There is a distinct difference between leads and a list of names. I call a list of names and numbers suspects. Data providers often mislead clients into believing that they are getting leads when they get these too good to be true prices on thousands of leads.

Make Sure You Have Leads

The fact is that a lead implies that the consumer has taken some intentional action on an offer. That may be calling an 800 number, requesting over phone to be transferred, making an email or contact form inquiry, or opting into an email campaign. Short of that you have a list of names.

Regardless of what type of lead data you are buying, you need to move each of them to a viable lead. Develop a sales process that assumes all your contacts are simply data until you make contact and convert them into “your” personal leads.

Turning Suspects into Leads

Here is the simple sales process I recommend:

1. Load all new data into a “suspect” email campaign
2. Power dial all new data with an intro message and phone number verification
3. Invalid emails and phone numbers are cleaned out of the suspect list
4. Positive responses to emails and phone calls get bumped up to leads

Now you can go into sales mode on these leads. All of the verified data now needs to make it’s way into your lead management software or CRM system.

Notice this initial process can easily be accomplished in-house or even outsourced–potentially keeping you focused on sales.

Turning Leads into Sales

With good clean leads in your database it is time to begin moving them towards a sale. I recommend again using a combination of email campaigns and regular calling.

Your emails should focus on education and market updates. These will give your customers confidence and build trust. It also allows for your calls to be more about touching base, checking for questions, building a relationship, and hopefully closing a deal.
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Your sales process should be a living and breathing thing. You should be constantly looking for feedback and sources of inspiration. As a sales person you are faced with the negative everyday–rejections, hang-ups, the crushing weight of caring a sale quota.

Here are a few suggestions to make sure your sales process is improving, daily.

1. Measure it.

Few things are more important than making your sales process consistent and disciplined enough to measure it. You need to break your process down it to manageable points of measurement.

• How many calls do you make?
• How many did you try script A, B, or C on?
• How many contacts did you make?
• How many appointments did you make?
• How many objections?
• What were they?
• Which did you overcome, which do you need to practice?
• What is you close ratio?
• What adjustments do you need to make?

2. Learn from others.

The Internet and bookstores are literally overflowing with great sales mentors. Spend at least 50% of you time learning. Here are a few that I spend time with on a regular basis:

• Jeffrey Gitomer
• Harvey MacKay
• Zig Ziglar
• Neil Rackham

3. Inspire it.

Inspiration can come from a lot of places. If you are athletic it might come from your heroes on the field and their stories of challenge and success. There might be business leaders that you aspire to rise to their level. Or it might be a philosophy like Ayn Rand’s Objectivism.

Find something or someone and then put that inspiration in front of you. Go get it!

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I wish I could attend the Sales 2.0 Conference in Chicago this month. The conference is often full of good stuff on sales innovation and data to back the ideas. This event is going to cover topics like: improving the productivity on your sales pipeline, sales lead management 2.0, sales 2.0 driven sales process, and social networking in sales 2.0. All ideas and topics we have visited here from time to time.

At the last event, in Boston, there was a great study done on when the best time was to make cold calls, which Geoffrey James, of Sales Machine turned into a clever quiz.

You should take a few minutes and go through it. You will be shocked how many of your assumptions about cold calling are wrong.

You know I am a big proponent of lead management and social networking in your sales process. And although this seems to be more B2B focused I think there could be a lot to learn.

I would recommend attending, but if you have conflicts like I do you can go to Sales Machine and get live updates from the conference.

Are there any good mortgage or debt industry sales conferences? I would think there would be a great opportunity for something like this.

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Sales slumps-we all get them. However, the best in the business know the early warning signs and how to “hit” out of them.

The best way to avoid slumps is to develop a consistent sales process. These are methodical habits and techniques that create a baseline for sales activities and performance. When one or the other begins to wander you know you have a problem.

You sales process should include some of these basic activities:

• Methods for marketing or sourcing leads
• Disciplined approach to getting leads into your system
• Consistent initial contact and lead nurturing process
• Process to status and age leads in your lead management software

If you have these basic elements of lead management it will make it easy to see the 7 deadly signs of a sales slump earlier:

• Repeated (mindless) organizing and sorting leads
• Dialing without a plan or objective for the call
• Endlessly prospecting to avoid the pipeline
• Few if any measurements to gauge performance
• Competitive offers catch you by surprise
• Same “big opportunities” sit idle in your pipeline
• Begin to “whine” about product and price

Is this you? It happens to all of us at one time or another. The Secret to success is what you do about it?

In the next post we will look at battling these sales slumps.

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Aged debt leads can be a great marketing approach for mortgage and debt companies, particularly if they are managed correctly. Typically they work best in a telemarketing or call center environment, but if you are comfortable on the phone and have an aggressive sales attitude, will serve you well.

It can be a bit of a learning curve, but with a few basic tips and techniques it’s well worth the time spent in mastering this marketing opportunity. Whether you have old leads you’re working through again, or you received aged debt leads, these are some tips that will make the process much more productive.

1.    Cold Calling. The first step to working aged leads is simply getting on the phone and starting a conversation. Use mortgage or debt CRM program is the best way to make this process efficient, and track the kind of response rate you are getting. With debt leads, the good news is, most people will be in more debt now than they were weeks to months ago when they first requested help.

You can use this to your advantage, particularly in the case of consumers that are having trouble making ends meet in this down turning economy.

2.    Pipeline Management. The second key is effectively managing your sales pipeline. Getting pipeline management right will help your entire organization better manage marketing, sales, and revenue goals. You may even consider hiring someone to help you manage your pipeline and processing of deals, freeing you up to land the next deal and ensure that the customer you have on the hook gets a smooth experience all the way to their final debt solution. Set up a prioritization system to help you work through the aged leads and keep track of new clients.

Work with your sales team to build a pipeline that will help you move quickly, and make follow ups easier.

3.    Lead Management. We touched on this briefly above, but you really can’t neglect managing your leads. Any business needs to be organized, but it is even more important for a debt management company to have their leads categorized, prioritized, and tracked. If you are relying on an old database to manage your leads, consider upgrading to a web-based debt CRM software package.

Assign specific team members to lead management to help them follow-up on and track the leads, and see which ones are most likely to result in a debt consolidation or management deal.

Aged debt leads open up many possibilities for companies of all sizes, but they are particularly useful for debt management companies. You’ll be able to quickly grow your business if you take the time and make the effort to go through your older leads.

Lead management is part of that success and does not have to be difficult, and the first step is getting everything organized and consistent with your sales process. The time that you spend collecting leads and managing them can be streamlined with effective sales pipeline management. Although this does require extra resources as well as time, in the long run, your lead ROI will bear improve.

Cold calling is just one way to reach out to your aged leads, but don’t forget about the power of email marketing either. This centerpiece of online marketing has never been stronger and the possibilities are endless when utilized correctly.

Turn this down market to your advantage by following these easy steps and you’ll end up recession proofing your business.

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Telemarketing can be an effective way to increase sales production. However, there is certainly an art to making this aggressive sales process work. Cold calling is certainly challenging, but it continues to be one of the leading sales methods in closing high volumes of sales. So, it makes sense to learn how to make telemarketing work for your sales team.

The secret to a successful telemarketing program is making contact.

Let’s go review a few sales tips that will get you started and yield some immediate success.

1.    Don’t hide your company name. Today’s consumers are smart and most households have caller ID or don’t trust blocked calls anyway. If you are obscuring or blocking your number-you are probably losing deals. This is also hold true for numbers that come up “unknown.” Consumers are far more likely to answer calls with an actual name and number on their caller ID display.

2.    Supervise your call team. Many telemarketers are paid by the hour, not by the lead. This can lead to some gaming of your sales process. This compensation structure places little motivation to make actual sales. Auto dialers or power dialers may be one way to get around this problem. Closely monitoring your staff is important to success and getting.

3.    Use a quality lead source. Contact information is critical to contact rate. Make sure you are buying from a lead source that does some form of quality control. It is best to spend the extra money on leads that are scrubbed or validated in some way to minimize bad phone numbers. You will frustrate your call center reps is they are wasting their time chasing down wrong numbers.  Many lead companies now offer periodic updates or lead verification services to products you purchase and this is a feature that should definitely be used.

4.    Target your call campaigns. For example, specific areas of the nation have been hit harder by the mortgage crisis than others. If you are in the mortgage or debt business, focus on these areas and you are likely to get better contact results. You can use this technique for other industries and verticals by paying attention to trends and news.

5.    Optimize call times. If you are trying to reach working people during the day, your contact rates are going to be very low, no matter how talented your telemarketing team is. Make sure you find a time that works, typically after dinner for most households, to get better conversions.
A recent study found Thursday evening to be best time to call followed by Wednesday evening.

These telemarketing call and contact tips will help you get more out of your lead investment and cold calling efforts. While there is no perfect solution, focusing on a combination of sales techniques, you can build a strategy that will work for your mortgage or debt company.

Above all, recruit talented cold callers, find the right motivation for them, and keep them stocked with quality leads. With this combination, it’s very hard to go wrong.

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Nothing converts a client like another customer singing your praises, but so many loan officers and debt counselors neglect this sales tool. Client testimonials and referrals should be a very intentional step in your sales process. Remind yourself of how important testimonials are with this three step process.

Get Testimonials

Like I said, getting testimonials needs to be a very specific step in your sales process. You should be using past client testimonials very early in your sales process with every prospect. This is a great time to start foreshadowing your request for a testimonial, “at the end of their exceptional experience.”

At every closing you need to closely interview the customer. Use this process to coach them on how to give an incredible testimonial. Not only will this give you a great comment for your marketing material, but it will condition their referral marketing.

Use Testimonials

Once you have great testimonials don’t forget to use them. Enthusiastic endorsements do little good as a personal thank you or atta-boy. You need to turn those into web content, brochures, and editorials in the local newspaper.

Have a testimonial plan and execute on it with each new testimonial you get.

Thank Testimonials

Once you get a great testimonial, don’t forget your manners–say, “Thank You!” Send a personal note with a gift card to a great restaurant or tickets to a local sporting event. Let them know how much you appreciate their business and the business they are going to refer to you in the future.

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There are few things more critical than the sales funnel. It keeps you focused, coaches you, and improves your sales performance.

How you manage your sales funnel will directly correlate to your sales success. Here are some critical components that will make you more successful with mortgage or debt leads.

Get Your Leads in the Funnel

First, and most importantly, get your leads into the funnel. This means your favorite mortgage CRM. There is no way to move a prospect to a sales without some way to track and measure your progress to that goal.

This should be a very efficient process. Either have leads posted directly into your lead management system or work out a simple way to load in spreadsheets. It is very important to quickly get all of your leads in one place, including your old ones.

Track and Status Leads

Once leads are in the pipeline, use simple statuses and flags. This will help you track good and bad trends. It will also help you to forecast sales results, seeing if you are on ore off your goals.

Do not get to crazy with these statuses. A simple methodology is all that is required, like: attempted, contacted, applied, closed. You can get more complex as your sales process matures.

Measure Movement

One of the beauties of status tracking is that you can see movement. A sales funnel should be in constant motion. This motion is critical to measure.

Metrics help you to quickly see what is working and what isn’t. It will also give you insight into where prospects get stuck in your sales process…Is there a confusing step in your sales process? Is there a fee, feature, product, or rate that is causing fall-out?

Improve Sales Process

All of these elements of the sales funnel comes together to improve your sales process. Improving the sales process will pump up your revenue.

A sales funnel is like having a personal sales coach at your side constantly.

Closing sales is ultimately about persistence. But, persistence needs discipline and a process. This is where sales sequencing comes in.

Before you leap into your sales day today, let’s think about a brief sales plan. Think beyond todays’ calls and emails. What are the next 5 things you want to do with each of the prospects in your sales pipeline?

What Troy? That sounds ludicrous–I have hundreds of prospects. I don’t have time to plan a specific plan of action for each.

Of course not, I say. But, I am going to suggest a smart way to get very close.

Status

Create a group of 4-5 statuses that you can use on every lead. Pick something that uniquely and discretely describes what is currently happening with that lead. Some ideas might be emailed, contacted, in processing, awaiting docs, etc.

This will allow you to easily sort your prospects and clients in your mortgage CRM, lead management system, or Excel spreadsheet. I will show you how to use this to improve your follow-up and communications strategy.

Segment

Use those statuses and/or product types to segment your sales pipeline. This sorting and segmentation will change daily. As you move deals forward you will see a nice flow of suspects to prospects and prospects to clients. Not only is it going to help you accelerate deals through your pipeline it is going to be daily feedback (and hopefully motivation) on how your sales are performing.

Sequence

Now you can see what deals are promising and have a good indication of the sales process. The next step is to think about what you should be saying to customers as they enter and exit each segment of the sales process. Here are some ideas:

• Should I make another attempt on the two previous failed contacts
• Should I make that follow-up evening call on the work number voicemail
• Should I be calling them back to check for questions on the GFE
• Should I send an email to follow-up on the application give them a docs checklist
• Should I give them a follow-up email to remind them I have still not received docs
• Should I email them to warn them their closing date is in jeopardy

Build a 3-5 point communication plan for each of your statuses–call scripts and emails. Then use sequencing to put your sales process on auto-pilot, while increasing the number of deals you close each month!

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What is sales success? That is probably a pretty easy question for you. Did we get the deal or not? Right, but often our sales process breaks down because we don’t know how to get there.

Sales happen even in the worse sales organizations and with bad sales processes. However, the difference between sales and sales success is all about building measurements and improving the process.

Are Your Sales Accidental?

Often times sales organizations manage to survive on the “accidental tourist” sales process. This means sales happen, but there is little or no explanation as to how they happen. These are sales that pop-out occasionally based on sales activities. Unfortunately, there is often little tracking of the process that got you to a closing.

A system of statuses and measurements can help to fix this disconnect.

Do You Have a Measurement System?

Measuring your sales activities can accomplish two important objectives in improving your sales performance. It can help you answer two important questions:

• What got you to this performance level?
• What can be adjusted to get you to the next level?

Tracking metrics will help you see progress and forward momentum. It also allows you to insert metrics and build benchmarks. These elements will give you a measurement system on which to build a consistent sales process. A sales process that you can improve.

Are You Continually Improving?

Once your measurement system is in place–it is time to look for opportunity. By reviewing your tracking, metrics, and benchmarks you will see opportunities to improve the process. Changing the order of an email or phone call, tweaking a script, or segmenting leads for a different product pitch can make dramatic results in pull-through on leads.

Measuring will improve your sales output and top-line revenue!

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