Once all the lead generation functions are completed; you’ve confirmed the lead and it’s ready to go to the sales person it’s time to insure the presentation goes right and you maximize the number of leads close from canvassing and events.
This won’t be about sales training, rather how canvassed leads must be handled by sales people to increase the number of leads converting to presentations and sales. If the sales people don’t understand the lead they’ll fail miserably in trying to close it. The big difference is the way the lead has been captured and nurtured. It’s different from leads generated by other lead sources. That’s why it’s so critical the lead be handled by the sales people properly. If the sales person doesn’t understand these leads they’re going to tell you that canvassed leads suck and you shouldn’t be capturing these leads any more.
I’ve been at every level of the direct sales game at every level of the organization and I can tell you there’s no better lead than a canvassed lead. Up to this point I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the marketing aspects of the lead captured through canvassing.
Again, this article is not intended to be sales training, rather you can use it to communicate with your sales people and how they must approach selling leads that were canvassed.
Understanding this lead
A canvassed lead is an outbound lead. We went to the prospect they didn’t come to us. They probably weren’t thinking about us or our product or service when we contacted them. Most companies and sales people are accustomed to handling inbound leads; leads who had an interest in your product or service and took it upon themselves to contact you. The position of the prospect between inbound and outbound leads is drastically different. One significant difference is the urgency level of the prospect. Remember, an inbound lead has the ‘itch’ for what you offer. They’re in the midst of the buying cycle whereas an outbound lead didn’t have the ‘itch’ when we contacted them; we created the ‘itch’ (need and want). It’s important to clarify this to sales people because it makes a difference on how they approach the lead in the sales presentation. It requires more time and skill to build rapport with the prospect and ‘resell’ the want and need for the product or service in order to reestablish value.
Despite this difference a major benefit of the outbound lead versus the inbound lead is that most times the leads canvassers capture haven’t shopped your product or service against competitive options. For example, when an inbound lead comes in to you it’s quite likely that lead has also inquired with your competition about their products or services; therefore you’re competing for their attention and money. The sales person will be selling against competitive options whereas the outbound lead doesn’t have this obstacle. However, if the sales person doesn’t understand this their presentation will be from a positioning/competing aspect early, and isn’t really necessary because the canvassed lead usually isn’t shopping. We created the need and want. We created the interest.
In essence, the sales person has to re-canvass the lead to some degree. The canvasser has built rapport with the lead in capturing it. The sales person now must build rapport and trust with the prospect on their own. The approach must be from an advisory or consulting position. I’ve found the best approach is to tell the prospect to put their wallet or checkbook away. We’re here to show you the options available to you, take measurements, show colors and samples and give them all the information they need to make an informed, smart buying decision.
Two points about this approach; first, it’s counter-intuitive for most sales people to take this approach. Sales people are hunters. They go out looking for prey they can pounce on and kill. This approach will alienate the canvassed lead because that’s not how they came to become a lead. They were nurtured into the appointment with the idea of being consulted on about the product or service.
The second point is that this approach will completely eliminate sales resistance. If the prospect doesn’t feel pressured from the start they’ll be more open and forthcoming with their thoughts and feedback. The sales person will take the position of an advisor rather than a person there to ‘sell’ them something they weren’t originally considering right now.
Don’t think I’m abdicating that a sales presentation won’t take place, on the contrary. I’m a firm believer that a sales presentation must take place and I fully expect the sales person to walk out with an order and a signed contract. With most companies I work with, the sales presentation can take 1 to 2 hours and there’s a lot of rapport and trust building that takes place in this time.
Bring the Sales Rep into the Loop
I find it extremely helpful to role play the canvassing presentation with the sales rep so they understand how the lead was nurtured and captured. Also show them how the lead is confirmed and verified before it was issued for a presentation. They have to understand how the lead is developed and moved to an appointment. I think it should be mandatory for every sales rep to see and hear the process.
They have to know that we’re not trying to sell people right now, rather getting people in to the ‘maybe’. It’s why sales people make terrible canvassers because they’re trying to sell the lead from the start. The difference is in the approach and how the sales rep handles the lead after it’s been captured and issued. They have to know exactly what’s been said at the door with prospects so they can focus on how to move the prospect to a buyer.
Be sure to listen to the story I shared on the call with how one of my clients developed the outbound leads to an $8-10 million component of their business when the inbound lead sources dried up. The key was in how we changed the mindset of the sales reps and their approach with canvassed leads. Within a year the sales reps only wanted to call on canvassed leads because they were prepared for the leads.
This approach works no matter how the outbound lead is captured, via door to door canvassing or show and event leads. Changing the sales reps attitude and mindset on canvassed leads eliminates a lot of clutter and chaos for you as the manager or owner.
In closing, communicating the benefits of doing outbound marketing is important. Why are you canvassing? Here are only a few of those benefits:
• Canvassed leads are less expensive
• Exclusivity to the prospect
• You don’t have to wait for leads to come in; you can generate leads everyday regardless of the market
• Canvassing is a consistent lead source. You can anticipate how many leads will be generated based on how long the canvass team is out there, how many doors are knocked and captured, how many will be converted to appointments, etc.
Sales people fancy themselves as aggressive personalities and yet tend to rely on inbound leads. There’s no predicting when the leads will come in and in what quantity or quality. This is allowing someone else or something else to dictate the sales person’s results and income. Canvassed leads, or the outbound leads, are the true lead source of someone who wants complete control over results and income. Sales people who are not able to convert canvassed leads to sales have not been properly trained on how to handle the lead. If you’re hearing the grumblings from sales people complaining of the quality of canvassed leads your first approach would be in retraining the sales reps; not on how to sell, but how to sell on canvassed leads.
In wrapping up, make sure you review the recording from my live Silver Telecoaching call with members on November 19, 2014. Silver level or higher members receive the recording of calls each month automatically as part of membership. If you’re not presently a member and would like to receive the recording from this Telecoaching call you can go to SILVER MEMBERSHIP or contact me direct at cthompson@canvassking.com.
In the spirit of the holiday I want to express my sincere thanks for your continued support and I look forward to being of greater help to you in December and 2015.