Understanding the true value of quality over quantity in sales is crucial to making sure you get the conversions you need to keep your business growing. While it’s tempting to think more leads, prospects, and conversions are the key to being a successful salesperson, the quality of your sales makes a huge difference to your company’s future.
Here’s why quality over quantity should always be a focus when you’re developing your sales strategy.
Quality over Quantity Meaning
First, let’s define what quality over quantity really means in the sales landscape.
When you first get started in sales, you’ll often be taught that you should always be working to increase your number of leads and conversions. More sales means more profits after all.
The focus on “quantity” simply means you use all of your time trying to convert as many leads as possible, using everything from cold calling and emailing, to direct outreach to add as many people to your customer list as possible.
However, the more time you spend in sales, the more you’ll realize that certain conversions drive better returns in the long-term. Focusing on quality over quantity means you concentrate your best sales efforts on converting the customers most likely to become long-term brand advocates, with a higher lifetime value.
The Benefits of Quality over Quantity in Sales
When you’re focused on quantity in sales, you’re constantly pushing to get as many sales as possible, without thinking about the difference between one lead over another. This could mean you waste time pursuing contacts and prospects who aren’t really going to generate great results for your brand.
Focusing on quality in sales means you can get a better ROI from your sales strategies, because your efforts and resources are focused on finding and converting the most valuable leads.
With a focus on quality over quantity you can:
- Improve your brand’s reputation: Concentrating on quality means taking the time to get to know your target audience, and their needs so you know exactly which customers are going to generate the most revenue for your brand. Getting to know your audience means you can deliver more targeted sales pitches, which gives you a better reputation as a specialist, catering towards a specific niche of customers.
- Sustainable growth: With a focus on quality over quantity, you also spend less time trying to convert any customer, and concentrate more of your efforts on converting the customers who are going to have the highest lifetime value. This means instead of spending an hour converting 10 one-off customers, you’d spend an hour building a relationship with a customer who might buy something from you every month for the next ten years. Long-term relationships allow for more consistent growth.
- Better ROI: As mentioned above, knowing who you need to convert to get the best customer lifetime value and average order value for your business means you’re focusing all of your sales efforts on the most meaningful conversions. You’ll stop wasting resources on trying to cultivate conversions which don’t deliver much to your company’s bottom line. With a focus on quality over quantity, you can increase your profits, while reducing the amount you spend on research, marketing, and sales techniques.
Learning from Quality over Quantity Examples in Sales
Still not sure what it means to prioritize quality over quantity in sales? Let’s take a look at an example. Imagine you were selling software to B2B businesses to help with their accounting issues. If you were to focus on quantity over quality, you would make a plan to reach out to as many potential customers as possible, often without taking the time to qualify your leads.
Alternatively, with a focus on quality over quantity in sales, you would start by:
- Identifying your most valuable prospects: Understanding who your target audience is before you start your sales efforts will save you a lot of time and money when it comes to trying to connect with the right people. You can create buyer personas to guide your sales people, and qualify each lead according to specific standards.
- Communicating with the right contacts: Rather than just reaching out to anyone, you’ll make sure the people you connect with during your sales efforts are most likely to generate results for your campaigns. This means connecting and building relationships with business gatekeepers, as well as C-suite executives and leaders.
- Using your CRM: Using your Customer Relationship Management tools allows you to gather information about your prospect during the buying cycle, and deliver more personalized sales pitches. The focus becomes on building a long-term relationship with the right customers, rather than just trying to get as many quick sales as possible.
With a focus on quality over quantity, you spend more time with the individual prospects who can help to grow your business, building relationships that lead to higher purchases and more value for your company in the long-term.
Should You Be Looking at Quality over Quantity?
While a high number of sales can feel great at first, it’s important to remember that every sale requires a significant amount of investment and effort. Making the most out of your resources means knowing how to distinguish “quality” leads straight away, rather than looking at numbers alone.
