It’s time to start seeking the wisdom of our industry leaders to build pipeline. In this episode, your host Donald Kelly talks with Radhika Shukla about her years of experience bringing teams to success in sales. Her approach is equal parts methodical, data-driven, and human-centric. Listen in as she shares the proven methods she uses with her team to find new leads and convert them into happy repeat customers.

 Start the Planning Process Early

• Identify “big bets” that you need to win. These are new leads that are great fits for your business that you are going to prioritize.
• Collaborate with different people in your organization who operate at all stages of the customer satisfaction process.

 7-Step Method for Lead Qualifying

1. Start with your ICP. Create a customer profile and become familiar with the industry and common pain points.
2. Ask the right questions. Think of asking effective questions and staying curious rather than jumping straight to solutions.
3. Qualification criteria. Don’t be misled by following the wrong criteria – know what your criteria are from an early stage. 
4. Two-way qualification. From the early stages all the way through the end, give your customers a way to evaluate whether your company is bringing them value.
5. Progress through the sales cycle. Take a structured approach to help you keep track of where you are at with your clients.
6. Data analysis. Become a data-driven seller. The more reports you can get your hands on, the better you can assess your pipeline.
7. Rigorous, regular pipeline review. Revise your plan every 2-3 months. Things change and you may learn new things.

 Prospecting to Triple Your Pipeline

• Invest in targeted research and networking to identify prospects.
• Network shamelessly. Don’t be afraid to seek referrals from your regular clients.
• Engage in multi-channel prospecting. Don’t stick to one type of prospecting: e-mails, social media, and phone calls will all reach different people. 
• Follow up with your customers. Keep a regular cadence of connection with customers.

 “You have to focus on understanding your target market, your industry trends, the complete scenario. It’s very important to understand your customer’s business, but also the customer’s customer – how they go to market and how they sell their products and services to their customers. That deep understanding, often people miss.” – Radhika Shukla

 Resources

Radhika Shukla on LinkedIn

Sponsorship Offers

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2. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Sales Foundation.

I think we can all agree that sales should be fun. However, many times, we find ourselves in a quagmire where we’re not progressing and deals are not going the way that they should. This is why we created TSE Sales Foundation. It’s a program designed to help sales professionals just like you master the fundamentals of sales so they can radically improve their sales pipeline and close more deals. To find out more about TSE Sales Foundation and our next start date, simply go to thesalesevangelist.com/foundation.

Credits

As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Mentioned in this episode:

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

hubpspot.com/marketers

bluemangostudios.com