Do you have your entire sales funnel mapped out?

Have you tested to see where the leaks might be?

Take a look at some of the most common ones, and practical solutions for each:

1. “No”

Often, no really means “not right now.” Just 3% of your prospects are ready to buy right now sales expert Chet Holmes reveals.

In other words, it’s not a big deal to hear the word “No.” For most of your prospects, it’s not the right time to buy, and usually for reasons you’ll never know.

But don’t let your prospects leak out of your funnel at that point.

You can keep in touch with a drip email campaign, newsletter, or by sending content relevant to their problem. You can also find them important by mentioning when you see them in the news on the web, or anywhere else you find appropriate.

You’ll have to decide how many touches before you finally let prospects out of your sales funnel. But, many need at least 8 before you finally commit to that.

2. Inconsistent Follow-Up

Regardless of the stage of the sales cycle where you finally talk to your prospect, they’re going to need follow-up.

You have a lot of creativity that you can exercise.

You can use a combination of marketing automation and CRM-managed follow-up.

Your sales team also must have follow-up processes in place that each team member follows.

44% of salespeople give up after just a single follow-up. However, 80% of sales require at least 5 follow-ups.

3. Slow Follow-Up

Your prospects want fast follow-up. According to the Lead Response Management Study:

  1. The odds of contacting a lead increase 100x if done within 5 minutes (versus 30)
  2. The odds of qualifying a lead increase 21x if done within 5 minutes (again versus 30)

So, it’s as simple as analyzing your lead response times, establishing a policy, and following through.

If your sales team can’t manage it, time to let people go and find new sales team members.

4. Your Sales Team Doesn’t Distribute Your Content

Now, this one likely isn’t on your sales team. It’s more of a practicality issue. Content isn’t often organized well so it’s easily accessed.

Sales enablement software plugs this funnel leak. It allows you to tag and organize your content so your sales team can find the right content quickly and easily.

Again, create a procedure, put it in place, and make sure your sales team follows through.

The Solutions Are Simple…It’s The Execution That’s Hard

As you can see, plugging the common leaks in your sales funnel isn’t rocket science or brain surgery. But, it can be difficult to actually implement them.

But, make a concerted effort to make these things happen, and you’ll notice your sales funnel overflowing with hot leads.

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