Multiplying Your Business by Multiplying Your Leads

A Business and a Salesperson both need a steady flow of leads. They need to never run out because when they run out, even for a moment, their growth is on hold. Sales opportunities (leads) are like oxygen for the business.  A fast growth company can only grow as quickly as the sales opportunities come in, and it always starts with generating leads. Obviously, you can repeatedly sell to your existing customer base but there’s only so much they can buy. For rapid growth, you constantly need new clients, and to get clients you consistently need to generate sales meetings with prospects to have the opportunity to convert them. George Athan purposely say sales meetings because people use the word ‘leads’ to describe many different things. Just so there’s no confusion with terms like suspects, prospects, lists, lead, marketing qualified lead, sales qualified lead, or opportunity, let’s be clear. We want a consistent flow of qualified prospects who meet (via telephone or in person) with a salesperson to engage in a sales conversation about their business challenges or goals so you can offer your product or service as a solution.

Without a constant flow of these sales meetings, you won’t have a fast growth company. New client acquisition must be constant, new strategic partnerships should be forged, and an ongoing effort to continue this expansion should happen from every angle. Every minute of every business day should be a minute that’s being used to create awareness, build new relationships, and deepen your market penetration. If not, there’s another salesperson on another sales team at your competitor’s company, who’s calling your potential next client right now. One of the reasons why many small businesses without a sales team struggle is because the business owner, wearing many hats, is responsible for sales. This means every moment that they’re working on bookkeeping or servicing an existing client, that company stopped growing. Fast growth companies don’t have an off switch for sales. 

Imagine a salesperson with back-to-back sales meetings in their calendar. They’re a top producer, generating a very high rate of return on investment for the company. In contrast, imagine the typical salesperson that spends 20% of their day engaging in sales activity. Of their eight-hour day, less than two hours are spent discovering a prospect’s needs, presenting, closing, and overcoming objections.  Think about companies with large sales teams that have gaps in their calendar because they don’t have enough leads. The bigger the team, the more gaps of time without selling, the more damage being done to the company.