There are two revenue streams that sales and growth leaders build out: reactive and proactive. When creating a revenue generating process for your business, these two approaches should be monitored.
Response-Based Activities: This type of activity includes inbound inquiries and RFP responses. If RFPs are part of the team’s Go-To Market (GTM) plans, having an update on each stage of the RFP process will help the team win more frequently. Three main points to monitor regularly around RFPs include:
- New RFPs and which ones to pursue.
- Deadlines and due dates throughout the RFP process.
- RFP win rate dashboard with budgets allocated to each submission.
Inbound is likely part of the GTM too, and many teams will have two processes – one for those who want to talk to sales and one for those who are not ready for sales. The three main points to monitor for Inbound leads include:
- Response time to new sales inquiries.
- Outcomes from initial conversations from inbound leads.
- Engagement from leads that are still being nurtured by marketing.
These response-based activities are considered reactive and will only take your sales pipeline so far. It’s often the case that simply responding to a situation – whether an inbound inquiry or a Request for Proposal – without a strategy to arrive at a desired outcome won’t grow the business.
Waiting for the perfect client can lead to wasted time and effort by responding to prospects who aren’t a great fit. When taking a proactive approach, your team is able to guide the pace of the sales process and better serve the potential client. This also allows the team to ensure they’re meeting with the decision makers who care about the outcomes from the work, resulting in more closed-won business.
What is proactive selling?
Proactive selling is a sales approach that allows a sales rep to take control of the sales process instead of waiting on a lead to take some kind of action. This puts the sales person in a position to grow their sales pipeline instead of waiting for the right client to show up.
When engaging with potential customers, taking a proactive approach can help build trust and close more deals. Proactive strategies will require the sales rep to anticipate customer needs, show empathy, and solve problems before the customer is aware of them.
Proactive Approach: A proactive approach to new business development will look different from the response-based approach. The team members responsible for this should actively seek out new prospecting lists, adjust messaging based on who they’re interacting with, and focus on the responses received from their efforts. The four main points to monitor for outbound leads include:
- Prospecting lists and attributes of those prospects.
- Sales cadences, including messaging for emails, social, phone calls and voicemail.
- Messaging and content to get prospects engaged.
- Response rates and engagement to outbound outreach.
When is the right time to find a partner for proactive selling?
Taking a proactive approach to selling requires a dedicated resource with surrounding support. When your team does not have the ability to dedicate resources to this, partnering with Catapult can be a great option. Outsourcing proactive selling can aid your team and ensure success from all new business approaches. It supplements already over-taxed in-house growth leaders and allows your team to stay focused on its core strengths.
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