Top Ten Sales Tools To Help Boost Your Sales Pipeline

We know you are busy and get bombarded with hints and tips constantly so we are going to keep this nice and simple.

Here are 10 effective and proven things that you can do, today, to help generate enquiries from prospects that are aligned to your product or service offering and will want to work with you.

Ready? Let’s go…

1. Ensure your presence is visible – from your branding to your core messaging, your social platforms to your website, your blog posts to your email campaigns (you get the idea) – your online presence is the first impression that the vast majority of your prospects will get of your business. You only get one chance, so ensure it is positive and memorable. Try and view your online marketing collateral in the eyes of your key client, does it speak to their wants and needs? If you are unsure it may be time to review it.
2. Be targeted – the key to an efficient sales strategy is being targeted with your approach – only approaching potential targets that are a good fit with your offering ensures that your efforts are likely to gain maximum return. LinkedIn is an excellent platform, however, success will be gained by those who know how to use it correctly and to their advantage. Harness the power of LinkedIn Sales Navigator and utilise the sophisticated search and filter abilities to ensure that you are only targeting relevant prospects. LinkedIn should be the beginning not the end of the story – it is an excellent start, but be aware there is a full process that leads to the end result (more to follow on that shortly)! You will always find that there are those prospects that you can’t access via LinkedIn, don’t write them off, a little yet powerful tool called Hunter can help you to connect the dots and ascertain those valuable email addresses.
3. Automate your lead generation – Make the most of your time – focus on doing what you do best and make use of the tools that are available to take care of the rest. Automate any processes that you can so that by the time you personally enter the arena that hot lead is ready to close. There are many systems on the market however, we find that our specific process certainly offers the edgein this area (shameless brag) – you would be wise to check out our LinkedIn Automation Tool which is pushing the boundaries of what modern lead generation systems look like. It offers an exceptional automation solution that allows you to utilise our unique expertise to get the best out of these resources and make life much more efficient. We will even provide free LinkedIn training which (if you can get a spot on the next webinar) is not to be missed.
4. Get organised – install and utilise a system that will pull all your sales activity together under one umbrella. There are many options available, Hubspot stands out in our eyes with multiple packages available to fit various business requirements. When it comes to sales tracking and monitoring this is key, particularly if you are running a team of sales people.
5. Be Email marketing savvy – carefully planned, drip-fed email campaigns can be highly effective if executed correctly. They introduce a prospect to your offering and maintain a stream of messaging to educate them on the products or services that you provide until they become familiar with your service and in a position whereby they choose to take the next step. With email marketing being such a popular medium it is crucial that you use the right process and messages to make you stand out from all the noise. Phil Herridge is an expert in this area and often offers insight into how this can be best employed – catch him on LinkedIn here.
6. Landing pages are key – regardless of the campaign you are running be it a link in an email or a paid social media or PPC campaign – clear, well designed landing pages are key to ensuring that when your prospect makes that vital click they are taken to a page that resonates exactly with what just captured their attention. Taking them to your main website homepage can distract their focus. Have multiple landing pages for multiple campaigns to allow you to maintain the targeted approach you committed to in step 2. Whether they are bespoke or built through a system such as Active Campaign, it is essential that they contain a strong call to action (clearly show prospects what you want them to do next), are fully integrated and tracked so you know where your leads are coming from.
7. Ditch the cold calling – did you know only 2% of cold calls actually result in a follow-up appointment? (Source: Hubspot). It is therefore crucial to only conduct phone calls with prospects that are warm. Having prospects schedule appointments directly into your diary using a system such as Calendly is an excellent way to manage this process.
8. Don’t forget your existing clients – it is all too easy to focus on attracting new clients and taking your eye off the ball on your existing ones – it is much easier to grow an existing client than acquire a new one. Maintain relationships – the know, like and trust factor is already present – embarking on consistent messaging through the form of regular emails that add value and demonstrate your continued expertise within the field. Ask for referrals – these people are perfectly placed to provide you with warm leads – after all, they are the ambassadors of your product and testament to its worth. This is where your CRM system really comes into its own.
9. Don’t get lost in social – we have all been there – you jump onto a social platform to create a post and an hour later you are still scrolling the feed. Scheduling tools such as Hootsuite, Zoho Social and Hubspot allow you to manage your social schedule without dipping in daily to create and post leaving you more time for engagement with the accounts that matter.
10. Know who is watching you – whilst you are watching what everyone else is doing, don’t forget to keep an eye on who is watching you. This awareness is a great way to identify and target hot leads quickly. Tracking tools such as Lead Feeder allow you to monitor the businesses that are viewing your website, how they came across you and specifically what they are interested in. This is valuable data that will enable you to connect and target them in a manner that eliminates a cold introduction.

If you employ all or just a couple of these tips they will without doubt have a positive effect on your business. Interested in discovering how to integrate them all into a seamless process – sign up to our webinar.