Stage 1: Prospecting
The fat end of the funnel is where marketing and sales first meet. It's the new leads delivered by marketing that may deliver new business.
Leads may be respondents to your marketing campaign, names from your CRM programme, or walk-ins to your website. Once captured, and you've got a name, a number, and a need, it's a prospect - a person at the first stage of his journey with you. How far he travels is the job of sales and marketing.
What matters is the relationship. A cold name? A warm suspect? A hot prospect? The hottest prospects are those you've done business with before; the coldest those you approached through a campaign. If they've entered your sales funnel it means they're interested - but some will be more interested than others. Check how hot your prospects are with some solid metrics - how did they find you? Which pages of your website did they land on? How many times did they open your email? Did they complete a web form? Looking at these numbers lets you decide what to do next.
Single-clickers who just looked at your website? Send them an autoresponse email and add them to your monthly campaign. People who've looked over your website several times? Phone them and introduce yourself. People who've completed a web form with a description of their problem or what they want? Take them to lunch. It's that point - personal contact - that drives your stage 2: qualifying.
GET ME IN YOUR INBOX: blank email to
What I do for clients: sales[at]redpump.com
Rate card: rates[at]redpump.com
Book links: book[at]redpump.com
Contact info: contact[at]redpump.com
The fat end of the funnel is where marketing and sales first meet. It's the new leads delivered by marketing that may deliver new business.
Leads may be respondents to your marketing campaign, names from your CRM programme, or walk-ins to your website. Once captured, and you've got a name, a number, and a need, it's a prospect - a person at the first stage of his journey with you. How far he travels is the job of sales and marketing.
What matters is the relationship. A cold name? A warm suspect? A hot prospect? The hottest prospects are those you've done business with before; the coldest those you approached through a campaign. If they've entered your sales funnel it means they're interested - but some will be more interested than others. Check how hot your prospects are with some solid metrics - how did they find you? Which pages of your website did they land on? How many times did they open your email? Did they complete a web form? Looking at these numbers lets you decide what to do next.
Single-clickers who just looked at your website? Send them an autoresponse email and add them to your monthly campaign. People who've looked over your website several times? Phone them and introduce yourself. People who've completed a web form with a description of their problem or what they want? Take them to lunch. It's that point - personal contact - that drives your stage 2: qualifying.
GET ME IN YOUR INBOX: blank email to
What I do for clients: sales[at]redpump.com
Rate card: rates[at]redpump.com
Book links: book[at]redpump.com
Contact info: contact[at]redpump.com