Smarter, Not Harder" , and that is exactly what we deliver to you, our clients.

Contact

Australia: +61 (0)411 865 301??|??[email protected]

USA: +1?(628) 246-1242??|??https://peterstrohkorb.com