Keeping Your Sales Pipeline Full
Sales Professionals often get frustrated by the ups and downs in their Sales Pipeline. It is either feast or famine for many Salespeople. So how do you keep your sales pipeline full? To answer that question we are going to interview Wendy Weiss, The Queen of Cold Calling.
Wendy Weiss, is an author, speaker, sales trainer, and sales coach. She is recognized as one of the leading authorities on lead generation, cold calling and new business development and she helps clients speed up their sales cycle, reach more prospects directly and generate more sales revenue. Her clients include Avon Products, ADP, Sprint and thousands of entrepreneurs throughout the country.
JF: Welcome to the show Wendy, and thanks for taking the time to answer some questions. So tell me how you became known as The Queen of Cold Calling?
WW: When I started my business, I was making cold calls and appointments for a client, and got so many quality appointments he started calling me his Queen of Cold Calling, I liked the term, had it trademarked and kept it with my current business of training and coaching.
JF: Sales can be quite frustrating at times. One month you have a full Sales Pipeline, the next month you fulfill the sales, and now you have to start to build your Sales Pipeline all over again. I can see how Salespeople get frustrated. Wendy explain what a Sales Pipeline is and the importance of keeping it full.
WW: Your Sales Pipeline is the total Inventory of active leads you are currently working on. Sometimes Salespeople have a good streak of sales and believe it’s not important to keep prospecting while they are working on the fulfillment of sales with clients. This leads to the feast or famine effect, when you spend 100% of your time on the current activities and no time on prospecting for new clients. It is important to always continue prospecting, even if it is just a small percentage of your time, as this is the only way to keep your Sales Pipeline full.
JF: How does a new salesperson go about starting a Sales Pipeline and getting it the optimal level?
WW: If you are new at sales you should be spending around 80% of your time prospecting for new business. Making yourself visible and known are key, so join networking groups, cold call to prospects, and make sure as many people as possible know what you are doing. When you become an established Salesperson, the numbers reverse, and you should be spending about 80% of your time on clients and 20% on prospecting for new clients. It is very important to always keep prospecting for new business.
JF: Ok Wendy, here is a critical question, how do we keep the Sales Pipeline at or near the optimal level?
WW: Make sure to never stop prospecting for new business. Develop a lead generation calendar and make it part of each day as an activity. A good way to help you to stay focused on prospecting for new business is to have an accountability buddy. You and your accountability buddy will help each other stay accountable for prospecting for new business and help support and motivate each other.
JF: Wendy, you are The Queen of Cold Calling, explain how we can use cold calling as a tool to develop new leads and keep the Sales Pipeline full? Also, what advise do you have for the many people who fear doing call calling?
WW: Cold Calling is a direct and targeted way of communicating with your prospects. It can be used as one of your methods of prospecting for new clients and done correctly can be very effective. It is important to rigorously prepare both who to cold call and what you want to communicate; as this will help eliminate fear and help you not get frustrated by the process. Remember, Cold Calling is a communication skill that can be learned and improved.
JF: Wendy you have written some great books, what do recommend reading for people looking to increase their skill level, and learn how to use prospecting skills like Cold Calling.
WW: I believe you learn by doing. Cold Calling is a communication skill that can be learned, and the good news is that the information is out there. You can learn by reading, going to seminars, participating in teleconferences, reading blogs and listening to podcast like yours, or by hiring a coach. The most important thing is to take action on what you have learned. Many people buy a book or CD, attend a seminar, but take no action. Make sure to come out of a learning session with a defined goal and action items.
JF: Any closing thoughts or advice?
WW: Yes, I recommend anyone interested in learning more to go to my Web site, http://www.queenofcoldcalling.com and read the free report, Getting InThe Door, How to Write an Effective Cold Calling Script, which will help you set up a plan to communicate with your prospects.
JF: How would someone contact you?
WW: Phone: 866-405-8212, Fax: 212-799-4357
265 West 81 Street
Suite. 2B
New York, NY 10024
Email: wendy@wendyweiss.com
Blog: http://wendyweiss.com/blog/
Episode Links
Wendy Weiss Video Introduction
Jim Farrell Social Networking Contact Information
Facebook Groups
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:16 pm
This is a great interview it drove me to Wendy’s website where I received a free script for cold calling. Wendy is on target with the sales pipeline!
Thanks Jim keep the good info coming.
February 5th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
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February 5th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I agree with Wendy on every point in this interview except one. That being the amount of time spent prospecting for new business.
All the activities we do in sales can be divided in to three categories, Soliciting, Selling and Servicing. The way I was taught and the way I train is to spend 1/3 of your time on each category, so 1/3 should be spent looking for new business.
The reasoning is each is equal in importance, so divide up your time equally.