Written by Sean McPheat | 
Nowadays most companies have an inside sales team of some sorts that react to incoming calls and other engagement opportunities.
In today’s world, it’s necessary for you to combine your outgoing strategic prospecting with identifying ways to engage with people who are providing you with incoming leads.
It’s the engagement of the lead that should determine the time, effort and creativity you put into dealing with it. The more engaged the prospect is with your company, the greater the chances of helping them learn how you can help their business.
Examples of this engagement could include:
A quick response to this kind of engagement will set the expectations of the prospect. If you can get back to them while they are still on your website then even better!
The research shows that the percentage of people who open these emails is in single figures, so they may be the ones who are really interested or curious. A straightforward ‘thanks for your interest’ email back may open up some more opportunities, then a follow-up with ‘we have helped companies like yours, so maybe we can help you too’ might open up a few more.
This will help you to detect proactively what they are looking for. A simple question on social media may well lead to something more, especially if you responded in a friendly manner rather than just making a sales pitch. Something like ‘Hey there, if you want to know more about this xxx, just let me know’ won’t put any pressure on; it may be the answer they were looking for.
Whether it’s good or bad news, it is a prospective customer who made the link. If it’s because of a bad experience, being able to turn it round quickly could make a real difference to their future buying process. If it’s a good mention, it’s an idea to thank that person and see if there’s any way you can encourage them to look further at your company
What a great way to show your ability to assist them in knowledge or background of your company or products. No need to do overt selling; just add valuable information to the twitter feed so they feel you are interested in them, rather than just trying to get their money
Always, always thank them for their request and ask how you could be helpful in the future to them. The fact they have requested to link up with you rather than the other way round, shows a definite interest in wanting to stay in touch. Don’t just jump in after connecting with a brochure-type sales pitch; instead, send them items of value for their industry or their specific company. That way, you will show them it was a good idea to link up and it won’t run the risk of being just another dead number in your LinkedIn profile
These are great opportunities to build your prospect base. Thank the person as soon as you see it. Identify the level they work at within their company. See what else you have that might be of interest to them. Their response will have been for some ‘stand-out’ reason, so it will be effective to follow up their interest.
As I said, you need to check out the level of engagement the prospect has with you.
Remember, these are incoming leads from people who have expressed some kind of interest in you or your products and have done something pro-active to tell you as such.
These kind of leads will outweigh any cold-calling leads any day, so make sure your systems allow you to find out about and follow-up on these leads of gold.
If you still love cold calling then please try out our Telesales Training for the latest tips and techniques and also our generic Sales Training to help take your selling game onto the next level.
Or take a look at our full portfolio of Sales Training Courses.
Happy Selling!
Sean
Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training
Updated on: 31 March, 2015
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