Christmas may feel like a long way away, but for companies looking to make their targets, four months is a relatively short space of time.
Projects need to be tied up, sales need to be made and targets need to be met before the country comes to a grinding halt over the December period, says Louise Robinson, MD of CG Consulting.
“It happens every year. Just as businesses across the country start recovering from the effects of the Easter holidays, Christmas sneaks up. But you don’t have to lose momentum. Simply by planning and being mindful that your business has to be ready for the closures, you can use the holidays to accelerate your business, not slow it down,” she says.
Building a good pipeline and using the next few months to plan for the upcoming slowdown period appropriately, is crucial, says Robinson. “For companies struggling to meet their targets or those that just haven’t performed as well as they would have liked to so far this year, a good lead generation service provider can be invaluable. Not only will they provide you with a way to meet your targets, they will take the load off your sales team, giving them the space to focus on making the sales.”
One of the toughest things to do in business is to generate leads when you need them, Robinson says. “Your company has a baseline number of leads that come in per month.
“You don’t have to do anything new, and a fairly consistent number of leads dribble in from your website, referrals, and possibly agents and tradeshows. You know that 15% to 20% of these leads are ready for your sales team to pursue, and the rest are not. Your marketing person or team knows how to sustain the activities necessary to generate these baseline leads.
“But what do you do when you find you’re missing revenue targets and need to get more leads right away?”
She adds that companies don’t need just plain sales leads; they need sales leads that fit their specifications and timelines. Companies like CG Consulting provide the missing link between targets and qualified leads that will result in sales.
“I have said it many times before, and it still remains crucial to remind companies that knowing who your prospective customers are and how they buy is half the battle in gaining new customers. Having a name and a number is not a hot lead, but by using a specialist company, you can rest assured that all the leads you get are hot,” Robinson says.
“We provide clients with all the information necessary to make the sale. By taking on the time-consuming business of establishing the correct qualified leads, CG Consulting provides its customers with extra time as well as helping them to begin filling the sales pipeline with future business.”