Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Number of Sales Leads – Make Up Your Mind!


Being picky is not only problematic with qualifying sales leads. It is also a problem when setting the number that you need. If you do not feel confident about how many (or even how few) sales leads that you want, the rest of your business will have trouble keeping up to your fickleness!

Your Sales Leads Should Be Just Right


Remember the three bears from the story of Goldilocks? Both papa bear and mama bear had things that were on complete opposite extremes (hot and cold, hard and soft). When it comes to sales leads, you need to have them like baby bear: just right.

Unfortunately, some turbulent markets just like to pressure companies with high numbers of sales leads and panic when they are not getting a single one. Case in point: business software. Being tech-savvy, you feel like you have all the tools to call forth a huge tide of software leads (especially with the internet).

That does not mean you will or will not think of it as a blessing if you achieved your goal. Here is another illustration of how an extreme lack of sales leads can desperately turn into an extremely high number with extremely terrifying results:

  • Too few – If your software sales leads are like wine, being fickle with numbers means you are the heavy drinker that just keeps demanding more. You want a bigger cup. You want half of a whole global target industry to come running into your sales funnel. You do this without thinking and each second of not having a single drop sends you further into madness.


  • Too many – Finally, out of frustration, the bartender gives the drinker exactly what he asks for and floods the place. Your lead generator could go crazy in the same manner, pulling out all the stops and getting you all the software sales leads you want. After that, they cease to care for your cries of salespeople that there is just too much and your entire business drowns.

You do not want your own marketers screaming at you to make up your own mind. You have to set a certain number of sales leads and that number must neither be too sparse nor excessive. Again: it has to be just right. Goldilocks may have been a housebreaker but she at least knew what she liked (from porridge to bed).


It does not even take much to figure out a more specific number. Look at your company and check its capacity. How many implementation projects can you handle at a certain span of time? These are all figured out by the time your sales lead generation process finishes qualifying. Do not go for too many sales leads or too few. Make up your mind!

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