Sales Leakage Consulting

Welcome to Sales Leakage Consulting

Sales Leakage, Inc, was formed in 1996, by James Obermayer, it serves the needs of corporations in the business to business market place.  Sales Leakage is defined as preventable breakdowns and points of friction that contribute to unnecessary sales losses. Sales Leakage includes the many "leaks" which hurt sales productivity, reduce marketing effectiveness and waste the three most valuable resources a company has: time, money, and people.

"Well done is better than well said,” remarked Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin said this about 225 years ago and it is still fresh today. I just didn’t realize how much insight Ben had into marketing. With all of the talk we have heard about CRM for 20 plus years and the progress marketing automation has made for the last ten years, most marketing managers are still not walking the talk when it comes to measuring ROI for marketing lead generation.

via blog.salesleadmgmtassn.com

The Golden Rule for Making the Sales Forecast

The Golden Rule for achieving the sales forecast is: make the 1st month of the year.* Make the month and you will make the first quarter. Make the first quarter and your opportunity to make the second quarter increases dramatically. Make the 2nd quarter and the momentum taking you into the 3rd quarter is almost unstoppable. Make the 1st, 2nd and 3rd quarters and you will virtually coast into the 4th quarter.

Which coincidently, sets you up for the first quarter of your new year. Nice the way this happens.

The key drivers in making Q1 is to continue marketing lead generation in Q4. Also, skip hurrah sales meetings, a big trip and other time wasters in Q1. Let your competitors get a slow start in the first month of the year as they go on their celebratory sales trip and have lengthy sales meetings with golf and barbecues while you are pounding sales harder than anyone else in the first month and first quarter. Let's consider this: they take a week off and you gain a week on them in the most crucial month of the year; that's getting a 25% head-start.

Once you make Q1 you'll have time for the hoorah, team building, back-slapping times.

 

 

*Obermayer, Sales & Marketing 365, #2, page 12 of 365 Tips to make more money all year long. Racom Communications

Interview CEO Hour

Recent interview:

Sales Leakage: Plugging Up the Holes That Drain Your Profits - Jim Obermayer of Sales Leakage Consulting and Cerius Interim Executive Solutions Shares Sales Successes

the CEO Hour, October 22, 2010. Owner, James Obermayer, and author of "Sales & Marketing 365" will highlight the twelve most common, irritating and costly mistakes made by sales organizations. Sales Leakage includes the many "leaks" which hurt sales productivity, reduce marketing effectiveness and waste the two most valuable resources a company has: time and money www.salesleakage.com

Part 1: 
 MP3 File

Part 2:   
MP3 File

Typical Points of Inquiry Leakage

Leakage happens because most companies, unfortunately, are not counting all the inquiries they receive, nor are they attributing the inquiries to their proper sources…When this occurs, the marketing department will lose the ability to properly credit the lead-generating campaign that caused the person to make contact.

Three Types of Inquiry Management Programs

Generally, I have found that there are three types of inquiry management programs. From fulfill and forget to deep nurturing. Let's look at the three types.

Fulfill and Forget: Low Touch

Fulfill and forget inquiries are just that. Usually these are B2C but also low-cost B2B products. Products are sold through retailers or distributors and resellers. The manufacturer advertises and typically drives inquirers to a Web site, a toll-free number, and/or most likely a retail establishment. The manufacturers products are usually less than a few hundred dollars, the margins are small and they don't control the sales channel. They advertise for name recognition (brand awareness) and to drive immediate need buyers into the retail store. Fulfillment is usually not done or is minimal, inquiries are not sent to the sales channel, and in some cases a database of inquirers are not kept (not recommended).

The Six Ways to Prove the ROI for Sales Inquiries

Are there more than six ways to prove the ROI for inquiries? Probably, but these basic six ways to prove the ROI will start you off.

The Rule of 45: Predicting Sales Results From Inquiries

The Rule of 45 is the basic measurement premise from which you can measure the effectiveness of virtually all lead generation programs. It is a steady, reliable rule which simply says that 45% of all inquiries (not just qualified sales leads), will buy from someone. The timeframe for this purchase is usually, but not always within 12 months. The percent that buys in three months is between 10%-15% and the percent that buys in six months is 26%.

The Literature Package

Most literature packages can have six elements:

1. The envelope (a flat 9" x10").
2. The letter (personalized laser letter with a signature).
3. The sell piece or product literature.
4. Where-to-buy lists or phone numbers of the closest reseller (could be in the letter or a separate office listing).
5. A business reply card (preferably pre-addressed with the prospect's name.)
6. The business card of your direct salesperson.

Seven Ways to Motivate Salespeople to Follow Up Inquiries

The following is an excerpt from: James Obermayer, Managing Sales Leads: Turning Cold Prospects Into Hot Customers, (Mason, Ohio, Textere an imprint of Thomson/South-Western, 2007) and Racom Books, Page 167.

Seven Ways to Motivate Salespeople to Follow Up Inquiries

1. Greed: They will make more money. Talk to more people and they will sell more product. It is a simple law of averages.

2. Fear: They must make quota. Sometimes sales reps need to be reminded that a sales quota is a contract between the salesperson and the company. In order to make quota, they must sell product at a predictable level, which can only be done if they speak to more people than the number of customers who must be converted every year. A constant flow of new prospects helps them do this.

Sales Stages: Funnel, Opportunity, Deal or Pipeline

The following is an excerpt from: James Obermayer, Managing Sales Leads: Turning Cold Prospects Into Hot Customers, (Mason, Ohio, Textere an imprint of Thomson/South-Western, 2007) and Racom Books, Page 111

Sales Stages: Funnel, Opportunity, Deal, or Pipeline

Once the lead is sent to the salesperson, it begins to go through a filtering process that will either kill it as a prospect or advance it to the next level of the pipeline. These stages can be just a few or a dozen or more. Every company and its products are different. The basic stages are here, but others can be added.