In a sales pipeline there are various stages that typically progress from cold (unqualified lead) to hot (already pitched and close to closing). I often see salespeople swinging to one side of the pipeline or the other.
On one side, they are only calling brand new leads because that is where there seems to be the most opportunity and no fear of rejection by clients that have already been pitched. On the other side, they only call accounts that have already been quoted or pitched, because these are “closest to the money” and seemingly require the least work to push over the closing line.
The middle path is based on opportunity cost. After an account has been pitched or quoted, the chances of closing that account decrease with each day. Time kills deals. If the client isn’t responding to your follow-up emails or calls, they’ve likely made up their mind. Still, the follow-ups are worth it, for the one account out of ten you will catch that has been legitimately busy and fully intends to move forward and just needed a reminder.
For this reason, it is important to draw a line in the sand for the appropriate period of time to follow-up with an account after it has been pitched. After an account crosses this line, it needs to be kicked out of the pipeline, or sent to a more junior salesperson for follow up. Otherwise, further follow up comes at the cost of calling new leads.
There is a natural sinusoidal wave in sales that involves prospecting in the valleys and closing in the peaks. Any salesperson who goes on a “hot” streak of closing many accounts in a short period of time likely had to endure a period of drought in order to prospect for all those accounts. Rarely are sales made over time completely linear.
To keep the peaks high, a salesperson must maintain diligent hard work in the valleys while prospecting and calling new leads, keeping in mind that this work makes the peaks possible.