Keeping Your Sales Funnel Full with New Clients

Most sales professionals are familiar with old “80/20 rule” which states that 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your clients. While this is usually true, sales rookies make the mistake of thinking that this rule means you should spend 80 percent of your time maintaining your existing clients. The truth is that you need to find that balance of time that allows you to maintain your existing clients while still spending a significant amount of time looking for new clients as well.

Your sales funnel should be a mix of existing client opportunities and new clients as well. When you are considering how to manage your clients, ask yourself this question; could your survive if your biggest client suddenly dropped you tomorrow? If the answer is no, then you need to get back to work looking for new clients right away.

Use Referrals from Your Existing Clients

When you have refined your sales approach to the point where you are able to gain the trust and respect of your existing clients, then you should be able to turn that respect into business referrals. Whenever you visit your existing clients, make sure you give them a small stack of your business cards and just casually ask them to give the cards out to anyone they feel may need them. You would be surprised at how many calls you start getting from business associates of your current customers.

Business Lists

Cold calling is one of the parts of being a sales professional that most people dread. But you can improve your cold calling success rate if you use qualified contact lists from reputable lists suppliers. There will come a time when you are out of referrals and you just do not have anyone you can call as a prospect. When those times come around, you will be glad that you spent the money on a list of qualified leads from a reputable business lists dealer.

Social Networking

The Internet has expanded communication in a way that has never been seen before and may never be seen again. Every proactive sales professional is using social networking to reach out to new prospects and keep that sales funnel full. You need to create as many online Internet professional profiles as you can and start networking with people that have an interest in your industry. The social networking websites all have various ways that allow you to separate out contacts and find people that could be interested in your company. As long as you work a little bit everyday on your social networking presence, you will start to see it become a great aid in helping you develop a larger client base.

Face to Face Networking

The Internet allows you to reach potential clients anywhere in the world, but face to face networking is still an effective tool for building a client base. You should always have a stack of business cards on you and you should work hard to put yourself in situations where you can give those cards out to people who would be interested in them. Make yourself a regular fixture at community events and join as many local, professional organizations as you can so that you can attend their meetings and start giving out your business cards.