Following Up Sales Leads

Marketing people tend to not be very good at following up sales leads - which is ironic as they should know how to do this (due to being involved in marketing).

The problem is, that marketing companies tend to deal with 'briefs' - which are outlines of projects that are definitely going ahead.

The thing is, not all 'sales leads' are certain projects; some are considering, some are comparing prices, others are still in the planning stage.

Sales leads tend to vary in status (from cold, warm, luke warm, hot etc.) so care does need to be given as to how leads are approached.

If a client is considering options (say for example they have used a designer for the last few years but are thinking about changing due to increased prices) and put feelers out - how would they feel if they got a chief designer phone them up and starting a pushy sale (with the attitude that they are going to place the work).  Then how would the client feel if the designer then got grumpy and called them a time waster when they did not agree to a meeting the next day?

Some clients are busy, and expressly ask for contact via e-mail (due to being in the early stages of the sales process, or just busy) then 2 or 3 marketing companies call them up asking for a meeting or a detailed discussion 'to discuss their brief'.

This does happen, and many good sales leads are ruined from the wrong approach.

Getting your sales approach when following up leads is key, otherwise you can ruin perfectly good leads for yourself and anyone else following them up by irritating a potentially interested client.

For help and advice on follow up sales leads, telemarketing companies are well positioned to be able to help - as they are following up leads every day and are well positioned to be able to gauge approach techniques.