1-2-1 Sales Funnel
- A strategic tool -
The 1-2-1 Sales Funnel is a systematic approach that enables:
- Consistent, long term growth
- A business that approaches sales with a method that repeats and sustains
- Your business to have continuous visibility of future sales
- You to forecast sales further ahead and more accurately
- You to continually evolve business plans and rate of growth
- The business to sleep better at night
WHAT IS A SALES FUNNEL?
The function of Sales is to explore the marketplace and to identify prospective customers and to engage with them to convert them into actual customers. However, between initial engagement and the signing of the contract is a process which we call the sales cycle.
The sales cycle has a number of critical aspects to it that determine whether the opportunity is ultimately converted to a sale:
1 - Does the prospective customer have the need for what you are offering them i.e. is what you offer them economically justifiable within their business
2 - Does the customer have the resources and capability to implement the solution?
3 - What is the timescale?
4 - Will the customer evaluate the competition?
5 - How many, how long to do this?
6 - Will there be a short list?
7 - Will there be a trial period?
8 - Does it need higher level of authorization?
9 - There will be contract negotiation!
10 - The sale is now ready for completion.
As can be anticipated from the sequence, each individual opportunity goes through a cycle and naturally time is a key element to this cycle. Every sale will have its own timeline and these can vary enormously due to a wide range of factors! Also at any point prior to contract completion the opportunity can go away. Reasons such as they have decided not to go ahead or the timing has changed or they have chosen to go with a competitor all affect the likelihood of a sale being completed.
A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH FOR ACHIEVING
SUSTAINABLE SALES GROWTH!
Our approach at 1-2-1 is to explore the marketplace and identify the key opportunities that match directly with your business purpose and direction. The first phase of our relationship with you is an essential short but focused investment of time in understanding exactly the type of customer that best fits you and then to segment the market in accordance with this.
Our experience shows that this matching process serves to give you the best customers who will be loyal to you and help you grow the business!
We then begin the process of developing your Sales Funnel. Through a combination of exploring the marketplace, using our support network and finding out organizations that fit your requirement the development begins. Our first task is to engage with your prospective customers and arrange initial introductions. We call on all of our experienceand insight to make decisions on when to introduce you.
PARTNERSHIPS IS THE KEY TO GAINING THE MOST FrOM 1-2-1 HOSPITALITY!
We don’t just introduce you to people who are about to purchase (It is rare you find this). We will introduce you to organizations who want what you have and at some point in the future will purchase it! 1-2-1 Sales Funnel is a systematic approach to sales not a quick fix
solution!
Having introduced you, we also further support you through the entire process by whether it be arranging further; meetings, information or communication. You will find the further through process the prospect is in the funnel, the more the responsibility falls to the salesperson to manage the prospect through to completion, whilst the earlier it is the more 1-2-1 is responsible.
What we are now seeing is a dynamic Sales Funnel operating. Each sale has its own life and destiny and the key is to ensure we achieve sustainable sales growth. When we say ‘dynamic’ we mean simply that enough of the right prospects enter into the funnel to ensure enough emerge as customers, but only the right customers that fit your offer!
This systematic approach allows you to categorise at any point the stage at which the prospect is within the funnel. This offers some tremendous advantages such as your prospect to sales conversion ratio, your average time from engagement to sale. All of this is vital from a planning and management perspective! Ultimately, 1-2-1 Sales Funnel allows you to build up a model of percentage likelihoods at each stage which can be used as a forecasting tool.
WE BELIEVE THAT ON AVERAGE IT TAKES A MINIMUM OF SIX MONTHS TO BUILD A DYNAMIC FUNNEL
None of this happens by magic, it is not instantaneous and takes expertise and commitment. Everybody in the business has to recognize that it takes time to build a dynamic Sales Funnel of genuine value, one that can be sustained to achieve the growth that you desire!
We believe that on average it takes a minimum of six months to build a dynamic funnel that will deliver consistent throughput for delivering sales on a consistent basis! Any expectations better than this are highly unusual and simply unrealistic. However, once you have it you really have the basis of achievable growth. You now have a precious asset that you must continue to nurture and develop to ensure you achieve plan!
Equally having acquired this precious tool it can now be used to look realistically at what this might mean for growth. Could we grow more quickly by having a bigger funnel for example?