Sales forecasting is of the utmost importance to any sales driven business. It gives business leaders an understanding of how their organisation will perform in coming weeks and months. This, in turn, allows them to make important decisions with at least some idea of what the future holds.

Unfortunately, there is one major issue with sales forecasting: many businesses struggle with it. This means that future projections are unreliable and important decisions may be made against a false backdrop. So, what can your business do to improve the accuracy of its sales pipeline forecast? Simply, you can outsource lead generation or telemarketing or you can run Lead Generation as an in-house activity (you can read these articles about outsourced or in -house telemarketing or lead generation).

Many of our clients come to us having searched for Lead generation or Telemarketing Company and tell us that they are dissatisfied with the service they are getting at the moment; their sales teams waste time chasing the wrong appointments or do not close deals because, when they meet their leads, they do not have the necessary sales intelligence. So where do you start with the right approach to lead generation?

Perhaps by asking yourself some questions?

What are your business targets?

If you are just looking to hustle some new leads – any leads perhaps, then blast out a standard message against a long list of contacts or find a call centre to do this for you, but have you thought this might be a triumph of short-termism that lay your sales foundation in the sand?

It’s certainly tempting if you’re under pressure, to be able to report back that you’ve hammered out thousands of calls or e-mails, (or you’ve had thousands of calls hammered out on your behalf). Makes you feel good, right? Perhaps take a deep breath and think again; you shouldn’t try to talk to a lot of people, but to the RIGHT people, or you are only wasting time and resources.

Find your audiences

Don’t even start reaching out until you know exactly who your quality audiences are.

You certainly know who you want to sell your products or services to, but do you know exactly what they need, what they are looking for, how they prefer to communicate, what their challenges are and, most crucially, how your products or services can help them overcome those challenges? These are your quality business leads; the people you want to connect with and to whom you want to direct your carefully crafted sales message; and this is the ground on which your battle will be lost or won.

It’s about your leads; not about you.

When it comes to defining quality business leads, remember that this is not about how good they can be for you, but about how good you can be for them; leads will not become clients because they can give you a good business, but because you can help them overcome their challenges or make their business easier and more profitable. Therefore, assessing the quality of business leads is about knowing them well, more than it is about knowing your business. Show your prospects you are thinking of them and they’ll reward you.

It is good to be looking for quality business leads, but certainly you need volumes, as well?

In the recent past, we lost a piece of work because a call center promised the prospect “an appointment every hour”. The prospect explained that he loved our approach and our way of engagement, but it was difficult to turn down the call centre promising the earth.

We argued that actually, given the market they were trying to penetrate and the types of buyer they needed to reach to make the decision, there weren’t even that number of prospective buyers in the market – let alone that many qualified appointments to be had. We parted amicably.

Three months later, he was back! Having spent thousands of pounds of his sales teams’ time with unqualified prospects – not forgetting the bill for hours.

We ended up with an 18-month contract; he ended up with an efficient sales team and a clear view of his sales pipeline.

Perhaps this is what 35 years of hard-bitten sales experience gives us the edge.

Be natural; don’t use scripts.

If you decide to do your own lead generation, you may be temped to think scripts save time; if you decide to outsource, you will find call centers who will sell you a script-led approach. Don’t fall for that; the reality is that scripts don’t save time; they just waste time.

Broadley Speaking holds a particular niche in this sector. Our lead generation services are designed for companies who need to sell complex products and services to senior decision makers.

We combine this with a suite of outbound marketing that puts prospects at the centre of everything.

This is what we call Total Prospect Management (TPM). TPM feeds your sales pipeline and gives you focus and control of it.

Our clients like Compass, Accenture, and Flex – the leaders in their own fields recognise us as leaders in ours.

Read this page for more information about how our telemarketing can deliver you a detailed sales pipeline that will feed your growth ambitions or call us on (0)800 988 7253 to talk to a consultant.