If you want to be in the top 33% of sales reps, you need to make sure your leads don’t go quiet on you. To do that, you need to understand their behaviour and how you have impacted that.

You didn’t get in touch soon enough

As a salesperson, you should follow up on any lead as soon as they have shown an interest. It’s no good chasing them later in the day or week. By then, they have probably forgotten who you are or what initially drew them to you.

Sales reps are 100 times more likely to connect with an inbound lead if they contact them within the first five minutes rather than the first half an hour of showing interest. You can take this one step further by contacting outbound leads within five minutes of them landing on your website thanks to visitor identification software.

Your prospect doesn’t need you (or so they think)

With information at the buyer’s fingertips, your prospects no longer need to talk to you – a salesperson – in order to make an informed decision. The internet is rife with whitepapers, case studies and expert opinions. To stay relevant and alive in the B2B world, you need to be seen as an expert in your industry. This way, even informed buyers will still turn to you for advice.

Create this reputation by providing valuable content that doesn’t just promote your own product. Participate in business conversations online and interact with other professionals. Don’t discount your online reputation – this is where buyers do their research. This is where you can stand out from the crowd.

You don’t know your lead (and they know it)

Any salesperson who is still using a sales script in 2016 is too far behind the times. Initiating a conversation with a prospect and only focusing on what you offer is the easiest way to hinder a negative response. For example, presenting them with a sales presentation that focuses on your USPs, case studies and pricing is a waste of time when they can (and have) seen this information on your website.

Instead, you must look at your leads history and care about the context of why they are looking at your product. Consider a doctor. They have access to your history, ask you a few key questions which you answer truthfully because you want the best help. A salesperson that can use this technique and develop this level of understanding with their prospect will perform at the top 33% of their profession.

For any senior ranking staff reading this, why not take this advice and use it to help you build an overperforming sales team?