Since the April holidays will certainly affect sales in most companies, outsourcing lead generation can be useful in putting sales teams back on track.
So says Louise Robinson, sales director of CG Consulting, who points out that, with the large number of public holidays in April, there is added pressure on sales teams to catch up over the next few months.
As this month draws to a close, she adds, many companies have realised that, with the second quarter of the year well underway, it is time to re-evaluate their business.
“Outsourcing to a lead generation company is a win-win situation, and conversion rates on qualified leads will have a higher success rate than cold contacts because the prospect is pre-qualified, before you ever receive the lead, further speeding the sales process up,” Robinson explains.
In addition, a specialist service provider can use the lead generation process to help build a client's pipeline by looking for opportunities in the marketplace defined by their chosen criteria, she notes.
With so much competition out there, Robinson adds, it's important for businesses to develop a strategy to continually grow the pipeline, and lead generation is therefore an essential part of succeeding in sales.
“If you need business fast, or if you want to effectively manage your company's growth, lead generation is essential,” Robinson says. “It's an easy way to increase your ROI and get more business on your books. The key to being successful using lead generation is to brush up on your sales and marketing skills so that the leads you receive convert at a high sales rate.”
However, she stresses that a lead is not, in and of itself, a sale. It's a clue (or lead) that a sales opportunity exists, she points out, adding that successful lead generation involves finding prospects who have a genuine need and who are actively seeking a way to fill that need.
“In many industries, it can take up to two months or more to close one deal; that is 20 actual working days spent on one sale. If you consider this, it becomes obvious that sales teams are losing time making cold calls to establish leads, and that, instead of wasting time on the phones, they could be in front of prospective clients.
She also points out that, with December, January and April essentially being complete write-offs because of the public holidays and leave employees have taken, many companies are very far behind their targets.
“There is still one long weekend at the end of this month, and a long school holiday in June, which will disrupt business again. This leaves companies with nine months of the year to do 12 months' worth of sales.”
In that vein, Robinson believes there is little time for businesses to catch up. She argues that there are seven months left of 2012, which equates to only 28 weeks, or 140 days, excluding public holidays.
“If public holidays are taken into account, there are only 134 working days left of this year, as there are another six public holidays still to come. This doesn't leave a lot of time for sales teams to meet their targets.”
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