Strong Pipelines for Sales and Growth

Chasing new business can be a never-ending task for the successful sales professional, but it needn’t be a race against time to find the next deal the minute you have secured the last one. Nor does it mean a life of constantly making cold calls and breaking the ice at endless networking events. There are many ways that you can build a strong pipeline which will give you a longer-term view of forthcoming opportunities and likely prospects. A pipeline takes the stress away from wondering where your next sales are going to come from and helps provide structure and an organised approach to the implementation of your new business strategy. Cold calls and following up on warm leads generated by telesales teams will form part of your pipeline creation. So too will the leads you pick up from your contacts and the connections that you make at networking events. However, these are not the only lines of approach. Keeping up with all industry knowledge is an important part of the sales process as you learn to anticipate who will be in need of what amongst your potential customers. You will already have identified your potential market. The next step is to keep abreast of changes which position companies nearer to the point of purchase. For example, sales recruitment agencies in Shropshire keep an eye on developments to gauge which companies are likely to be hiring in the near future. If your customers are within the public sector, then the opportunities for new business will be advertised in ways which present a level playing field to suppliers. Public-sector opportunities are often advertised in the form of tenders to which suppliers submit proposals and responses to bid documents. Approaches may vary slightly depending on the value of the contract and often there will be pre-qualification stages which must be passed before full tenders can be submitted. While public-sector tenders can appear to involve a long-winded process, the rewards can be great. As well as tenders for specific contracts, there are often opportunities to bid to become a council’s or public body’s preferred supplier, which will bring you ongoing business. The key to building your public-sector sales pipeline is to keep an eye on all the new tenders being published which are relevant to your business so that you have enough time to submit your proposals and responses before the deadlines. If you think a career in public-sector sales might be for you, then contact sales recruitment agencies in Shropshire to find out more.