If you need a game plan to help your company create new sales opportunities and achieve sustained revenue growth, this post is for you! Today’s quick win is brought to you by B2B sales expert, David Wuensch (USMA ‘77). David also leads the B2B Circle in 10X Vets!
A top challenge for many B2B companies is generating new sales opportunities. You deserve a sales team (be that just you or a team of up to 10 salespeople) that can create new opportunities and build a sales pipeline you can take to the bank.
Use this three-part formula to help you build a healthy sales pipeline:
1. Identify new opportunities and create new processes, including toolkits and playbooks.
There are five primary “buckets” where small B2B companies can potentially create new sales opportunities:
Customer success and growing new business from existing clients
Intentional networking and referrals
Inbound marketing
Multi-touch and multi-channel targeted sales outreach
Thought leadership (i.e. podcasts, webinars, conferences and other public speaking engagements)
Select at least three of these “buckets” to focus on. Once you set your priorities, create a process for each “bucket,” including a specific tool kit or playbook. No one area should be targeted at more than 50% of your new opportunity creation. Remember that you are selling to real people. Personalization and relationship building are keys to this process.
2. Apply the following foundational elements to your toolkits and playbooks.
Develop and build your sales team Set and measure goals for the number of new opportunities created each week and each month for the company and each salesperson. Establish who has responsibility. Regularly assess progress and share lessons learned to build teamwork. Block out 1.5-2.5 hours each day for prospecting, the number one new business development activity. Celebrate successes and develop your team’s “create new opportunity” mindset.
Target the right audience Develop ideal client profiles and build finite, focused, written and workable target lists. The list is the strategy! This process includes ensuring your prospect’s contact details are correct, including email addresses and phone numbers, an effort that will save your sales team valuable time and energy.
Perfect your sales messaging Develop consistent sales team messaging that connects with the prospect’s challenges and effectively communicates your differentiators in a convincing manner. Check out Donald Miller, Chet Holmes and Mike Weinberg’s messaging frameworks. According to our research, these are the best messaging frameworks on the market!
Determine sales roles Who owns the creation of new opportunities? As a small B2B business owner or sales manager, you may have a limited number of salespeople on your team and you may need each salesperson to perform multiple tasks. As you grow, consider role specialization.
3. Accelerate the process.
Optimize your tech stack Support your salespeople with tools like CRMs, lead sources and contact tools (not toys) that will help them to be successful. CRMs help manage the process, while lead sources provide you with prospects to contact. Contact tools simplify and accelerate the process of making contact with prospects.
Coach and develop your sales team Enroll your sales team in this process and provide them with written goals and a plan for how to achieve them. Include role-playing (iron sharpens iron). Ensure they have access to good leading indicator metrics and remember that coaching is about co-creating new possibilities. Running good sales meetings and conducting ride-alongs will support the coaching and development effort.
This three-part formula will lead you to a team of fanatical prospectors armed with the processes and tools to provide continuous new opportunities and sustainable revenue growth for your company. If you want to say “hello” to a healthy sales pipeline, subscribe to David’s Friday Funnel Focus blog here and stay tuned for his new Monday blog series launching on August 1st!
Get to know David Wuensch (USMA '77)!
David Wuensch is the founder of EPOCH Sales Management Solutions, which helps B2B business owners with less than 250 employees make their sales team better. Businesses hire Epoch Sales Management Solutions when they are frustrated at the lack of new opportunities, striving to put the right salesperson in the right sales role and when they are at their wit's end with salespeople “working” the wrong priorities. EPOCH differentiates itself by not forcing businesses to make cookie-cutter solutions work for them and by leveraging years of experience while evaluating new processes and tools, and focusing on one goal - to make sales teams better.
Do you want to learn more about how to generate new sales opportunities?
Join the 10X Vets B2B Circle led by David Wuensch! Here, you’ll have an opportunity to grow your business alongside fellow B2B business owners and high-caliber sales representatives. Sales training is on the agenda at every meeting. This group discusses everything from optimizing your CRM to pipeline management, LinkedIn prospecting and more. Schedule a call with our team if you’d like to learn more about the 10X Vets B2B Circle. We’d love to chat and answer any questions you may have.