8 Questions That Filter Fake Prospects From Your Pipeline to Close More Sales

The bread and butter of a salesperson is a well-managed pipeline. Poorly managed pipelines affect deal closure and make it challenging to estimate accurate sales forecasts. Poor prospecting ends with prospects in the pipeline which aren't actually prospects to begin with, they're not going anywhere.

When a pipeline is filled with leads that are not ready to buy or will never convert into customers, it's near impossible for salespersons to focus their time on the right leads.

Here we'll explore on how a salesperson can uncover an actual prospect by asking the right 8 questions when interviewing the customer and asking themselves during the sales process to help qualify leads.

Don't be misled, even if a prospect works for a decision-maker who's browsing the market on their behalf, is a decision-maker, or an influencer of the final decision-maker, this may not be an actual prospect for the salesperson.

Even if someone calls you first, but you've had no history of contact with them, and no matter their level of interest, they provide no buying timeline and don't divulge information that would help you guide them down the right path.

A true prospect is someone you've connected with and know their pain points. Also during the conversation they can give you proprietary information that gives insight into their situation and why they're considering your service, along with potential timelines and financial information.

Key Differences Between Suspects and Prospects

Let's summarise the key differences between suspects and prospects; who they may be in relation to your business.

Suspect	Prospect
Match the traits of someone that might buy	Match your ideal customer profile
Doesn't share proprietary information in any conversations	Willing to share personal information about their situation
Only engage with you when it's safe	Engage with you and your business consistently
An everyday person that doesn't have power to make final decisions	A decision maker. Someone who's going to make the purchase

Let's Dive In

Here's 8 Questions you should definitely ask as a salesperson to learn to filter down your pipeline with true prospects.

1. Have they tried to address their pain points?

Understanding how a client has come to be in conversation with you can give you valuable insight into their position as a prospect. When asked this question, a client is more likely to provide you with the information you need to understand more about their situation and will be very willing to go more in-depth when explaining the reasons why their previous search or experience was unsuccessful.

2. Have they shared any proprietary information?

A true prospect is usually willing to share some level of private information with you in confidence that your building relationship and in good faith that there is a real interest in talking substantively about how your product or service would fit into their needs. The sooner a prospect shares this with you the sooner you know that they're beginning to reach a level of confidence with you.

3. Do they have a solution in place?

It'e helpful to know whether your prospect already has a solution in place. This gives you valuable insight into what they've tried before and how your solution compares to their other options. 

4. Are they willing to share a critical need?

Like proprietary information sharing a critical need signals that the prospect is ready to talk seriously, as they are willing to share with you exactly where or what they are currently struggling with and are more likely to want your help.

5. Do you know the timeline involved for them to make a decision?

A single most significant factor responsible for inaccurate pipelines is time. Salespeople should prioritize prospects who are looking to buy sooner rather than later. 

6. What will their day-to-day look like if they don't buy from you?

This question makes it very easy to tell who you're speaking with. Suppose that their day-to-day tasks will be challenging, the likelihood of being a true prospect is higher because their letting you know that they need a serious solution, and timelines are tight.

7. Do you know the prospect's conception of value vs money?

This is the most tricky piece of information to discover because you can't just ask a prospect this question - they probably won't even know how to answer. Here's the million dollar question to get the answer you're looking for.

How have you made purchasing decisions like this in the past?

Be quick to ask this question because if you ask this during the negotiation phase it is going to be about price, but if you ask this early in the prospecting phase the "prospect" will likely be telling you the truth.

8. Are you dealing with the decision maker?

This is one of the most fundamental parts when qualifying a prospect. Sell to someone who's not the decision-maker is like interviewing for a job with someone who's from engineering and not HR. If your contact keeps referring to other people when talking about their company's past decisions, there's a good chance they don't have the final say when it comes to making a purchase. This is the biggest clue that that you are not in a deal with a decision-maker.

Read More

6 Great Ways on How to Find Leads Quickly (Optimised for Malaysia)

The hardest thing in sales is finding leads. And this is even harder when the leads are qualified and ready to purchase.

However difficult this is, it's a task that sales representatives can't avoid.

This doesn't have to be all doom and gloom and it can be made easier on them, by having a go-to list of places to find prospects and a specific procedure for each platform. That way finding prospects wouldn't be much of a rocket science, but a predictable practice.

Having spoken to a few salespeople in Malaysia, below are 6 great ways you can find prospects fast and keep filling up your pipelines every month.

Start here.

1. Job Boards

Job listings are windows to understanding a person's needs. For instance, if you notice that a company is hiring for an HR person and you provide the services to help with this, you might learn that this would be a great organisation to reach out to.

It's likely that they are struggling with HR related matters and would be interested in hearing from someone who can help you.

2. Twitter

The key to making the most out of Twitter is to have a list of the top 3 or 4 keywords your target people care about. You can search up keywords through Twitter searches, Google Trends, etc.

There might be people searching and asking questions, and others might be complaining about how difficult something maybe. In any case, you can jump into the conversation and add value.

The key point is not to push your product, but be someone genuine that is helpful.

3. Business Journals

This is a great way to keep in touch with the local community and to learn what are the latest news and big events happening at companies within this area.

This can be a great way for you to reach out as a point of reference when you send your first email or make the first call to your new prospect.

4. Industry Forums

You should subscribe to newsletters like that are relevant to your industry. A great place to start is to stay in touch with your target customers email newsletters.

3 benefits of doing this you can:

• Find out what's new
• Learn what successes are happening
• Stay up to date on industry trends and strategies

If they're not active through email, you can always follow them on any social platform that the organisation is actively participating in.

5.  LinkedIn

When used correctly, LinkedIn can be a gold mine for prospects.

Join relevant groups, and add to the conversation and be of help to the general community. Keep engaging and don't sell off the bat.

People generally don't like being sold to, but they like to purchase with a friend. That's the big call.

6. Local Chamber of Commerce

This might not be the most obvious but there are ways to connect. You'd be surprised how many businesses are actively looking for products and services but can't seem to find the right fit.

• Chambers of commerce in Malaysia - MATRADE list
• MITI List

This may be a goldmine if you know your ideal customer persona.

---

When looking for qualified leads, there isn't a way for fast prospecting. Take your time to build a mutually beneficial relationship or make a friend and the necessary rapport that you earn will be great in the long-run.

Read More

4 Follow-Up Secrets to Avalanche Sales

There's a myth that there exists a magic formula for any sales efforts, a silver bullet, subject line, or time to write or call your prospect.

The promise of a magic formula engulfs almost all sales professionals, in their constant search for this elixir. However, we noticed that it wasn't a magic formula that lead to more sales, but a proven system with some guidance the secrets to unlocking an avalanche of sales is possible.

The secret is in discovering a follow-up strategy that works best for you.

Here's how you can create an avalanche of sales with these 4 follow-up secrets:

• The amount of touchpoints
• The varying outreach channels
• Time between touchpoints
• Content of touchpoints

1. The amount of touchpoints

Realise that every sale requires time. The sales process hinges on where your prospect is in their buying journey, and there's no real way to know with 100% certainty.

The first key is to be persistent, because it matters in sales. Although reaching out to your prospects often helps to improve your odds for sales, however, keep in mind that reaching out at the wrong intervals, wrong channels and with the wrong message would ruin your efforts.

2. The varying outreach channels

There's a tendency to only use email as a means in your communication piece. With the world even more connected than what it used to be, pairing email with phone calls and social media outreach usually leads to a winning strategy.

A good practice is to immediately follow up your call with an email.

Add social media into the mix. A great way to achieve this is by favoriting your prospect's tweet and following them an hour later. When they follow you back, you can then send a direct message.

This similar approach can be replicated across suitable social channels. Hidden tip here is to avoid personal social networks such as Facebook / Instagram.

3. Time between touchpoints

Let's cut to the chase, here's the best time we've found that works well:

• Day 1: Call and email
• Day 2: Email and Twitter
• Day 3: Twitter
• Day 5: Email and LinkedIn
• Day 7: Email
• Day 10: Call and Email
• Day 17: Email and Twitter
• Day 21: LinkedIn
• Day 28: Call and email

4. Content of Touchpoints

Content largely determines how you come across as over your communication efforts. Whether you are annoying or just a persistent businessperson.

• Reemphasize business value
• Offer insights
• Educate
• Share news

Preparing your sales strategy can be time consuming and requires effort. Don't lose your email to non-reliability. Learn more about reliable business email here.

Read More

3 Killer Ways to Get Your Prospect to Always Respond to You

Not all prospects are very responsive. Often an email get's ignored or a response is delayed. A call is answered but time is always of the essence. Trust me, it isn't your vigor or lack of it, it's an exception rather than a rule.

It's common for your prospect to go dark after being responsive after awhile. You need to find creative ways to reignite the interest in what you are offering before the deal sways to someone else.

Silence doesn't mean a bad reflection of how you've handled your sales process. It takes two hands to clap and yes this doesn't mean you stop improving, but sometimes it's them. For many reasons their interest in your product (sometimes their own job) has waned.

However, if this is often happening then it's time to brush up on your questioning and closing skills. If they turn cold for any reason whatsoever, come up with follow-up strategies to try to re-engage them and get a new deal rolling in the future.

Here's 3 killer ways to get your prospect to always respond to you!

1. Change your closes.

Closing is the final interaction, and often the most important one. It is when you, as the salesperson, is asking the reader / prospect to commit to doing something -- regardless of the size of the task.

Great example of closes include:

1. Asking a prospect to read a white paper,
2. Scheduling a call,
3. Making an introduction, or 
4. Providing an important resource or information.

Don't be tempted to repeat the last close repeatedly when the prospect goes quiet. Instead maybe setup with the contact or their boss.

Make your close specific instead of vague. For example:

I'm trying to get a better understanding of your organisation. Where can I learn more about [ project / team / announcement? ]

2. Find a way with another point of contact

A breakup email may get an answer from an unresponsive prospect, but you run the risk of burning a potential sales opportunity for good.

Here's an example we've used after a prospect has gone cold after a few months:

Hi [ name ]

I found this white paper recently, and I thought of your company while I read it -- I think a lot of the lessons would be very helpful to you. I've attached it here. Please give me a call once you've read it because I'd love to get your thoughts and ask some follow up questions.

If this doesn't receive any response you can close in a passive-aggressive manner:

Since I never heard back from you, I assumed you moved on. If there's any hosting related inquiries that you might have in future, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

3. Call your prospects back at different times.

Right under your nose, but not done: Call and email your prospect at different times. We often get into routine and this habit. We make it a point to call at 2:30pm every week on the same day.

Getting into routine isn't bad practice, however, it is good to consider that your prospect may have a commitment at that time and may face difficulties responding to your call.

Send emails reliably with enterprise service at an affordable price. Great deals here.

Read More

5 Sales Pitch every Malaysian Salesperson Should Know in 2019

To start we start with the basics of a sales pitch. It's basically a salesperson's attempt to persuade their audience to buy or believe what they are selling. It might be a chance at another meeting, more information about your product or service, or a personal pitch which has you as the subject matter. The key to most sales pitches are the speed, to the point and the need for it to grab attention.

This isn't new, but the concepts have adapted over time. At the core a sales pitch is just a way to share more information or explain what your product or service can do for the interested buyer. What value it brings to the table.

What's new with doing your sales pitch in 2019? Gone are the days when a sales pitch is long, product-focused, and boring.

With the advent of technology and social media, our attention span has shortened greatly. If anyone has any time to hear your sales pitch at all, it had better be compelling or at the very least to the point.

Now it's just as important to translate your product or service's value proposition into one most appropriate.

1. The One-Word

What's your presentation in one word. Obama did a fantastic job during his re-election campaign as "forward". Think of a single word that represents your offering and use it as a punchy tagline.

2. The Question

Use this when you're confident that your buyer completely understands the value of your product or service.

Formulate a question instead of making a statement. For example:

Strategic outsourcing will reduce your company's costs.

Would strategic outsourcing reduce your company's costs?

3. The Subject Line

If you have mastered the art of crafting an intriguing subject line, take that expertise and apply it to your sales pitch.

It should be useful or mysteriously intriguing. It's also important to note that the more information buyers are considering, the less effective curiosity-provoking subjects become.

4. Twitter Sales

Try limiting your pitch to only 140 characters. This forces you to think critically and creatively about your main offer. It can also help you to trim the unnecessary jargon from your presentation.

5. The Pixar Sales

This is the narrative template. Once upon a time ___. Everyday, ____. One day ____.

By phrasing your pitch this way, it automatically becomes a story which top salespeople know remains in the minds of the people they are selling to much better than a dry recitation of facts.

Great sales tips for Malaysian sales professionals are written here in this blog. Learn more about sales here.

Read More

5 Important Questions Salespeople Need to Ask

Performing sales is more of a skill than a science.

Although a common trait amongst good sales people is being organised, a sales person who has the ability to recognise when to set their organised plan aside to follow an unexpected conversational turn understands the small nuances in a dialogue between a prospect and how to conduct himself.

Small off-topic conversations can be enlightening and a great way to build rapport. Although tempting, you should never entirely abandon your organised list of questions, rather consider which are the questions that absolutely need to be asked.

There's a raft of questions any sales person can ask a prospect, but we believe that less is more. This is evidence as most people are only able to remember 7 items or less.

To assist with the narrowing of questions a sales person should always ask (in order of importance) are:

1. Who will sign off on this?
2. Create an influence map. - "what does your company's decision-making process look like?"
3. Can I show you?
4. Ask for permission - start with, "What would a successful outcome look like for you?

I may have provided a lot of information above to digest. If you have further questions or if you'd like to go through this together, please connect with us through Facebook.

Consider these tips in your next email, and share with us your results. For more tips on sales, marketing, or the web stay tuned for future posts.

If you'd like to learn about how we keep other businesses online all-day and everyday reach out to our sales team here. Posted in: Business Email, Tips

Read More

How To Dramatically Improve Your Cold Email

When sending a sales email, always put yourself in the context of meeting someone you’ve never met before for the first time.

Sending a sales email, is just like trying to force someone to marry you on the very first hello.

When you send a sales email, you could have the most compelling subject line. The most enticing content. The most exciting CTA.

But if I don’t know you and who you represent: Why should I trust you?

If you want to get a better response rate for your sales emails you need to answer that question. And one of the best ways to do that is with social proof.

What is social proof and why does it matter for sales emails?

Social proof is proving your credibility by pointing to other people or organizations you’ve worked with that already have credibility with your prospect.

In our experience, it’s the quickest way to go from a random name in someone’s inbox, to a person they don’t mind to work with.

If you’ve spent hours writing the best subject line, clearly articulated your proposition, and given an exciting call to action, all this will be in vain if you don’t make me feel comfortable with you. And without social proof, all of your efforts will be but for a lost cause.

Below are the 3 levels of social proof you need to show to gain someone’s trust over email:

This is a simple concept. But it can be complex to get correct.

You can’t just write to tell someone to trust you. You need to show it to me. More than that, you need to show me social proof on multiple levels:

1. Company credibility: Who have you worked with that I know and trust?
2. Product credibility: What verifiable results have you created for people with your product?
3. Personal credibility: Who are you and why should I trust you?

What types of social proof can (and should) you use?

There are tons of ways to show social proof and which one you choose will depend on what you have available.

However, before choosing any type of social proof to include in your sales emails, you need to ask two questions:

First, does this social proof resonate with this specific prospect? 

Next, will the prospect perceive this social proof as credible? 

With that in mind, here are the best ways you can show social proof in your sales emails.

Your customers

Happy customers are the best source of social proof. Instead of you telling a prospect all of the value they’re going to get, they get to hear it from someone they know who has already gone through the process.

You have a few options when choosing the right customers to use for social proof:

1. Famous and popular brands
2. Companies in the prospect’s market
3. Local companies they might be familiar with
4. You can use customer social proof by talking about them in the third person. 

Common connections

If you don’t have any customers or any you feel confident highlighting, you can create social proof by showing a common connection you have with the prospect.


However, you have to be careful here. A common connection isn’t just one of 5000 people on your LinkedIn or Twitter. It has to be a real connection you both know and trust.

Revenue and profits

Money talks. And highlighting verifiable monetary success is a great way to prove your legitimacy.

Have you done some impressive numbers in the past year?  Or pass a major milestone?

Any social proof connected to money has to be easily verified by another source or else it’s useless.

Press

Press doesn’t carry the same social status as it once did, but it’s still a great way to show you’re worth talking about. You can assume your prospect will click any press links you include.

Associations or former employers

In certain situations, the places you’ve worked in the past or where you went to school can be used as social proof.

Accomplishments

Again, in certain circumstances, relevant accomplishments or personal awards can help build your personal or product credibility.

Whatever social proof you use, assume your prospect will try to verify it. No matter what social proof you give, it has to be honest and verifiable. 

Beyond that, your personal online presence needs to have credibility as well. Most people will check your LinkedIn or social media profile to see who you are. And if those pages are shady or unprofessional it can make any social credibility you’ve developed to die with them.

Where to place social proof in your sales emails

The next question after what kind of social proof to use is how do you use it? The short answer is: It depends.

If people are abandoning your emails early on: Add social proof to the beginning to grab their interest and engage their imagination.

If people are reading your emails but not responding: Add social proof right before or after your call to action so people feel confident about responding.

There’s one more place you should use social proof that is so underutilized. Your signature is a social proof machine.

What do you do when you don’t have any social proof?

Social proof is a powerful sales tool. But if you don’t have any yet, there’s still a few options you can use.

First, you need to recognize that personal social proof is important to everything you’ll ever do as a sales rep and an individual. Your brand and reputation will follow you everywhere you go. And while it takes time to build, it brings massive returns in the long-run if you keep up with it.

Next, honesty and openness can be just as strong as social proof. 

Instead, if you don’t have any good social proof to show, just be transparent about your situation

This kind of vulnerability can be incredibly powerful and make someone want to trust you, even if you don’t have the proof to back it up yet.

Always remember, if I don’t trust you, I won’t talk to you

You wouldn’t let a complete stranger into your house, so why should a prospect reply to your sales email if they don’t know you and trust what you’re saying?

With social proof, you give your prospects a reason to believe.  Use it. And build that trust. Because without it, I don’t have a reason to talk to you.

Learn more about how Everworks's professional business email hosting will help you to deliver consistent email responses every time here.

Read More

5 Tactics to Help You Negotiate Successfully in Malaysia

Hours of hard-work and persistent follow-up have lead you to this day.

It's the final meeting, and you're about to close your biggest deal.

You've conducted the product demo, answered any question that has come your way, and continued to make convincing points which put you in a promising position.

You're doing well. At least that's what you think.

Business negotiations are fragile. It's easier said than done. There's a lot going on and stakes are high. This is especially true, when put in the context of Malaysia.

Malaysia is a melting pot of different cultures and ethnicities. Malaysians are brought up with different beliefs and standards that it is hard to put a nail on any single method that would work for everyone.

Here are some tips from us to increase your odds of success during any negotiation in Malaysia because of our understanding and experience of the cultural diversity in this country.

Here are 6 tactics to help you to negotiate successfully in Malaysia:

1. Make it into a conversation

Turn the tables: It should be about interests and objectives.

Making it into a conversation is active listening. A conversation about interests and objectives helps you to not just understand requirements, but also identify areas of value to your customer.

You learn which features matter most and which don't. This effectively positions your proposition to the decision maker and enables you to put your best foot forward.

Some questions you can ask are:

1. Can you share with me what is important to you in any solution we provide for you? For example "frequent progress updates is important to ensure project timelines".
2. Which is most important to you?

It's important to prompt for a specific response, because this will help you form a more accurate proposal.

For example: When receiving a general response, "timeliness is important to us" try to gain more information such as "Timeliness is an issue for us as we need to ensure Marketing is given enough time to prepare and our customers expectations are managed. We don't want to get into a farce where we have made an announcement to our customers, only for us not to deliver."

2. Don't be the 1st to propose

When negotiating, you rarely want to go first. You don't want to give more information without getting much back in return.

You can avoid this by asking if there is a budget that they have in mind or what were their previous experiences with solutions similar to the one you are offering.

Validating first before proposing allows you to work around situations:

1. Tactic when the cost you're proposing is more than their expectations: Demonstration of value which other similar companies have received through your claims.
2. Tactic to counter Objections: Find the reason why. The additional information will help you to counter with solutions which match their interests.
3. Tactic when a Quotation is requested: If you've covered adequate ground (understood ROIs, buying cycles, budget constraints, logistical requirements, etc.), all you have to do is ask for the business.

3. Have your customer propose

*Only try this after you have clearly presented the value of your solution. If you skip presenting the value of your solution, any proposition you have will always be too expensive.

Sometimes people resist your advances.

If you are faced with this situation, don't be afraid to ask the customer for their opinion. You could ask, " What would a proposal they would sign off on look like? ".

If what they offer is beyond you on cost, let the customer know right away and immediately make a counter offer. This puts you in a better position and allows you to manage your customers expectations.

4. Find the middle ground

*Do this only if your margin allows for it

When negotiations seem to hit a speed bump, consider splitting the difference.

This cuts through the noise in any price negotiations, and it helps you jump to the middle between you and your customer's valuation.

Be careful when employing this, because this would only make sense if both parties are losing ground equally.

5. Build an agreement early

There's plenty to discuss, and you've already identified the points that matter most to your customer. It should be relatively easy for you to build an agreement on smaller issues that have less friction.

This might seem counterintuitive, but building an agreement early on helps you to set the tone as you build towards more sensitive topics.

Build rapport with your customer and paint that you are someone that is willing to work with them and can establish the link-and-trade early on into the conversation. This will help you to build momentum as you move later into the negotiation stage.

Keep track of your negotiation topics and establish reliable communications. 

Do it with professional email.

Comes with anti-spam filters so you don't have pesky email to clutter your important deals.

Learn more

*Fact: 86% of business professionals choose email as their number 1 choice when it comes to managing their communications.

Read More

Next Generation Followup Emails (Don't Send "Just to Follow Up" ever again)

The action of performing sales places people in front of the task of convincing another person that the offer being presented is going to improve their current situation.

Notice how sales is described as "a task of convincing another person...". Often sales people forget that behind the email that they're sending out they are in actuality trying to reach out to someone that they have not before in an attempt to request that they act on something you're selling to them.

Take a moment and think this through, it's already a long shot to get a friend to do something for you, and it's even tougher to get someone that does not know you to do anything you ask of them.

Described here involves the "checking-in" scenario when the person you're trying to reach out to does not respond in a favorable manner. The secret to it is to always remember, you're talking to a human being and sending out emails "just checking in..." is like a virtual nudge that not many people like to receive.

Scenario: If they have never responded

(1) Bring up a common challenge that your buyers face and ask if they're currently facing it. 

Example: 

Hi Nurul,

The clients I worked with are often struggling to find creative low cost ways of engaging with their local communities.

If so I have several ideas that may help -- like [idea]. If you'd like to discuss more I'm free for a call on [date at time] or [date at time].

(2) Bump your email up using the buried email technique. 

Example: 

Hi Mohammad,

Just wanted to follow up in case this email got buried.

(3) Call attention to what they're competitor is doing and ask how they'll resolve it.

Example:

Hi Lee,

I saw that [competitor] has been doing well in [area] lately. Do you have any plans in place for addressing it?

I have some ideas -- if you want to hear them. Let's schedule a call.

Scenario: If you lost the deal

(1) Check how things are going after implementing a competitor's product.

Example:

Hi Tan,

It's been a [time period] you signed on with [competitor]. How are things going?

-----

Often salespeople get caught up in sending standard touching base message often because of time. With some of these examples, sending a thoughtful email message takes mere minutes -- with an increased chance of converting into a large payoff.

Try reaching out to customers using unique channels. Get they're attention through SMS, it's cheap and is guaranteed to reach the target recipient. Find out more here.

Read More