Articles from February 2025

Have you ever heard the phrase, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat”? It’s an old (and kind of gruesome) folksy saying that means there are always multiple solutions to a problem — and when it comes to sales, relationship selling is just one way to meet your goals.

Sure, selling might be more difficult, and your team might also be working with a smaller budget. But if I’ve learned anything from my experiences, it’s that creative, inexpensive solutions to problems, like forming deep relations with your prospects to make a sale, are often the better way to get something done.

In relationship selling, you take the time to foster meaningful relationships with your leads, which benefits both of you in the long term. Instead of selling your product and never contacting the customer again, you stay in touch, giving them personalized recommendations that help them improve the bottom line of their business.

They get to extract value, while you get to exceed quota. In other words, relationship selling is all about being helpful, with the ultimate goal of providing value and retaining the customer.

Recently, I spoke with Chelsea Curtis, Director of Customer Success at Terra Dotta, to glean some tips on how to incorporate relationship selling into your everyday sales processes. With Chelsea’s advice and my tips, you can become a sales pro in no time. Read on.

Table of Contents

• What is relationship selling?
• Relationship Selling Process
• Best Practices for Relationship Selling
• Relationship Selling by Business Type
• Six Examples of Impactful Relationship Selling
• Incorporate Relationship Selling into Your Sales Process

Best Practices for Relationship Selling

In his book Relationship Selling, Jim Cathcart writes, “Relationship selling is a form of selling, not merely a type of relationship. The purpose of it is to help other people at a profit for you. When you are truly helping, you deserve to be well compensated for your product or service.”

I’ve found relationship selling to be an art, but it’s also a skill you can replicate by implementing tips from experts. Recently, I spoke with Chelsea Curtis, Director of Customer Success for Terra Dotta, to talk about best practices for relationship selling. She’s worked in sales for 20 years and has fine-tuned the art of building relationships.

However, she explicitly told me you don’t need 20 years of experience to become a pro at these kinds of sales. Instead, follow these best practices.

1. Embrace your network.

When I talked with Curtis, she pointed out that everyone could be a potential lead for your business — even the people you might not consider as decision makers for a brand. Some people might not be decision makers, but they can introduce you to those who are.

“Every single conversation has value,” she said. “The person you don‘t think is a decision maker? They might help you close a giant deal three years from now at a different company. The person at the front desk who isn’t worth talking to? Talk to them. You‘d be surprised at who they’d be willing to introduce you to — and which desk they may be sitting behind in six months.”

2. Build rapport.

As a former teacher, one of my key classroom skills was building rapport with my students. I’d make a point of spending the first few days of the new school year worrying less about starting the curriculum and instead focusing more on getting to know my students. This helped create deep, meaningful relationships because once I understood where my students were coming from, I could tailor my lessons to meet their needs.

Building rapport is also an essential step in relationship building. Creating connections between the rep and the buyer is emphasized more than the features or price of the offering. To build rapport, sales reps typically practice active listening to uncover prospects’ needs and form a successful relationship. They need to help meet these needs so they can provide value to the customer.

Considering that 72% of sales come from existing customers, it’s best to nurture these relationships for long-term success.

P.S. Looking for data-driven ways to build rapport with prospects and clients? Check out this blog post.

3. Include custom personalization.

To me, it shouldn’t be surprising to learn that 73% of consumers expect in-depth personalization. Personalization is an important facet of relationship-building. If they feel like the experience isn’t personalized, prospects are unlikely to purchase an expensive product. They’ll feel like they’re only part of a transaction and not part of a mutually beneficial relationship.

Source

That’s why you’ll want to steer clear of transactional selling. It’s often quick and not personalized, which is why it’s fallen out of favor at most B2B organizations.

Don’t get me wrong, transactional selling works well for low-cost, commoditized products, where it doesn’t make sense for the rep to invest in getting to know their buyers. For example, the clothing and car industries partake in transactional selling.

Relationship selling is better for businesses where there’s a long sales cycle, and prospects need more touch points before making a purchasing decision. Overall, it’s good for high-cost situations and/or customized solutions, but those aren’t the only scenarios where it applies.

4. Don’t sell (kind of).

When I talked with Curtis, she compared sales to dating. Dating is much easier when you take a laid back approach and create genuine connections before jumping into a serious long-term relationship.

Sales is the same way. She told me,” Like dating, if you approach every date as a potential husband or wife, the date then becomes something filled with pressure, anxiety, and, often, disappointment. Instead, approach the “sale” as you would an interesting person sitting next to you on the bus or at a bar. Find out what motivates them, what challenges they‘re having, and why. It’s a conversation — and usually an interesting one at that. In doing so, you’ll learn a lot more and close much faster.”

5. Check in often.

Just like it was important to check in regularly with my students, checking in frequently with your prospects is key to a relationship staying alive. Staying in touch with future and past customers ensures you’ll be the first person they think of when they need to buy or recommend your product.

Following up is an art, and the frequency you’ll want to check in may vary. I take pride in being nosey because polite nosiness lends well to building relationships. It’s okay to be politely nosey when you check in with your prospects. Ask about what’s happening in their life and share what’s going on in yours.

Connecting on a human level will lead to better communication in the future. Curtis agreed with me on this and said, “Be human. Go see people. It’s so much more fun and so much more effective.”

Curtis is on to something with getting out and meeting in person. 56% of sales reps say in-person meetings are effective. And, for strengthening relationships with your customers, that could mean a simple lunch meeting to check in. By checking in regularly without striking up a conversation about sales, you’re showing that you care about the person (and not just their wallets).

6. Be proactive.

If you’re running a promotion, have a new product, or are hosting a webinar, don’t wait for your prospects and customers to contact you. Proactively let them know of exciting developments at your organization.

In my experience, a little teaser of a new promotion or product release update can create just enough curiosity to draw your prospects to you. Just make sure the news is relevant and meets the needs of your prospects.

If you know their concerns, you can also work with product and marketing to develop solutions that will help them and other customers. Communicate across teams using Hubspot’s Account Based Marketing (ABM) software, so you can track and measure these customer relationships.

7. Do your research.

One of my favorite books is Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. I’m convinced this should be required reading for everyone in business. The principles in his book outline how to make genuine connections, including looking for common ground to connect with your prospect.

That means you might need to do some research to ensure your customers and prospects feel cared for. Before a call or email, be sure to check out their social media accounts to learn more about them. This can help open up meaningful conversations or give you ideas on how to show genuine interest and appreciation for their business.

8. Follow through.

Take it from me: If you want a relationship with your customers to last, you need to put in genuine effort. Being consistent with your actions and following through with your promises helps build your integrity.

When it comes to sales and a prospect trusting a brand with their money, integrity is essential — especially when you consider 28% of prospects back out of a deal because reps haven’t established enough trust.

Curtis gave a valuable piece of advice to protect integrity and gaining trust with your prospects. She said, “Integrity is everything. Guard it and protect it. Follow through when you say you will. Communicate consistently and clearly. Hold yourself accountable. Admit when you‘ve made a mistake. Be generous with your time with those you aren’t selling to.”

Relationship Selling by Business Type

You might think of relationship selling as an enterprise B2B strategy, and that’s certainly not wrong. I think it’s a safe bet to think that any rep working a $50,000+ deal is probably using relationship selling techniques — think a salesperson for sales automation software or a customized HR app.

But, relationship selling also applies to consumer products. How well do you know your tailor? If they’re smart, they’ll develop a personal relationship with you so your loyalty extends beyond their abilities. What about your favorite hairdresser? Mine keeps track of my favorite curly hair products and recommends new ones to try when she finds new products designed for my hair type.

Here are a few more examples where businesses use relationship selling.

Enterprise SaaS Companies

Enterprise SaaS providers (like us!) use relationship selling to sell their suite of products. In the first outreach email, the sales rep typically asks for a quick call, and as the nurturing process progresses, they send links to helpful materials and provide free demos.

These companies use a CRM to keep their prospects’ information on hand. That way, sales reps don’t need to recall customer details from memory, and the relationship develops seamlessly week after week.

Healthcare Providers

Healthcare providers use relationship selling, albeit in a different way than B2B businesses. My endocrinologist keeps notes on my likes, interests, and work history and then finds a way to work it into the conversation before jumping into why I’m visiting his office.

Plus, by keeping your medical information on hand, they can tailor your treatments depending on your needs. Even if you’re serviced by a different staff member, your experience remains consistent during each visit.

Subscription Services

In the B2C space, subscription services such as Spotify and Amazon Prime use deep algorithmic personalization to form a relationship with users. Spotify’s DJ X knows exactly what I need to hear and when I need to hear it. Even if you don’t speak to a salesperson, the platform examines your habits and serves you what you need so that you stay subscribed.

Another example would be Google. Raise your hand if you use Google for the seamless integration between each of its apps and services? My hand is fully in the air. The search engine examines your behavior to deliver personalized content and search results across all of its products.

Local Businesses

Local businesses such as nail salons, coffee shops, bakeries, and tailors (as mentioned above) use relationship selling to keep you coming back. For instance, if you’re a creature of habit like me, your nail tech might automatically reach for your favorite nail polish without thinking about it. They might also remember your name and details of your life to forge a personal connection.

The relationship selling process may look different depending on the industry, but no matter what, it’s composed of similar steps. Let’s take a look below.

Six Examples of Impactful Relationship Selling

1. Provide value and insight in every email and phone call.

To quickly gain credibility and establish yourself as a trusted advisor, the very first thing you should do is provide value and insight to your prospect. That might mean reaching out with some helpful suggestions, sending them links to relevant content, making a valuable introduction, or anything else that benefits them.

I like this approach because instead of waiting to extract a sale, you can be helpful right out of the gate.

2. Learn about your prospect’s challenges, objectives, and professional goals.

Once you’ve gotten their attention and proved you’re worth their time, it’s time to get a nosey. Remember how I mentioned polite nosiness? Dig into their business challenges, objectives, metrics, and qualifying characteristics, along with their personal and professional goals. This information helps you answer two critical questions:

• Can your product help the prospect?
• Do they have the ability to buy it (authority, budget, appropriate timeline, etc.)?

These two questions cover the basics of sales qualification. Aside from ensuring the prospect is a good fit, it also helps you understand whether you can actually create a mutually beneficial relationship with them.

As much as I wish this was the case, not every prospect is your customer. Don’t force the sale with anyone who’s not a good fit. You might be able to convince them to buy, but remember: Relationship selling is about the long term. Your customers will be unhappy once they learn they’ve been misled, and you’ll face cancellations and/or returns rather than glowing reviews, referrals, upgrades, and cross-sales. And I don’t have to tell you what a massive blow that is to your reputation (and revenue!).

3. Give advice that’s tailored to their business objectives.

Going back to my teaching experience and building relationships in the classroom, I’ve found it is helpful to pay close attention to your prospects’ needs. Combining your new knowledge of the buyer with your subject-matter expertise will help you deliver better, more appropriate suggestions. For example, you might prescribe a strategy that’ll address one of their core pain points (and happens to align with your product).

I’ve also found it helpful to back up your recommendations with examples of customers who have been in similar situations. To give you an idea, you might say,

“Customer Y, another company with around [number] of employees in [X space], was facing a similar problem. I advised them to do [such and such]. In [period of time], they saw [quantified results].”

4. Solve for and empathize with your prospect’s objections.

Surfacing and solving your prospect’s blocking points is a necessary part of any sales process. I like to think of it as finding those hidden and not-so-hidden barriers and removing them. There are tons of reasons a buyer might be hesitant to make a purchase.

For example, 34% of buyers just aren’t ready, but that doesn’t mean you can’t convince them.

Source

However, relationship selling calls for a careful approach. You never want to steamroll your clients — that’s guaranteed to turn them against you. Instead, give them ample time to explain themselves. Trust me when I say this: being patient and answering their questions honestly are critical aspects of relationship selling.

If your prospects have a genuine reason to be concerned, don’t ignore that. I guarantee your truthfulness will be more reassuring than a glib response (and will hold up after they get their hands on the product).

To identify the buyer’s worries, I suggest asking questions like:

• “Is there anything stopping you from buying?”

• “What are you anxious about?”

• “What do you wish was different about the product?”

Once they’ve answered, say:

“To make sure we’re on the same page, here’s what I got from that: [Paraphrase their objection]. Is that right? Did I miss anything?”

This proves you’re paying attention and truly care. Then show empathy with something along the lines of, “I hear what you’re saying, and that completely makes sense. Can I ask a few follow-up questions?”

Dig into the prospect’s objection to make sure you fully understand.

Finally, it’s time to respond. Don’t be combative — you and your prospect are on the same team.

5. Find a win-win solution to the prospect’s objections.

Many salespeople treat the negotiation like a zero-sum game. In other words, if the buyer wins, they lose, and vice versa. This mentality erodes trust and forces your negotiation partner to act selfishly. Plus, if they walk away feeling like you’ve taken advantage of them, your long-term relationship is doomed.

My solution? Change your thinking and act like a win for your prospect is a win for you. Together, you’re trying to find the best possible outcome.

To successfully respond to the prospect’s objections, here are my tips:

• Come prepared with several concessions you’re willing to make (like extra implementation help, better payment terms, the option to call you at any time for help, and so on).
• Proactively extend these compromises to show your prospect you’re on their side and make them more likely to extend concessions of their own.

6. Keep providing value after the closed-won deal.

Personally, I’ve never been a fan of a salesperson who disappears after the deal is done, especially if the purchase is a big one. For relationship selling to work, don’t disappear from the customer’s life as soon as they sign the contract — unless you want them to assume you’re only interested in their checkbook and not their success.

Instead, look for reasons to reach out every few months or every quarter, such as:

• An e-book, article, podcast, or other resources they’d be interested in.
• A company event you’d like to invite them to.
• A LinkedIn Pulse or blog post you’d like to feature them in.
• A follow-up to see how they like the product and if they have any questions or concerns.
• A “Congrats!” on a recent company or personal accomplishment.
• A “Happy Holidays” note.

Staying on their radar deepens the relationship and increases the likelihood they’ll stay a customer. And if they’re a big account and you have the budget, you may want to go even further:

• Take them out to dinner or a fun outing.
• Schedule a yearly, biannual, or quarterly account review.
• Send them tickets to a local performance.
• Invite them to tour your office.
• Coordinate a meeting between one of their executives and yours.

Incorporate Relationship Selling into Your Sales Process

Truthfully, I think the main principle of relationship selling is simple: Always think about the long-term impact of your actions. Here are several ways you can incorporate relationship-selling techniques into your sales process.

1. Be honest with your customers at all times.

I have always said honesty is the best policy — and that goes for business and sales, too. Dishonesty is kryptonite to business relationships. Make sure you’re never misleading your customers, either by giving them false information or withholding crucial details. You’ll earn their respect by telling them something isn’t right before they find out for themselves.

2. Consistently check in with your contacts and customers.

Be a continued presence for your clients. Interact with them on social media, send them value-added emails, and pay attention to the details of their personal lives so you can ask about their kids, past times, goals, etc.

3. Exceed your contact’s expectations.

If you want to secure someone’s loyalty, blow past their expectations. To give you an idea, perhaps you told your contact you’d get them tickets to your annual industry event. And you do — but in addition to the tickets, you also arrange a private meet-and-greet with a speaker you know they look up to.

This extra surprise will exceed their expectations, and I guarantee this small act will bring them back to your brand time and time again.

4. Follow through on your commitments.

I know it sounds simple, but do your best to meet every due date and commitment. Maybe you said you’d send an email connecting them to your contact by Friday. It’s 6 p.m., and you know they’re not checking their inbox until Sunday morning — but that doesn’t mean you can wait. Every time you keep your word, you bolster your trustworthiness.

5. Provide exclusive perks.

Make your customers feel good. Tell them you’re grateful for their business, ask what you can do to make them happy, give them discounts, and, if possible, send them swag. Everyone loves being treated like they’re special.

Relationship Selling is the Better Way to Sell

If you’re like me and you’re not a natural salesman, sales can be tough. However, it’s important to remember that a sale isn’t a one-time transaction, but a relationship lasts long after the prospect signs on the dotted line.

With these techniques, you’ll build relationships with your customers that’ll allow you to cross-sell and upsell later without sacrificing the relationship. As a result, you’ll bring in more revenue, exceed quota, and shine as a top performer in your sales team.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published on December 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Whether you recognized it as a direct sale or not, you’ve almost certainly encountered people who engage in the practice. Maybe it was a door-to-door knife salesperson, a family member selling cosmetics, or Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite at your door, offering model ships to help hawk plastic dinnerware.

In any case, direct sales is an immediately personal type of selling that requires an entrepreneurial spirit and initiative. It can be lucrative and rewarding, but I think there’s a lot to know if you’re considering pursuing it.

In this article, I’ll give you perspective on what direct sales is, a few different subcategories, and key tips on how to do it right.

Table of Contents

• What is direct sales?
• Types of Direct Selling
• Direct Sales Examples
• Direct Sales Tips

What is direct sales?

Direct sales is the practice of selling a product or service directly to customers without intermediaries. That means a company engaging in direct sales will have its own internal sales team responsible for generating, contacting, and nurturing leads through to a closed deal.

How does direct selling work?

Direct sales is common in a huge range of industries from herbal supplements to enterprise software, and while there are a few different methods of direct selling I’ll touch on below, what they have in common is that they happen outside a traditional retail environment — for example, at your front door, on a Zoom call, or at a friend’s house.

Different methods come with their own advantages and disadvantages for the salesperson, but let’s quickly establish why a company would pursue the direct sales route over channel sales.

Direct Sales vs. Channel Sales

Direct sales stand in contrast to channel sales, which generally involve one or more intermediary transactions before a customer buys. For example, many manufacturing companies sell to wholesalers, who then sell to retailers, who finally sell a product to an end user.

I was surprised to find out that channel sales account for some 75% of the world’s commerce — so why is the remaining 25% holding out?

The main advantage of direct sales is the control it offers. Companies selling direct have complete control over their marketing, pricing, positioning, and more. They’re also able to establish and maintain valuable relationships with their audience, which isn’t always possible or practical when selling to intermediaries.

A direct sales situation also allows the seller to capture more of the profit from each sale made instead of sharing it with wholesalers, retailers, and anyone else who touches the product on its way from creation to distribution to the end-user.

Of course, the advantages come at a cost, and the direct seller will need a way to market to prospects and amass an audience, build the sales infrastructure and team to get in front of that audience with a pitch, and offer post-sale support to consumers who have questions, run into issues, want to warranty products, and more.

If you’ve weighed the pros and cons and you’re set on the direct sales approach, here are a few of the ways your company can go about getting in front of customers to make your pitch.

Types of Direct Selling

1. Direct-to-Consumer (D2C)

In direct-to-consumer sales, a business sells directly to the end user without intermediaries. In ecommerce, for example, this would be a sale of the company’s own products made on the company’s own website instead of through an intermediary like Amazon. Brands with physical storefronts also sell their products directly to consumers.

Best for: Products with tighter margins that make it difficult for manufacturers to thrive after losing profit to the additional touchpoints of a channel sales approach.

2. Single-Level Selling

Single-level direct sales are performed primarily through one-on-one meetings between salespeople and prospects. This type of direct sales can be conducted through mediums like in-person pitches, over the phone, via catalogs, or online.

Single-level selling often has a straightforward commission structure. The companies supporting these kinds of sales offer commission for each sale and might have other incentives available for meeting specific goals or quotas.

My own role in sales falls in this category, and although motivated sellers can be successful with many different approaches, I personally think single-level selling is the sweet spot for many salespeople.

Best for: Very expensive or complex products that require expert knowledge or a consultative sales approach. A single-level sale can happen in one meeting, but it could also have a longer sales cycle involving numerous meetings with a variety of stakeholders.

3. Host Selling

Host selling is generally conducted in a group setting — often through a party or event dedicated to pitching a specific offering. It usually entails a direct salesperson presenting to prospects in someone’s home or office.

Best for: Host selling is ideal for products where quality is somewhat subjective, or those that need to be tried (such as a fragrance) before a prospect wants to commit to a purchase. Ever tried to convey a scent on a website? Host selling is also a good fit for any product that’s more compelling with an in-person demonstration, since these demos are often difficult to replicate for digital consumption.

4. Multi-Level Marketing

Multi-level marketing (MLM) is a mode of direct sales that can encompass aspects of single-level and party-plan sales, but the practice contains a recruitment element not generally associated with the other two.

I sometimes conflate MLM operations with illegal pyramid schemes, but in pyramid schemes, payment is based solely on a recruit’s ability to recruit other reps instead of actually selling a product.

In MLM, representatives sell products while recruiting and training other representatives. Once the recruited reps start selling products, their recruiters earn a partial commission for their efforts — all on top of the commission those original reps earn through their own sales.

Most multi-level marketing operations are legitimate and are distinguished from pyramid schemes in three ways: the product is legitimate and of high quality, the income reps earn comes from sales and recruitment instead of just recruitment, and recruitment isn’t billed or pushed as the primary focus of the operation.

Best for: The MLM model makes the most sense when a company needs to attract part-time sellers who may only have a few hours per week to sell. It also helps tap into the network effect, and MLM can scale a well-received company quickly.

Direct Sales Examples

So what do the four direct sales methods above look like in the real world? Let’s check out some companies swimming against the channel sales mainstream with a direct sales model.

D2C: Canyon Bikes

If you’ve ever been to a bike shop, you’ve probably come across models from Giant, Specialized, and Trek that use channel sales — but a few brands are seeing success with the direct-to-consumer model. Canyon Bikes is one company leading the charge, selling products straight to the end user and promising better value by cutting out the retail middleman.

Single-Level Selling: CutCo

CutCo (and its controversial parent organization, Vector Marketing) is a well-known brand that relies on single-level selling. Instead of recruiting other reps for downline commissions, CutCo salespeople are exclusively compensated through their own sales.

Host Selling: Tupperware

This form of direct selling was popularized by brands like Tupperware, whose direct sales reps held “Tupperware Parties” to show off the brand’s products to friends and family. Mary Kay is another company that’s famous for its effective use of the host selling practice to leverage the social networks of its sellers.

MLM: Avon

Avon is one of the most recognizable examples of MLM direct selling. It operates through a network of individual representatives responsible for selling directly to consumers and who receive a commission for each sale. They travel and make in-person connections that drive sales, and they also earn a commission for recruiting more direct sales representatives for the company.

Direct Sales Tips

Looking to make a living in direct sales? Here are a few tips I’ve gleaned from more than a decade of experience in the space.

1. Understand your product and its value proposition.

I know this point is key in any type of sales, but it’s particularly important in direct sales. Because you’re immediately interfacing with customers, you generally won’t have a lot of time to refer to other materials to help you clear things up or better convey your points.

Know your product front to back, so you can answer any questions or concerns that might arise as you learn more about the prospect and make your pitch. You also have to pinpoint and reliably articulate your product’s value proposition. It’s easy to drone on about all your product’s awesome features — it’s harder to translate that information into concrete benefits for your prospect’s specific needs.

If you want to thrive in direct selling, it’s important to both show and tell. Some questions I recommend asking yourself as you prepare are:

• What problem will your product address?
• Why is that problem important?
• How will your product address that problem better than comparable offerings from your competitors?

2. Sincerely believe in your product.

In my opinion, this is the most important tip for success in sales — and that’s especially true in direct sales. In direct sales, you’re interacting with your customers, and humans are very good at spotting insincerity. If you actually believe in the value of what you’re selling, you’ll be much better at conveying that value in a way that resonates with people. Don’t believe in what you’re selling? I strongly believe you should jump ship and find something to sell that you can get behind.

Not to belabor the point, but success in direct sales is often dependent on your own personal initiative and aspiration. You’re taking it upon yourself to learn a product and connect with prospects, and it’s a lot harder to do all that when you don’t care about what you’re selling. By contrast, if I use the product I’m selling and genuinely believe my prospects can get a lot out of it, I’ll be in a better position to close a direct sale.

3. Understand your company and your role within it.

Familiarize yourself with every aspect of the industry you’re in and the company you’re working for. Know the policies and procedures that dictate what you can and cannot say or do when conducting sales. For instance, your company might not allow you to set up your own independent consultant website, or they might have specific protocols for how you should market.

Beyond the nuts and bolts of how your company wants you to operate, you also need to understand what you can expect to receive for your efforts. Take the time to comb through your company’s compensation plan. Get a feel for any products that are particularly profitable and, as a result, worth more attention and effort on your part.

If you want to get the most out of a direct-selling gig, you need to understand the rules of the game. Comb through the fine print to make sure you know how and where to best allocate your effort and what you can expect in return.

4. Maintain contact with your prospects.

Direct sales are inherently personal. It’s based on immediate engagements with potential customers. If you want to effectively convey your value proposition as a direct salesperson, your prospects will need a front-row seat, so I’d suggest setting in-person or virtual appointments.

Lock down potential customers’ time and try to keep a full calendar — no matter how you conduct your presentations. Whether you’re reaching customers online, over the phone, or in person, always block out time for your prospects and try to hold them to those arrangements.

Once you’ve conducted your meetings and nailed your pitch, follow up with your prospects and stay in touch. I can’t stress enough that getting a “no” doesn’t necessarily mean getting a “no, never.” It just means that now isn’t the right time. Ask your prospect if you can follow up with them down the road, and make sure you do it.

5. Keep your eyes on the prize and remain persistent.

Direct sales isn’t a cakewalk. It’s a pretty personal brand of sales, so it’s hard not to take rejection personally. But nothing good comes easy, and that’s especially true in direct sales.

You’ll need to stay persistent to succeed in the direct sales world, and I can guarantee you it won’t always be comfortable or straightforward. But if you keep your head down, consistently learn, and constantly improve, you’ll be in the best possible position to get the most out of it.

6. Prioritize relationship building.

The last tip I’ll give aspiring direct salespeople is to be an expert at establishing relationships. Build rapport and engage in deep conversation with a prospect to learn about them and their pain points. This makes it easier to tailor your value proposition to their specific needs.

The most effective strategies for building rapport when selling are being attentive and engaged, staying positive, and finding common ground — try it out!

Dealing Direct

Channel sales might have a bigger share of the global market, but direct sales is still around for a reason. With greater control for the company and the chance for determined and knowledgeable sellers to interact directly with prospects, a direct sales approach offers advantages that make it a compelling option in the right scenario.

If you’re interested in selling your product direct or pursuing a career in direct sales, I hope the tips above help you find success.

I’ve run a freelance business for the better part of the last decade, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the business world is always in motion.

Every year, trends evolve, technologies emerge, and customer expectations shift, all shaping how we work, innovate, and connect with customers. I’ve had to adapt constantly — learning new skills, exploring tools, and rethinking strategies to stay competitive.

While some shifts are seismic, like the way the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to rethink the ways we showed up for work, some other shifts are more subtle, gradually altering the landscape until they become impossible to ignore. Take, for example, how subscription-based business models have gradually become the stock in trade for businesses across service and goods industries.

Now, 2025 will not be any different. In this article, I’ll explore the key trends that are set to define the entrepreneurial landscape this year. From the growing focus on green technology to the rise of hybrid work models, understanding these shifts will help entrepreneurs stay relevant and thrive in this ever-evolving economy.

Entrepreneurship Trends for 2025

1. Continued Focus on Green Technology and Sustainability

The way customers define value for money has shifted from what it used to be. It has ceased being just about delivering a satisfactory good or service. Customers now care if the entire production process was conducted ethically, sustainably, and with minimal (preferably zero) environmental impact.

This is especially true among younger generations like Gen Z and Millennials, who are more willing to spend on brands that prioritize sustainability. What’s more? They don’t mind if they have to pay extra for it.

A 2024 PwC survey found that despite the inflation and rising cost of living, customers will still spend 9.7% more, on average, for sustainably produced or sourced goods. As an industry, green technology is also booming, with 72% of investors reporting that investments in energy transition assets is accelerating across sectors. Investors and business leaders are taking note, and this is why green technology is emerging as a dominant trend in 2025.

As the International Energy Agency’s Executive Director Fatih Birol aptly stated during the launch of the Energy Technology Perspectives 2024, “The market for clean technologies is set to multiply in value in the coming decade, increasingly catching up with the markets for fossil fuels. Clean energy transitions present a major economic opportunity.”

For entrepreneurs, I believe this is more than a trend — it’s a call to action. In 2025 and beyond, sustainability isn’t just a preference but a prerequisite for success.

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2. More Small Businesses Embracing AI

I’m not entirely sure why, but there’s something about enterprise AI that seems to make smaller companies hesitant. Maybe it’s the perception that implementing AI comes with a hefty price tag and advanced technical expertise that only large corporations can afford.

I would hesitate too, if I didn’t know how accessible AI has become for businesses of all sizes. The advancements in AI are breaking down barriers, enabling businesses with smaller technology budgets to enhance their efficiency and competitiveness.

According to recent Salesforce research, 91% of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) using AI report increased revenue. Among growing businesses, AI adoption is even more pronounced, with 83% already employing it, and 78% planning to increase their investment in AI this year.

“AI is leveling the playing field between SMBs and larger enterprises,” says Kris Billmaier, Executive Vice President at Salesforce. “Small and medium-sized businesses using AI see real returns across their operations, from improved efficiency to stronger customer relationships. Those who wait too long to invest risk falling behind as early adopters build their advantage.”

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I believe the message is clear for SMBs. AI is a game changer that is well within reach. To get started, here are some of the AI tools I recommend for small businesses.

3. Emphasis on Data Accuracy and Cleanliness

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Every year, Gartner estimates that poor data quality costs organizations an average of $12.9 million and most organizations do not even know how much bad data costs their businesses because they did not measure it in the first place. I think this figure underscores a trend that will be relevant in 2025 — a sharp focus on data accuracy and cleanliness. For businesses leveraging AI, the stakes are even higher. AI systems thrive on accurate, well-structured information, making clean data an indispensable resource for driving innovation and competitiveness.

On the other hand, entrepreneurs aiming to address these challenges also have a significant opportunity to make an impact in this space. Solutions focused on data cleansing and structuring will lead the pack by enabling organizations to make informed, reliable decisions.

In an interview with Entrepreneur, Alex Naughton, CEO and co-founder of Qlarifi, confirms this. “While artificial intelligence applications have exploded, they are only as effective as the data they are built on. Many large enterprises face a significant transitional challenge when it comes to cleaning up and structuring their data. By prioritizing clean, reliable, and well-aggregated data, [companies like Qlarifi] enable [their] partners to make smarter decisions and unlock the full potential of AI-powered insights.”

4. Increased Focus on Customer Service Quality and Customer Feedback

Good customer service has never not been important. But in 2025, it would be even more relevant. Why? Customers now expect faster, more personalized, and seamless interactions. A 2024 Salesforce report found that 89% of customers believe the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services.

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Then, there’s technology enhancing service delivery. For example, companies using AI for customer service save 45% of time spent on calls, resolve issues 44% faster, and experience a 35% increase in the quality of support.

Our 2024 State of Entrepreneurship report also shows that the majority of entrepreneurs are familiar with software solutions that help them manage routine tasks. HubSpot’s CRM, for instance, helps businesses organize, track, and build better relationships with leads and customers, showcasing how technology empowers smaller enterprises to meet growing expectations.

Additionally, high-quality service gives businesses a competitive edge, in my experience. Given that 76% of customers will switch to a competitor after at least one poor service experience, companies that invest in training, technology, and omnichannel strategies to improve their customer support are more likely to retain loyal customers and attract new ones through positive word-of-mouth.

In the same vein, I’ve seen that actively seeking and incorporating customer feedback has become crucial for businesses aiming to enhance their offerings and customer satisfaction. Sometimes, all it takes to make some extra sales is one viral social media post from a very satisfied customer.

Moreover, products with customer reviews are 270% more likely to be purchased than those without. On that note, here is how to get started on using customer feedback the right way.

In 2025, it doesn’t matter how great your offering is. Customers are saying that it has to be delivered with a white glove, the type that inspires the word-of-mouth advocacy that your business needs to build a stronger customer base.

5. Hybrid Work Becoming More Popular

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of remote work, a trend that shows no sign of reversing. As a freelance business owner, I have experienced the pros and cons of remote work myself. While I enjoy the flexibility, staying connected with a team isn’t always easy. Now, businesses are embracing hybrid models, combining in-office and remote work to offer employees the best of both worlds.

Hybrid work models have gained significant traction, with 64% of companies globally adopting this approach, while only 22% work full-time from the office. This shift reflects a clear preference for flexibility and balance in work arrangements. And the benefits speak for themselves.

Research shows that employees doing hybrid work are just as productive and as likely to be promoted as their fully office-based colleagues. They’re also less likely to resign (resignations fell by 33% among employees who transitioned from fully office-based to a hybrid schedule).

In fact, according to our 2024 State of Entrepreneurship report, most business owners started their business because they wanted out of traditional 9-5 work schedules.

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“The results are clear: Hybrid work is a win-win-win for employee productivity, performance, and retention. If managed right, letting employees work from home two or three days a week still gets you the level of mentoring, culture-building, and innovation that you want,” says Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford economist and one of the foremost researchers on work-from-home policies.

“From an economic policymaking standpoint, hybrid work is one of the few instances where there aren’t major trade-offs with clear winners and clear losers. There are almost always only winners.”

As this trend continues, entrepreneurs must adapt to optimize productivity and maintain strong team dynamics.

Preparing for Times Ahead

More than ever before, entrepreneurs have unprecedented opportunities to innovate and forge meaningful connections with their target audiences. In this era of rapid transformation, the ability to unlearn, learn, and relearn has never been more essential.

But I’ve found success in this new era demands adaptability, empathy, and a willingness to embrace change. Businesses that rise to the occasion will not only thrive but also set a new standard for what it means to deliver value in the 21st century.

I’d love to know how many features, products, and even entire companies have been built around an idea that later proved to be unfeasible. Something many of these ventures no doubt have in common is that they failed to accurately assess sales potential early and then reassess it as time went on.

Here’s a story from a previous role you might be able to relate to. After a few months of hard work, the product and dev teams built and shipped a nice new feature of our software that quite a few customers said they wanted. When it failed to generate additional revenue for the business, they marched up to the sales and marketing teams to find out why.

Ultimately, it turned out that the feature had very low sales potential. Some of our existing customers adopted it and had good results, but it was a want instead of a need in the market, and it didn’t convince any additional prospects to abandon their alternative solutions.

What’s the moral here? Sales potential should guide decisions — not company hierarchies, clamoring customers, or charismatic consultants.

Table of Contents

• What is sales potential?
• Sales Potential Use Cases
• Sales Potential Benefits
• How to Calculate Sales Potential
• Example of Sales Potential
• Don’t Skip Sales Potential

What is sales potential?

Sales potential is the theoretical maximum revenue a company can achieve within a specific market and over a defined duration, taking into account factors like buyer needs, budgets, market trends, and competitive positioning.

Sales potential can be confused for market potential, so I think it’s important to understand the difference between the two. As I stated above, sales potential shows the maximum amount of sales a company can bring in factoring all potential buyers within their specific product category. Market potential factors in the total sales potential of all competitors within a specific market.

Essentially, sales potential occurs at the company and product level, and market potential occurs at the broad product market level. Knowing your company’s sales potential will inform a wide variety of decisions I’ll touch on next.

Sales Potential Use Cases

1. Identify Promising Markets

If you’re reading this blog, your job is probably to sell — and you might even be allocated a specific location in which to do it. If you aren’t assigned a territory, however, deciding where to focus your limited efforts can be a daunting task.

With a good understanding of sales potential, however, you can identify untapped or undersold markets where the demand for your product or service will generally be higher.

When I was selling software to digital marketing agencies, I had better “luck” after identifying three specific regions with a relatively high concentration of our ICPs where we nonetheless had few customers. By acting on this unrealized sales potential, I was able to enjoy a higher close rate without making any other changes to the sales process.

2. Prioritize New Products

Particularly in the software space, customers will always be clamoring for one feature or another. While there’s an understandable tendency to prioritize development for your highest-grossing customers or oldest accounts, I would argue that sales potential is a much more important metric to consider.

If you have 10 current customers who would double their spending for feature A, but your best customer is asking for feature B, deciding what to build is actually a relatively simple matter. Will twice as much revenue from your 10 customers offset the loss on the off chance your best account leaves? If so, feature A has a greater sales potential, and it should be prioritized.

Of course there are other considerations here, but sales potential should hold significant weight as you plan your roadmap.

3. Establish Sales Quotas

Too many sales leaders create quotas as if their competitors don’t exist. And yet, there’s a big difference between motivating people and working them to the bone with unachievable targets. To establish realistic quotas, look at the entire sales potential of a region and then consider your company’s share of the market.

You’re looking to win market share from your competitors, and a quota is a tool to do that — not an excuse to pretend you’re a monopoly. Use sales potential to align the incentives of your salespeople with realistic desired outcomes, and you’ll enjoy better retention and more sustainable long-term growth.

4. Perform Competitive Analysis

Once you have a good grasp on the total sales potential of a region, looking at your own revenue generation in the area can help you arrive at a measure of your current market share. Knowing how much of the pie you’re winning can inform all types of strategies to help you expand.

When my software company noticed our market share in a specific region was slipping below our typical threshold, we found an emerging competitor with a primary differentiating feature. By fast-tracking a similar feature for our own users, we were able to effectively stop the bleeding and focus on winning back the market in the area.

5. Forecast Revenue Accurately

All of the above use cases of sales potential combine to help you perform another key function: produce accurate revenue forecasts. By understanding new and emerging markets, bringing prioritization to the chaos in your product roadmap, establishing accurate quotas, and conducting a competitive analysis, you’ve covered a lot of the key bases involved in building a reliable revenue forecast.

Revenue forecasts are involved in a multitude of big decisions company-wide, but they’re most relevant to me for hiring purposes. In my experience, the scariest part of expanding your team is feeling responsible for other people and their livelihoods. When I’m confident in the company’s revenue forecast, I find it easier to overcome that fear and seize potential growth opportunities with new hires instead of waiting until the existing team is unable to keep up with the workload.

Sales Potential Benefits

With a well-defined notion of your sales potential, you’ll enjoy a wide variety of benefits, including the following.

Better ROI

When you have a good idea of sales potential, you can concentrate your limited resources in areas that have the best return for your business.

For example, a well-defined sales potential can show you when a given product has reached a market saturation point. While you could expand your sales team and fight hard to earn incrementally greater shares of the market, you’re likely to see a better return by investing in features to reach new customers and unlock a greater sales potential.

Research published in Harvard Business Review found that, particularly for highly digitized companies (most of them these days), market share increases don’t necessarily hold the profitability increases they used to when efficiencies of scale were more dramatic.

Minimized Risk

Expanding or establishing a presence in any market carries a certain amount of risk, but you can mitigate that risk by understanding sales potential. With knowledge of how much revenue a product can realistically generate and an understanding of the margins you need to achieve to make a go-to-market effort worthwhile, you’ll be able to make a more informed decision about how much you can realistically invest to enter a market or strengthen your position in one.

Investor Attention

Not all companies want or need outside capital, but a decade-long study from Global Corporate Venturing found that a corporate investor cuts the failure rate of a startup in half and increases the exit multiple it can expect to achieve through either acquisition or IPO.

One thing investors will need to see before writing a check? Sales potential. Your business needs to have a sales potential that’s commensurate with the funding you’re hoping to raise, whether that’s five figures for a niche, localized business or millions for a startup aspiring for hyper growth.

How to Calculate Sales Potential

Hopefully, by now, you’ve bought into the importance of sales potential, so let’s turn our focus to calculating it. The most basic sales potential formula looks at the number of potential customers available and multiples it by your unit price.

Of course, there are more complex scenarios to consider, so I’ll go over some of the different values you can arrive at when investigating sales potential.

1. Market Penetration

First, take a look at your current customer base and then divide it by the total number of potential buyers available. If you want to calculate market penetration for a specific area or demographic, look at customers that fit the given mold and divide by all the unconverted prospects out there who look alike. This practice will give you a rough indication of how much of a given market you’ve been able to capture.

If the resulting value is low, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It could even mean your company has the potential to tap into a large base of buyers who could be a good fit for your product but haven’t made a purchase yet.

If this value is high, you’ve saturated your target market. It’s a sign of competitive dominance, but it may also indicate a good time to introduce other offerings or focus on the upsell to keep buyers engaged.

2. Quantified Purchasing Capacity

What is the maximum number of purchases a customer can make from your company in one year? The answer is known as the quantified purchasing capacity for your business.

For example, let’s say I work for a supplement company that offers powdered drink supplements. I offer three main products: a morning drink, an afternoon drink, and an evening drink. Each of the products comes with 30 days worth of servings, and when taken as intended, customers would take one serving of each drink each day.

To take all three of my supplements for a year, a customer would purchase three drink canisters per month times 12 months out of the year — yielding my quantified purchasing capacity of 36 units per year. If each product costs $30 per unit and customers buy 36 units per year, my beverage company can anticipate bringing in as much as $1,080 per customer each year.

Now, I’d look at this figure and compare it to the average purchase my customers make. If I find my average customer purchases just one drink canister per month, I can adjust my sales forecast to account for the typical purchasing habits.

To bring in more revenue, I might focus my sales strategy on encouraging existing customers to purchase the entire product line. This initiative offers a way to boost overall sales without having to go out and capture new customers.

3. Competitor Growth Rate

As you do the necessary research to understand your company’s sales potential, you should take into account the growth rates of your competitors. If other players in the market experienced significant growth in a specific product category, their trajectory can provide important information about the consumers you have in common and the potential sales that could be achieved.

If your growth rates are lagging far behind your competitors, that could be an indication that your company has internal issues that need to be addressed in order to reach greater sales potential.

Example of Sales Potential

Now, let’s walk through a more in-depth example of sales potential for a fictional company called BossCo.

BossCo is a company that creates business management software for creative entrepreneurs. This company offers annual and monthly plans for their signature platform with additional upgrades and integrations customers can purchase to help the software work smoothly and efficiently with other systems.

When looking to understand their sales potential, BossCo factors in the following pieces of data:

• Seasonality. They notice their subscriber base goes up in the fall and drops in the summer.
• Existing customer data. The average BossCo customer is subscribed to their monthly software subscription and has purchased one out of five possible upgrades.
• Competitor analysis. BossCo currently has one main competitor who has a hold on equal market share, and is growing at a similar rate.
• Market demographics. BossCo commissioned a study of 1,000 small business owners in their target market and found only 15% of those surveyed use a platform to oversee and automate business management tasks.

With this data in mind, the BossCo team now understands the needs and habits of their customer base and is relieved to not be behind the growth curve of their main competitor.

With only 15% of their target demographic currently using the type of software they offer, with roughly half of them likely being BossCo customers, BossCo’s team can infer they have tapped into about 7.5% of their target market with room to grow as they expand their offerings and customer base.

To tap into a greater share of the market, BossCo might conduct more research on the 85% of survey respondents who aren’t using business management software and implement sales tactics to win over these potential buyers and increase market share.

Don’t Skip Sales Potential

I’ve seen companies opt not to bother with sales potential, thinking it’s an unnecessary metric when the goal will always be to sell “as much as possible.” Unfortunately, those organizations end up missing out on a critical calculation that informs decisions well beyond the sales department.

Whether you have the resources to devote to a more sophisticated measure of sales potential or all you can muster is a Google Sheet based on some educated assumptions, I think taking the time to quantify this figure pays off pretty quickly when it yields a clearer roadmap, smarter asset allocation, and an informative competitive analysis of the market.

And if that analysis shows that you’re leaving sales on the table, download this free Close Rate Calculator to see where you’re losing your prospects and how you can bring home a bigger slice of the pie.

Have you ever wondered how businesses avoid buying too much or not enough inventory? I have, and my curiosity was enough to make me look into how businesses use inventory forecasting to predict demand without incurring the costs of unsold products.

Typically, when I’m thinking about something, you can find me Googling it in the middle of the night. As it turns out, there’s a whole industry behind predicting inventory needs. It involves carefully studying past trends, customer data, and other factors to help business owners make the best decisions when purchasing and storing stock.

Instead of spending the rest of the night searching for answers, I went straight to a reliable source. Recently, I sat down with Mark Zalzal, a senior data analyst, to better understand how to forecast inventory. Here’s what I learned.

Table of Contents

• What Is Inventory Forecasting?
• The Benefits of Inventory Forecasting
• Inventory Forecasting Formula
• What I Learned About Inventory Forecasting Methods

What Is Inventory Forecasting?

Inventory forecasting uses data and analytics to predict trends in inventory movement. Although it goes hand in hand, inventory forecasting isn’t exactly sales forecasting, and it isn’t meant to give sales projections.

Instead, it’s used to help companies better plan their inventory management strategy based on historical trends and data, like how much product they should have on their shelves at any given time.

I asked Zalzal for his insights into inventory forecasting, and he told me that it plays a huge role in demand planning.

“You need to know how much you’re going to sell in the next couple of months,” he said. “Then you can go back down and look at your inventory and understand what you’re going to sell and how much inventory you need to make sure to fulfill those sales.”

How Businesses Can Use Inventory Forecasting

Trust me, your company doesn’t want to be known as a brand that can’t keep products in stock. When inventory levels drop, you risk losing loyal customers to other brands that have better inventory management.

One reason your company might struggle with low inventory is vendor delivery times. 72% of small and medium-sized businesses struggle with inconsistent delivery times, especially if they’re sourcing their inventory from vendors overseas. Inventory forecasting can help reduce this problem by giving businesses a better understanding of when they should re-order their products to stay ahead of product demand.

Zalzal told me demand planning and inventory forecasting are also especially important for companies that sell products with expiration dates. You don’t want to purchase an overabundance of a product with an expiration date only to have it expire while sitting on your warehouse shelves — talk about a loss in profit margins.

AI and Inventory Forecasting

I know enough about AI to know that it can be incorporated into nearly every aspect of business operations. And, as it turns out, AI is convenient for inventory management and forecasting, too.

According to Mark, using AI when forecasting can help companies make better, more accurate predictions. The better your predictions are, the better your inventory management will be. Mark mentioned that you can do inventory forecasting manually using tools like Excel. However, your margin of error will likely be higher, which could lead to unexpected surprises later.

AI uses machine learning to make predictions based on historical data. However, unlike Excel, machine learning can make predictions based on variables that might not be included in the historical data.

For example, let’s say your company sells live Christmas trees, and you know that demand will increase in mid-November. Theoretically, you can use your past data to help you understand how many trees you should order and when. But if you use an AI model, you can factor in other variables, like the weather, to better understand when you should place your order to avoid transportation delays within the supply chain.

The Drawback of AI Inventory Forecasting

Although AI inventory forecasting can help you make better, more informed decisions for inventory management, there is still a significant drawback. Only 23% of small and medium-sized businesses use AI in their forecasting efforts. Most companies say they are concerned about data security and integrity.

Since Mark is a data scientist and a big fan of AI, I asked him for his thoughts on this. Zalzal confirmed that security breaches are a big concern for companies since most businesses work with private and sensitive data. AI tools work by storing massive amounts of data in warehouses. However, if those warehouses are hacked, sensitive data can become public information.

Although this is a concern, Zalzal said there are things you can do as a company to ensure your data is protected. He mentioned there are certifications you should look out for, like certification of SCO2 compliance, and that AI software companies must undergo compliance audits similar to audits in the financial industry. These cybersecurity audits ensure AI companies meet federal regulations to protect and manage your data.

The Benefits of Inventory Forecasting

There are plenty of benefits from inventory forecasting, whether you use an Excel spreadsheet or an AI tool. Let’s take a look at them.

1. Improves Accuracy

One of the biggest benefits of inventory forecasting is improving order accuracy. With forecasting, you get a better idea of how much inventory you should purchase, when you should buy it, and how much time you’ll need to move your product. The more accurate your predictions are, the less likely you’ll lose revenue.

Zalzal had some thoughts to add to this.“If you can predict accurately what you‘re going to sell by item and take everything into account, like your marketing efforts and your seasonality, and actions that the company does, that’s definitely going to translate to better inventory management,” he explained.

2. Reduces Over or Understocking

As Zalzal told me, “The more accurate the models are, the better you‘re going to stock up and the less waste you’re going to have.”

When your predictions are more accurate, you can purchase only the necessary items. This means you’re reducing the risk of having too much or too little inventory and maintaining only the optimal stock levels.

3. Increases Customer Satisfaction

I know I’m not the only one who gets a little disappointed when my favorite company is out of stock of something I want to buy. When this happens, I usually go to Google to find a brand with the item in stock.

Don’t let low stock cause you to lose customers. Inventory forecasting can help you maintain your stock levels, keeping your loyal customers happy and satisfied with your product selection.

4. Saves Costs

It helps to know when certain products might become popular and how quickly you’ll sell through your stock. By purchasing the appropriate amount of inventory — no more than what you need — you can reduce the amount of money you’ll pay in storage and holding costs and stretch your budget just a bit farther.

Plus, the longer your products sit on the warehouse shelves, the more money you’ll lose. With an estimated 8% of surplus stock worldwide going to waste, businesses lose $163 billion in inventory each year.

Inventory forecasting can help save your business money and reduce error margins.

5. Supports Demand Forecasting

As Zalzal told me, inventory forecasting is the foundation for demand forecasting. When you factor in supply, demand, other variables, and historical data and trends, you can make educated predictions about future sales and how quickly your inventory will dwindle.

6. Boosts Efficiency

As a small business owner, I’m bad about putting off tasks that need to be done as soon as possible. Thank goodness I don’t have inventory to manage, or I’d always be behind. If I did manage inventory, though, I would purchase a subscription to a forecasting tool to help increase my efficiency.

In fact, an increase in efficiency is why 51% of businesses opt to use inventory management software. Business owners who use inventory management tools can better manage their orders. Using these tools, you can get a good idea of when to order or move products, helping you stay more efficient, organized, and on top of product demand.

7. Improves Financial Planning

As Zalzal and I chatted, I learned there’s one more major benefit to inventory forecasting: better financial planning.

As a business owner, you need to ensure you have enough funds allocated to inventory management in your yearly budget. Looking at past historical data and pairing it with machine learning can help you make better predictions for your budgets in the next year.

“Financial planning becomes much simpler,” he added. “In retrospect, over the last year, it‘s easy to find the mistakes. It’s easy to say where we overspent and where we underspend. But when you want to look ahead into the future, you need a very accurate forecast. A good forecast allows you to put yourself one year in advance, look back at the year, and ask, ‘What could I have done here to save and optimize our financials?’”

Inventory Forecasting Formula

To do inventory forecasting, you will need some data, like lead time demand and safety stock. Lead time demand refers to the amount of inventory required to meet your demand during the time it takes for a supply order to arrive from your vendor after you place the order. You can average the lead time using this formula:

Safety stock describes the extra inventory you need to prevent a stockout. You can find your average safety stock using this formula:

After you’ve crunched those numbers, it’s time to plug them into the inventory forecasting formula.

Inventory Forecasting Formula Example

I find it helpful to see a formula in action, so let’s plug in some numbers for an example. Let’s pretend I sell water bottles. Once I place my order, it takes 15 days to receive the bottles, and I typically sell five water bottles a day.

Here’s the lead time demand formula using my data:

Lead Time Demand = 5 water bottles/day X 15 days =

75 water bottles

Next, I need to find the number to represent my safety stock. Let’s pretend that on my best day, I sold 15 water bottles, and it only took 7 days for the shipment to get to my storefront. Here’s what the safety stock formula looks like using those numbers:

Safety Stock = [(15 water bottles X 7 days)] – [5 water bottles X 15 days)]

After calculating those numbers, my safety stock value is 30.

Now, I can plug those values into the inventory forecasting formula:

Inventory Forecasting = (75) + (30)= 105

To stay on top of inventory and ensure I don’t run out while waiting on a new shipment, I’ll need 105 water bottles on hand.

What I Learned About Inventory Forecasting Methods

If you’ve ever sat through a statistics class, you know plenty of ways to crunch numbers and visualize data. For example, if you’re a visual learner like me, graphs can help you better understand your trends by visually representing your data.

In inventory forecasting, you can use modeling to understand your data in various ways. It’s helpful to understand there are multiple types of modeling, and they fall under four specific categories. Those four categories are:

• Trend forecasting. This kind of forecasting analyzes historical data to identify demand trends. Typically, it ignores seasonality and doesn’t take irregularities into account. Trend forecasting is great for businesses with stable demand.
• Graphical forecasting. As the name suggests, graphical forecasting creates graphics to help you better understand and visualize trends in your data.
• Qualitative forecasting. If you’re a newer business and don’t have enough data to help make inventory predictions, you can ask your customers. Collecting data through surveys and then analyzing it can help predict inventory needs. Qualitative forecasting isn’t the most accurate, but it can give you an idea.
• Quantitative forecasting. Quantitative forecasting is the most popular inventory forecasting method. It uses historical data to make educated predictions about possible inventory needs.

I think it’s important to use a good mix of each method to make better inventory decisions.

(Looking for a more in-depth course? Check out these lessons on forecasting analytics and sales forecasting.)

Inventory Forecasting Models

As I chatted with Zalzal, I learned that businesses can use several inventory forecasting models to determine inventory projections. The type of forecasting you do depends on the data you’ve collected.

The good news about inventory forecast modeling is that you can use software like Excel, Google Sheets, or HubSpot’s forecasting software to make sense of your data. You don’t have to do the calculations by hand unless you want to, of course. (I’m a big fan of calculators and software, though. Highly recommend.)

Let’s look at six inventory forecasting models you can use to get a more accurate look at your inventory management.

1. Trend Analysis (Time Series Forecasting)

According to Zalzal, there are three basic inventory forecasting models, and you can calculate them by hand without getting a headache. Those are trend analysis, moving average, and exponential smoothing. I’ll talk more about moving average and exponential smoothing later, but for now, let’s focus on trend analysis.

Trend analysis helps businesses use historical data to identify patterns and trends in their inventory stock. If you’ve been in business for a while, you likely can predict when your products will be popular among your customers based on their purchase history.

For example, if you have data on your past water bottle sales, you might notice an uptick in sales in January when your customers make healthier New Year’s Resolutions. You might also see an increase in sales in late spring when the weather turns warmer.

Using the insights from this data and your lead time numbers, you can plan the appropriate time to purchase your stock to have it on hand when demand increases.

2. Moving Average

The moving average is relatively simple among the inventory forecasting techniques. Zalzal told me: “The Moving average is deterministic, and there’s really no room for playing around with it.”

Back in college, I took a statistics class. I’ll be the first to tell you I was confused nearly half the time. However, moving average is a concept I understood because it’s simple addition and division. I can see why Zalzal says it’s deterministic.

The moving average is simply an average of units sold over a set period. This forecasting model is best used for products with a relatively stable demand. For example, let’s pretend your business sells toothpaste. Toothpaste is a product that I hope nearly everyone uses. It’s also a commodity that likely won’t see a spike in demand unless something crazy happens, like panic buying because of a global pandemic.

So, if your business sells 100 tubes of toothpaste in the first month, 120 tubes in the second month, and 110 tubes in the third month, the moving average (found by adding those numbers together and dividing by three) is 110 tubes.

Knowing this number, you can place an inventory order for 110 tubes of toothpaste and sell them each month.

3. Exponential Smoothing

Exponential smoothing is very similar to moving average. It just takes it one step further. You’ll want to run this inventory forecasting method if you notice a slow uptick in the demand for your product.

Let’s go back to the toothpaste example. If you take a quick look at your numbers, it’s clear that 110 toothpaste tubes are enough to maintain your inventory levels. However, you’ve changed your marketing approach and gained loyal customers. So, in the fourth month, you sell 112 tubes. Then, in the fifth month, you sell 116 tubes. And, in the sixth month, you sell 121 tubes of toothpaste.

Do you see the slow uptick in the number of tubes sold? Over time, this increase will affect your inventory supply. Exponential smoothing gives your more recent data a heavier weight to help highlight the more recent demand patterns. This can help you plan your stock order without overbuying.

4. Demand Forecasting Based on Lead Time Demand

Demand forecasting based on lead time demand uses the inventory forecasting formula. You can use this forecasting method to calculate future inventory needs to ensure you have enough stock to last through delivery times.

For a quick refresher, this technique factors in your average demand and the lead time to give you a better idea of the safety stock or the amount of stock you have on hand during the order wait time, ensuring you don’t run out of product.

This is a relatively simple math formula that you can do by hand. Or, if you’re a whiz at spreadsheets, you can set up your sheet to calculate this for you as you enter data.

5. Regression Analysis

Regression analysis, sometimes called causal models, can help you find patterns and trends based on external factors. These factors can include the economy and market conditions, the weather, or your marketing campaigns.

As a business owner, you know there are times when your inventory demand increases and decreases, and it can be challenging to find the “why” behind the change just by looking at your numbers. Predicting your inventory needs based on your recent numbers can be even more difficult. Regression analysis can help you forecast demand based on specific variables.

You can do this by hand. However, it’s much easier to use an inventory forecasting tool. Zalzal told me that when you use AI software for predictions, your numbers will be a bit more accurate because all variables are considered. He said, “Theoretically, if you have all the variables that impact your inventory, then you should precisely be able to predict the outcome of that.”

6. Economic Order Quantity

If you want to minimize costs within your inventory management system and have the perfect number of products in stock, you’ll want to use economic order quantity forecasting, or EOQ.

In my opinion, EOQ best benefits companies that have a consistent stock demand. By consistent demand, I mean that your products predictably move out of the warehouse without sitting on the shelves too long. Examples of these products might be everyday household commodities such as cleaning supplies or hand soap.

EOQ models factor in your demand rate, order, and holding costs to help you optimize your inventory. This is helpful because you can determine the appropriate amount of inventory you have on hand without worrying about being unable to sell it or stockouts.

Optimize Your Business Inventory Forecasting

From chatting with Zalzal, I learned that forecasting in inventory management is crucial for businesses that want to manage their stock effectively. Forecasting helps ensure they have enough product on their shelves to both meet customer demand and minimize inventory costs. Forecasting software can give businesses a quicker answer, reducing human error and maximizing accuracy.

Inventory management isn’t just about staying ahead of product demand. It’s also about reducing costs and building a more efficient supply chain. With the right tools and processes, you can accurately predict inventory demand and effectively eliminate future surprises.

Four years ago, I started my consultancy business. I didn’t question whether it was the best time to start a business. I was unemployed, needed money, and had a service to offer. Looking back, I can see that I was ready four years ago. I was motivated and prepared to start. I had the experience, thanks to previous jobs, to execute my idea.

I’ve started businesses that haven’t turned into anything. Some of my ideas were good, and knowing what I know now, if I had stuck with them, they would have been successful today. Was it just the wrong time? What was it about starting then that set my business up for failure?

I feel there isn’t one “best time” to start a business. But there might be a “best time” for you and the best time for me, which might look very different. That said, there must be some pre-requisites and tell-tale signs that now is the best time to start a business.

In this article, I’ve explored whether there is, or isn’t, a best time to start a business. I’ve spoken to entrepreneurs and business owners from a range of businesses, from consultants to agencies and ecommerce to local brick-and-mortar service-based businesses. We explore whether starting a business in uncertain times is worth it, tell-tale signs that you’re ready, and tips on how to start a business in uncertain times.

Table of Contents

• When is the best time to start a business?
• The Truth About Uncertainty and Entrepreneurship
• Tips for Starting a Business in an Uncertain Economy

When is the best time to start a business?

In this section, I sourced some tell-tale signs that you’re ready to start a business. Before I get into them, I want to caveat that I’m not saying you need all of them in place; I certainly didn’t.

Having all or some of these signs could be a strong indicator that you’re ready or soon to be ready to start a business.

Your finances are in order.

When I started my business, my personal finances were in order. I worked a part-time job that paid my bills, and in the meantime, I worked on a side hustle. I freelanced, and while I built my rate and client base, my part-time job in a supermarket helped me feel financially safe.

There are benefits to having your finances in order. For example, you might find that orderly finances give you the peace of mind to:

1. Turn down work if it doesn’t feel like a good fit rather than taking every opportunity just in case.
2. Sleep well at night without stressing about money.
3. Bring your best self to the work environment. When I don’t have money worries, I know I pitch better for work and become more assertive and confident.

Ultimately, how you order your finances is very personal. I have a low-risk tolerance regarding finances. My business was profitable from day one since I already owned the laptop and the software to get started. But, not all businesses are profitable immediately or even in the first year.

According to HubSpot’s Entrepreneurship Trends Report, only 28% of businesses report profit within a year, and most businesses (57%) are profitable in one to five years.

Source

While I was happy with my personal finances, I’m no business finance expert, so I reached out to Gary Hemming from ABC Finance. Gary is a highly respected and qualified finance specialist. I wanted to know his thoughts on finance and businesses and how someone approaching the right to start a business might think and manage finances.

Hemming said, “There’s only one reason businesses go under, and that’s because they run out of money. As long as you can manage cash flow, you can survive anything.”

When asked how someone starting a business can prepare, he said, “Having a buffer and managing cash flow is all that matters. You can trade through anything if you’ve got cash to ride out uncertain times. Your emergency budget and managing cash flow are the only things that impact how long you can survive if things don’t go according to plan.”

When I talk to people at the beginning of their business journey, especially those who are considering transitioning from full-time employment to self-employment, I suggest that they save three to six months of expenses.

No matter what happens, I can pay every monthly expense in my personal and business life because I created buffers early on.

You know your risk tolerance.

Dan Wiggins started his business similarly to me. RedCore Digital started as a side hustle, while Wiggins maintained a steady income, which gave him confidence. Then, he transitioned to running his business full-time.

Like me, Wiggins wanted to start on strong foundations with his finances in order. His risk tolerance was fairly low. I understand this approach entirely. While you can take a considerable risk, if you really want to, it’s better to know your personal risk tolerance and work with it.

Wiggins says, “The best time to start a business isn’t about timing the market but understanding your financial position and risk tolerance. I ensured I had a financial buffer to cover personal living expenses for the first six months, allowing me to focus entirely on building the agency without the stress of immediate cash flow.

“I initially ran RedCore with minimal overheads, focusing on high-value services and reinvesting profits into the business. This helped us grow sustainably while keeping financial risks low.”

“While some entrepreneurs thrive under pressure by ‘betting it all,’ others, like myself, prefer a balance of financial stability and calculated risks. Both paths can lead to success — it’s about knowing what works for you.”

You can’t stop thinking about your idea.

Starting a business is a huge commitment, and if you have an entrepreneurial spirit, you might see potential business opportunities around every corner.

Looking for opportunities indicates that you should be your own boss. I have been looking for opportunities to make money since I was a child. I made and tried to sell afternoon tea stands, flipped wedding dresses, bought and sold goods, created blogs and websites, and so much more.

The problem with spotting business opportunities everywhere is that you can start the wrong idea or start too many.

Instead of starting every business idea, write it down, sit with it a bit, and see if the thought pesters you.

I’ve discussed the notion of waiting for a pestering idea with my fellow business owner and LinkedIn friend, Kendra Noel. Noel is the CEO and Lead Marketer at Boomtag Media.

She says, “I have had many fleeting excitements over business ideas. However, they come and go, and the excitement and drive don’t stick. When you have one that just won’t go away and consumes so much space in your brain, I think that’s how you know you are ready.”

“There may not be the perfect time, but if you have this happen, it makes you willing to push and do what needs to be done to make room in your life and find the motivation to start,” Noel added.

You’re amazing at what you do.

My friend Kim Dobson owns a hair salon. She is by far the best hairdresser I’ve ever known. Her journey to becoming a business owner was inevitable — she’s far too good at what she does not to go solo with her business.

Like many of us, Dobson doesn’t always recognize her talent. She went on quite a journey (physically and mentally) to build the confidence to start her own business. It all started with an adventure to Australia, which helped her see that she could change her job, find other roles, and, therefore, risk starting her own business; if it all went wrong, she learned she’d just get another job.

I asked how she went from being an employed hair stylist to a business owner, and here’s what she said:

“I was in my former job for 12 years but felt there wasn’t any career ladder for me to climb, so when I had the opportunity to go and work in Australia, I snapped it up.

“It got me out of a rut and gave me the confidence to work somewhere new. When I returned to the U.K., I thought about what I wanted to do and knew I didn’t want to be employed again.

“I had nothing to lose; if it didn’t work out, I would get another job in another salon.”

The beginning of Dobson’s journey to starting a business was a mental one. You need to believe in your ability to start the business, but equally, have a plan B should you need it. Thanks to changing jobs and working in Australia, Dobson knew she could work elsewhere because she is a talented hairdresser, and anyone else would be lucky to have her.

I had a similar realization when I left a fantastic and safe agency to start my business. I had to believe in myself, but what helped me mentally was leaning heavily into the fact that if it did all go wrong, I could potentially get my job back or find employment elsewhere.

In fact, like Dobson, I ended up working in a new role in a new industry between leaving the agency and starting my own business. The job shift helped me feel safe about getting employment elsewhere, giving me a backup plan in case my business fails.

Once you’ve realized you’re great at what you do and can find financial security elsewhere if needed, you might be ready to start your business. But the right time to start the business doesn’t mean it will be easy; there might be sacrifices.

Dobson says, “I bought a cheap car and spent what I earned in Australia to start my business. I started three days renting a chair and two days mobile to build up my clientele; I gathered enough interest that I quickly progressed to five days a week in the salon. Clients were happy to travel to me.

“After two and half years, I converted a room in my house into a home-based salon, so I am completely independent now.”

As time passed, Dobson fully felt the benefits of being a business owner. Now that she has a more established business, she has a better work-life balance. Her freedom from starting the business has allowed her to take three weeks off to honeymoon in America. She takes Saturdays off work (almost unheard of in the beauty world), and now she’s a mum, she works around her daughter’s nursery.

You’re passionate about the product or service.

Many entrepreneurs start their businesses because they’re passionate about their product or service offering. In fact, according to HubSpot’s Entrepreneurship Report, the top two reasons entrepreneurs start their businesses are because they want to a) be their own boss and b) follow a passion.

Source

Following a passion is really important. When you’re passionate about something, you’re more likely to love what you do and do a thorough and great job. This leads to happy clients and opportunities. People love to work with people who love what they do.

The fear of regret is looming.

For some entrepreneurs, the fear of regret surpassed the fear of starting, and this was the tell-tale sign that they needed to take the leap and start their own business.

Abdul Rehman was plagued by the “what ifs” and used this as fuel to start his businesses. Rehman founded SEO Trix, a digital marketing agency specializing in white-label services.

Rehman said, “The pain of not starting manifested in two ways: first, watching others launch and succeed in spaces where I knew I had valuable insights to share. Second, feeling stuck in a comfort zone that was becoming increasingly uncomfortable.

“Every Monday, I‘d tell myself, ’next week is the time,’ until I realized a year had passed. That moment hit harder than any startup struggle could. The fear of regret finally outweighed the fear of failure.”

Passionate about his work, Rehman said he was “solving the same problem repeatedly for free” because he couldn’t help himself.

After waiting a year and convincing himself that “the market isn’t ready” or that he needs more experience, Rehman took the leap.

On starting a business in uncertain times, Rehman says, “Ironically, the most uncertain times provided the push I needed. When we started, agencies suddenly needed flexible, remote-ready solutions more than ever.”

I was intrigued by Rehman’s story because I think many of us can relate to having what feels like a great business idea but can’t seem to start. Rehman had experienced it all: the fear of starting versus not starting.

I wanted to know if the pain of starting a business was better — or worse than not starting at all. Rehman said, “The reality of running the business actually proved more rewarding than scary, not because it was easier, but because taking action gave me control over the outcome. That fear of missing out transformed into excitement about solving real problems. Looking back, my only regret is not starting sooner.”

You know who your audience is.

Melissa Pedigo is a CPA and the founder of A CPA Writes. Medigo writes tax, accounting, and finance content exclusively for CPAs, tax accountants, and financial advisors — and she’s also dubbed herself Chief Nerd Officer and tax-writing wizard.

“If you already know what you want to do and are sure there’s a market for your product or service, then starting a business in uncertain times is no different than starting one in certain times,” said Pedigo.

However, she warns that if you’re not certain of the demand for your idea, you should wait until a more stable time when consequences may be less impactful.

On the other hand, having a certain idea can negate the uncertainty of the market, economy, and world at large.

Moreover, with a solid support system (like a spouse, friends, or business partners), you’re better suited to start a business during uncertain times. “Having a supportive spouse, both financially and emotionally, is underappreciated and under-recognized in providing the security to make big decisions like starting a business,” Pedigo shared.

You have the right partner.

Many starting a business will do so with a co-founder. I wanted to know the signs that you’ve got the right person so I spoke to Forrest Smith and Tom Sanderson.

Smith and Sanderson have an incredible company, Kineon, and a fantastic story to go with it. They are co-founders whom I massively respect. I’ve seen them work and watched their company grow from its early days, and their achievements amaze me. It’s not just the company and the numbers that are incredible, but the values and attitudes instilled within the entire company, which spans several continents and time zones.

Rather unusually, Smith and Sanderson met in person four years after they started working together.

Smith says, “We first met digitally and spent the first two months discussing our mission and purpose as a team before we ever discussed the technology, product, and company building.”

Suddenly, it makes sense that Smith and Sanderson head up one of the most lovely and mission-driven companies I’ve ever worked with.

When asked how to find the right partner, Smith says, “Explicitly discuss and challenge the mission and values. This discussion will allow you to understand intuitively the values you share, where they overlap, where they merge, and what you will have to compromise on over time to work together.”

Smith warns that “expecting zero compromises is unreasonable, so try to actively find these points so you know where break points in the relationship are.”

I might have assumed that the founding partners would be similar, but Smith says their key strengths are their differences. “We are very, very different in our key strengths.

“One thing that has happened in the past with companies I‘ve founded is that the overlap of strengths is too high. This is comfortable because you approach issues in a similar way, so it’s easier to agree on issues that arise.

“When you do this, it‘s much easier to develop major blind or weak spots in the business. When your strengths and perspectives are more divergent, it’s less comfortable to start because you‘ll challenge each other’s views on different issues that arise. This builds friction early in the business, but if you are committed to accepting respectful challenges, you will synthesize a more effective outcome from these different perspectives.”

Sanderson agreed with all of Smith’s points and added, “The month we met was the same month we shipped to 25,000 customers worldwide and crossed our first-ever $1M month.”

As I’m sure you’ll agree, this is an incredible achievement for any company, but Kineon did this with a founding team that hadn’t met, and they did it with only one product.

I’ve adored watching Kineon grow: the business, the team, the product development, everything. It was years before I realized that Smith and Sanderson hadn’t met, and I couldn’t believe what they’d achieved considering their distance.

It’s taught me that unconventional setups can work, but I can only imagine the role the right partnership has played in this incredible feat.

The Truth About Uncertainty and Entrepreneurship

As aforementioned, you may not have all the tell-tale signs you’re ready, but I’d expect some to resonate if you’re ready to start a business. The point is that there is no certain time to start a business.

The fact is that uncertain times make it harder to build a business, but if there is no certainity, eventuallly, you just take the leap.

If you’re considering starting a new venture, evaluate your life, relationships, and bank account and decide if they’re sturdy enough to ride the waves of entrepreneurship.

If they are, and you’re prepared for the ups and downs of business-building, then there’s likely no better time to get started.

Take this note from Joe Clarke, a freelance writer who launched his business in very uncertain times: “Should people start businesses in uncertain times? It depends on the uncertainty. If it‘s a personal situation rife with instability, I’d say it‘s probably not a great idea to add more to your plate. If there’s instability in the world, then you’ll be waiting for a long time for the right time to start your business,” he said.

“Do what you can to add safety nets before starting your business (whether that‘s having X months’ living expenses saved, a healthy pipeline of leads, etc.), but know that risk’s always involved.

“But the thing about risk? Reward usually comes with it.”

Tips for Starting a Business in an Uncertain Economy

If you’re still feeling unsure about whether or not now is the right time to start your business, let’s go through some tips from business owners and entrepreneurs; maybe they’ll give you the motivation to get started.

1. Just start.

I met Crystal Waddell on LinkedIn and joined her SEO podcast as a guest a year ago. She hosts a podcast discussing eCommerce, SEO, and entrepreneurship. She also runs her own business, which allows her to work from home, spend quality time with her son, and make money.

Waddell perhaps provides the most straightforward yet hardest-to-execute tip: Just start.

She says, “When my son was born, teaching middle school while paying for childcare would cost more than my salary. But I still needed to make money — so I started an Etsy shop that turned into a small manufacturing company of niche products.

“While the ideal path would be to create a business plan, get investors, and raise start-up capital, all the entrepreneurs I know just did the thing. And figured it out on the way.

“The motivation wasn‘t to make millions of dollars; it was just to get some control back over life. So, I think the only right time is when you wake up and say: I don’t want to be doing this anymore; it doesn’t make sense.

“In our materialistic world, it‘s a tough jump. You’ve got to say no to a lot of material things and be humble enough to do other work as you figure out how to get customers and make money.”

Why I liked this tip: I loved everything about this tip, and it’s a tip I share with others, too. In a TikTok, sharing tips on how I started freelancing, my first tip was, “Just start.” Wadell and I are in complete agreement with this one.

I’m conscious that a tip like “just start” may sound patronizing, but it is the hardest step. We’re all capable of dreaming up ideas and talking about them, but the magic happens after you get started.

Waddell recognizes that starting is a tough jump and says, You’ve got to say no to a lot of material things and be humble enough to do other work as you figure out how to get customers,” I love that she added this. When I started my business, I started writing for $10/article, a fee way below minimum wage, but I loved it.

Like Waddell the goal for me was never financial. I just wanted to prolong my travels and increase my daily travel budget. Somehow, my $10 articles grew exponentially, and now my business makes six-figures.

I agree that you need to say no to material things and humble yourself along the way. Writing for $10 was not something I needed to do, and even back then, I was more qualified. You could say I deserved to make at least the minimum wage, but I simply didn’t mind.

It all started with one blog, $10, and a leap into the unknown.

2. Get clear on your audience and their problems.

Doug Davidoff is the founder and CEO of Imagine Business Development. Davidoff and his team enable companies to orchestrate all elements of their sales, marketing, and customer success efforts to generate more impact.

When asked about starting a business in uncertain times, Davidoff said, “Asking if one should start a business in uncertain times infers that there’s an option to start them at certain times,“ Davidoff countered. ”In my experience, there is no such thing as certainty, especially when it comes to starting and running a business.”

In fact, Davidoff believes that uncertain or difficult times are, in fact, the best times to start a business — for three reasons:

• Tough times (like recessions) have a greater impact on larger companies. If you’re a new company, there are still plenty of opportunities available for you.
• Companies and people alike are more likely to be actively considering change in turbulent times than they are in smooth times.
• Good decision-making pays off far more in difficult, uncertain markets than in good, solid ones. Companies don’t become great when times are good — they become great when times are difficult.

“Businesses should be started in uncertain times because if they weren‘t, they would never be started,” Davidoff stated. “I do believe there are exceptions for who should start a business in uncertain times, but it would be the same answer if times weren’t uncertain — starting a business is not right for everyone.”

One tip from Davidoff is that you should “Be clear on who your target audience is — and equally clear on the problem you’re going to solve better than anyone,” explained Davidoff.

He encourages new business owners to know the answer to these three questions on behalf of their audiences:

• Why should I change?
• Why should I change now?
• What should I change with you?

Tamara Sykes, SEO Strategist at Next Level Presence, agrees. “You need to ask yourself if there’s a need you can provide a solution for,” she stated. “If the need is apparent, go ahead and start the business because you know the market exists. But if it isn’t, starting your business during an uncertain time is unwise — particularly since it will take more time to get traction.”

Why I liked this tip: Firstly, I loved Davidoff’s comment about how starting a business in “uncertain times” infers that there is a certain time. There simply is not. Secondly, I resonate a lot with Davidoff’s comment about being clear on your audience and the problem you’ll solve better than anyone.

I firmly believe that solving problems better than anyone is one of the main reasons my business has succeeded. Even from the beginning (when I was writing articles for $10), I wanted to

1. Provide the best possible service.
2. Slightly over-deliver on my promise to the client

Both of these tactics have stayed with me today, and I use both of them for every client and every project. For me, providing excellent service is a passion project. It’s important that my clients feel special, know, and feel that I care. I always have something that I’ll over-deliver to my clients.

For example, back when I was writing articles for $10, I’d include one or maybe three social media posts that the client could use. I promised them an article, and I over-delivered conscientiously. It was always appreciated.

With this, it is important to over-deliver only to the point where you’re happy. A social media post, for example, was easy to execute but of value to the client.

4. Be real with people.

Brendan Hufford founded SEO for the Rest of Us as a community dedicated to helping people stop learning (and start doing) SEO. His community has helped his members’ businesses grow during the most uncertain times, and Hufford describes this as a “privilege.”

Hufford’s community helped businesses during the most uncertain time. Hufford said, “When times are uncertain, being a rock for others and supporting them outside your core business is crucial.”

For Hufford, SEO for the Rest of Us offers a second income stream. The community became a vehicle for his now full-time business, Growth Sprints. Hufford says, “Our world is farther out of our hands than ever imagined. Multiple income streams can provide security and a level of freedom that, in a way, make things more certain.”

With multiple businesses, Hufford seems to be the biggest advocate for starting one’s own business, but starting a business isn’t always the right decision.

Hufford says “no” when asked if everyone should start a business, especially in uncertain times. You shouldn‘t start a business if you’re gambling on more than yourself,“ he says. Adding that level of stress to your relationship with your significant other or children isn’t something I’d ever advise doing.”

Why I liked this tip: I really liked Hufford’s authenticity and I believe in what he’s saying. As a business owner, being your true, authentic self and a pillar of strength is valuable. In my experience, people value confidence and assertiveness.

Having two income streams is an incredible privilege; I’m working on it myself. It’s common for people to assume that employment is safer than entrepreneurship, and sometimes, it is, but there are many ways in which entrepreneurship offers more security than employment. For example, I have multiple clients and can afford to lose many before I can’t cover my expenses. For people who are full-time employed, this may not be true.

Finally, Hufford recognizes that not everyone should start their own business, which is a balanced and appreciated view for someone with multiple income streams. Hufford lists reasons for not starting, which include stress and its impact on relationships. There’s no point in being successful in business if your personal life is suffering.

5. Track your expenses and have a plan.

Melissa Pedigo already gave me a tell-tale sign that now is the right time to start your business (that you know your audience).

She also gave a top tip regarding finances. She says, “Keep track of your finances, and I‘m not saying that because I’m a CPA,” said Pedigo. You need to know where every dollar goes and make sure you’re invoicing for all your work in a timely manner. Cash flow becomes more important in times of uncertainty.”

“Additionally, create a thorough business plan for starting and growing your company. This will help you stay focused on your goal when things inevitably get tough. It’ll also help you attract investors and financial support when the time comes.”

What I like about this tip: I can’t express the importance of being diligent with your finances. I track every single income and expense. I make it a habit to do it daily. If you don’t, you will forget what you’ve paid for or what you should be paid for!

You simply can only run a successful business by diligently tracking your finances. Plus, if it comes to the end of the year and you haven’t worked on your finances a little and often, you’ll find yourself stressed, and business brings enough stress without you adding to your stresses.

6. Remember: It’s a marathon and not a sprint.

Sam Browne is a serial entrepreneur and a LinkedIn pro. I love Browne’s posts and have always loved reading his thoughts on entrepreneurship.

When asked for a tip for people starting a business, Browne says, “New entrepreneurs need to realize that building a successful business is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s going to take time to reach success.

“Your first one to two years as an entrepreneur will push you to your limit. You‘ll need to become a jack of all trades and embrace building new skills on a perpetual basis. You’ll work harder than you ever have but make less money. You won‘t know what systems and standard operating procedures to build. You won’t know what to invest in now, later, or not at all.

“This is all completely normal on your first go around. These are the skills you need to build as an entrepreneur, and there’s no shortcut to building them. When you build your second business, and your third, and your fourth, all these things are much easier.

“Hang in there, be willing to grind, and be patient. “

What I like about this tip: What stands out within this tip is that you’ll need to become the jack of all trades, and you won’t know what systems to build. Both of these things are very true no matter when you start your business. You will enter the steepest learning curve about what it takes to run a successful business. Systems are incredibly important because they speed up processes and enable you to consistently deliver work to the highest standard. I recommend building systems as early as possible. You can always edit them later.

7. Be brave.

Running your own business is not for the weak. According to research by Voronoi, most startups fail within ten years.

Source

Research shows that the first year of business is the hardest, and 20% of businesses fail within that first year.

Running a business alone is challenging, and life’s challenges are often impossible to anticipate.

Tom Rankin, a freelance writer for WordPress businesses, deals with various health issues. “Big, bold decisions are tough to make, whether it’s business or life,“ he says. [But now], I have work, personal time, and life balance—the things I originally set out to achieve.”

Megan Sayers, founder of Make Good Design, has also relied on bravery during these times. “We’re not out of the woods yet, but there’s something comforting about knowing that so many are in the same boat — it’s almost given us permission to fail, which has, in turn, made us feel braver.”

What I like about this tip: Running a business certainly requires bravery. You will have to make uncomfortable decisions and take risks.

In a Guardian article, citing the Voronoi, the writer Gene Marks discusses why businesses fail and what it takes to keep one going. Marks concludes: “My advice when people ask me about starting a business? I say don’t unless you are really ready to leave your corporate job and face a cold, harsh, uncaring world.”

While I don’t agree entirely with Marks’ statement, it does have some truth. Running a business is hard, and you will undoubtedly have to work hard – very hard – for periods of time, but in my experience, bravery pays off, and you will be rewarded greatly.

8. Trust yourself.

Mersudin Forbes at Forbes Digital entered my life as a LinkedIn connection, and I finally met him this year. We work in the same industry, so we had a lot to talk about. One thing I love about Forbes is how he thinks about and articulates his knowledge of business.

When I started writing this article, I knew I wanted his insights. Forbes shares the importance of trusting yourself, the value of starting now, and the fact that there is no best or worst time to start a business.

He says, “There is never a best or worst time to start a business. You just have to trust that you will put in the effort to make it work. That is where the magic is.”

Forbes believes everything, including standing still, is risky, and I agree. We’ve heard this sentiment in this article; remember, Abdul Rehman said he started his business when the fear of regret surpassed the fear of starting.

Forbes says, “There is never a good or bad time to start. But you have to feel positive about the thing you want to do. It has to get you out of bed in the morning. Otherwise, it will just be another job, not your own business.”

What I like about this tip: Forbes justifies starting a business by taking a risk assessment. Ultimately, it’s a risk to start, and it’s a risk not to. I strongly agree with this, though it was a journey to get here! This narrative played a role when I first started. Like many young business owners, I was nervous when I started, but I knew I could solve problems. I’m very conscientious and always make things right for my clients. Ultimately, I convinced myself to trust that I would make it work, and like Forbes, I did!

9. Make sure you have the time, energy, and resources.

Running your own business can be draining. Research and hundreds of personal accounts have documented the exhaustion of entrepreneurship. So seriously consider whether you have the time, energy, and financial backing to be your own boss. This includes how you want to spend your time and how you’re planning to fund your business.

It’s smart to build a business budget and map our income and expenses. You also want to consider your savings, credit score, network, and capital. Who may be willing to invest in your idea? How much money can you secure to get your product off the ground?

As you work through these details, remember to keep your mental health in mind.

In her article, How to Overcome Startup Failure Stress and Anxiety, Jessica Pedraza lists reasons for stress, including:

• Financial uncertainties
• Competing in fierce Markets
• Legal challenges
• Work-Life Imbalance
• Fear of falling

The tips for overcoming stress include:

• Asking for help
• Managing stress properly
• Enjoy life outside of work
• Foster a healthy company culture

Pedraza recommends mindfulness, meditation, deep breathing, and yoga to manage stress properly, as well as exercise, even just a daily walk.

What I like about this tip: I’d love to tell you that I’ve perfected this part of running a business; naturally, I don’t. However, I know that I function best when I follow some of these best practices.

I prefer my work-life balance when I’m up naturally, hydrating first, then walking early in the morning, and getting the sun on my skin.

Recently, I joined a sports class so I have something to look forward to in the evening. It keeps me moving and fit and gives me another layer of purpose.

Is now the right time for you to start your business?

From what I’ve learned about starting a business, there is a right time or a best time, but the truth is, you won’t know if you started at the best time until you get moving. Life simply doesn’t give us all the answers in the present day, but as I discovered when writing this article and speaking to business owners, there are signals that now might be the time for you to start a business.

No one mentions annual trends, seasons, or even the economy. Successful entrepreneurs and business owners recommend focusing on one thing: you. The tips provided were more about your life, mental state, financial order, and things within your control, like business partners, market research, and more.

The right time to start a business is less about external factors and more about your readiness for the exciting journey ahead.

So, if you’ve got a burning feeling that

Missing quota because your pipeline is thin? And you can’t find a quick remedy to source new leads. You aren’t alone. Of salespeople, 40% view B2B sales lead generation as the most difficult part of their jobs.

In turn, the remaining 60% are able to populate their pipelines with quality leads and crack the end of the month.

How do they do it?

Read on a roundup of tips and tactics from sales pros and real-world examples to bring in new leads.

Table of Contents

• What are B2B sales leads?
• B2B Sales Lead Statistics
• 7 B2B Sales Lead Strategies to Start From
• 9 B2B Lead Generation Tips from Experts

Sourcing B2B leads requires you to understand a company’s goals as well as the individual’s. Not only are you conducting outreach to individuals, but you must also find organizations that are a good fit for your solution.

In many ways, this makes prospecting easier — but the budgets, stakeholders, and gatekeepers you encounter throughout the sales cycle can make finding the right B2B leads that much more important.

Before we move further, benchmark yourself against these three B2B sales landscape stats. Maybe you’re doing quite right, and there’s no need to stress over it.

B2B Sales Lead Statistics

According to recent HubSpot data, sales companies are facing both budget crunches and becoming more risk averse — 70% of sales professionals say that their budgets are being scrutinized more, and 62% say their company is taking fewer risks.

Interestingly, while just 15% of marketers say they’re facing challenges with traffic and lead generation, one of the top challenges cited by marketing teams is making the best use of these leads. In other words, getting great leads is just the start of reciprocal B2B relationships.

It’s also worth noting that B2B leads are expanding their research repositories. While they value data provided by potential partners, research firm Gartner reports that B2B buyers find third-party interactions — sources of data not owned by B2B companies — 1.4x more valuable than information from companies themselves.

As a result, lead generation has become an omnichannel effort that combines both first- and third-party data for best results.

7 B2B Sales Lead Strategies to Start From

If you’re not sure where to begin with B2B sales lead generation, these seven strategies are a great way to get started.

If you’re interested in reading more about how to grow your pipeline, check out our ultimate guide.

1. Set up a lead bot.

Strategic Account Director Jack Matsen saw a 38% increase in demos booked within six months of implementing a lead bot.

Matsen says, “Our bots collect information that gives us time to come prepared with potential solutions before we walk into meetings with new prospects. Having this information ultimately leads to better, more beneficial conversations.”

It’s important to identify which pages you’ll install lead bots on, what you’ll say, and how you’ll route those leads. If you have a lot of organic traffic coming to your pricing page, or you notice this page is a high converter for you, drop a lead bot there to engage with a higher number of leads.

Make sure the language you’re using with your lead bot is friendly and conversational. In other words, don’t start a conversation with, “Hello, how can I help you today?” Instead, try, “Hello, thanks for stopping by our pricing page! Can I answer any questions about our three pricing tiers?”

Think of HubSpot’s example. The lead bot greets you with a straightforward message designed to convert and bring in new leads with less friction. HubSpot’s team also uses smart CTA buttons to guide the lead down the pipeline.

And, once a prospect answers a “qualifying question,” such as “Chat with sales,” have your bot route the lead to the correct rep so a live conversation can take place.

2. Join or contribute to X chats.

X chats are when a group of people meet on X (formerly Twitter) to discuss a certain topic, trend, or interest area using an agreed-upon hashtag. For example, if you sell a PPC tool, you might join the weekly #PPCChat, in which chat runners or guest hosts share a discussion topic ahead of time, and industry folks share their thoughts and questions.

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The format of X chats is for the host to share a series of ordered questions (e.g., “Q1: What’s your biggest pain point with your current PPC tool?”), and participants reply in kind (e.g., “A1: My biggest pain point is competitive spend.”).

If you want to reply to someone’s answer or question — like the one above — start by replying directly to the question asker’s question. From there, here’s what NOT to do in an X chat:

• X chat lead: “A1: My biggest pain point is competitive spend.”
• Sales rep: “A1: I sell a PPC tool that can help combat competitive spend. Want to hear more?”

Don’t be that rep. It’s a good way to get a group of people to turn on you and possibly block you from future chats.

Instead, offer value only when you have non-salesy value to contribute, share knowledge, link to helpful articles, and share hacks other clients have used successfully. Here’s what your response should look like:

• X chat lead: “A1: My biggest pain point is competitive spend.”
• Sales rep: “A1: I’ve worked with a lot of people who’ve expressed similar frustrations. Check out this great blog post on auction insights a client of mine recently wrote.”

Show up to these chats regularly and know when to contribute and when to listen. You’ll make connections with people each week, and you can ask if it’s alright to follow up with a few of them offline after you’ve built foundational rapport.

3. Answer Quora and Reddit questions.

You can take a similar approach to Quora or Reddit as you’d take on X chats: Always Be Providing Value (ABVP).

Quora is a knowledge-sharing platform on which users can ask questions and receive answers from industry experts around the world. Good answers are upvoted and appear at the top of the page.

Create a free account, make sure to fill out your profile, and choose your interests. Get a feel for the platform by answering questions. Again, never be overtly salesy. Answer questions you have a background in, and consider rewording blog posts from your company’s website to provide organized and well-researched responses.

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When appropriate, link to a few different articles that might answer your prospect’s next few questions on the matter.

View Quora as a rapport-building tool, and only offer your solution or ask for more of their time if there’s an opening or you’ve connected on another platform like LinkedIn.

4. Optimize your email signature.

The most valuable real estate in any email you send is arguably the email signature. You can sell without selling.

Start by adding a professional headshot, your appropriate contact information, and, if possible, your company logo (hyperlinked back to your website). As a bonus, add recent awards or industry accolades your company has received, links to popular blog posts, a snappy customer review, product announcements, or a calendar link to book time with you.

Expert tip: “Use email signature optimization combined with setting a lead bot. Over 200 leads per quarter were generated just by adding a CTA in email signatures. Adding an AI chatbot to the website also increased the number of qualified leads received after business hours by 40%.” — Jose Gallegos, Growth Marketer & Founder of Jose Angelo Studios.

Pack your email signature with as much value as the body of the email itself and optimize regularly. Need some help getting started? Try this email signature generator.

5. Solicit customer reviews.

Before making a purchase, 95% of consumers read online reviews. So, isn’t it time you make sure your reviews are everywhere? Ask your Customer Support team for a list of happy customers, or pull your top NPS scores and reach out to those customers.

You can even run campaigns asking these happy clients to leave reviews on customer review sites like G2 and Capterra. Having a strong presence on these sites can be a huge lead driver for your business.

Paying for a vendor account on a peer review site comes with added benefits, including customized landing pages, access to industry-specific reports and data, and premium placement in their software directories.

6. Work with marketing.

Whether the stereotype of mortal enemies, sales and marketing, is true for your organization or not, it’s important for reps to understand the importance — and the lucrative nature — of having a strong working relationship with their marketing team.

Here are a few areas to partner with them on:

• SEO. Share trends you’re seeing and hearing from your prospects. For example, let’s say you’re a recruiting service. If you notice a trend in “outsourced recruiting,” you could recommend that your marketing team target that keyword in their content, paid ads, and other SEO strategies to bring in more qualified leads.
• Paid Ads. Share keywords or pain points you hear come up a lot in your calls with prospects. If a common pain point you hear prospects cite is their difficulty giving recruiting the time necessary to do it well, you might share that with Marketing and recommend they run paid ads that speak to this pain point.
• Content. Similarly, routinely meet with Marketing and share common objections or concerns your prospects are bringing to you. Ask them to create blog posts, white papers, and case studies that speak to those objections and educate your prospects before those objections arise.

HubSpot CRM connects your marketing, sales, and customer service on one platform. Sales teams can track activity, manage pipelines, and close more deals with tools like meeting schedulers, email templates, and AI writers.

7. Participate in LinkedIn Groups.

Like X and Quora, the goal of joining LinkedIn Groups is not to spam everyone in the group with your offer. Search for industry groups where you know some target accounts and ideal customers hang out. Become a contributor to the group and build relationships with members by offering value and listening.

Leslie Omaña Begert, Co-founder and Creator of FabuLingua, a learning app for Spanish, shared what has worked best for her business:

“Drawing from our experience cultivating language learning communities, LinkedIn groups emerged as our most powerful B2B connection point. The traditional sales playbook falls short when you’re trying to reach educators and learning institutions genuinely interested in innovative teaching methods.”

Our breakthrough came when we shifted from promotional posts to sharing real stories of language learning transformation in educational LinkedIn groups. During one discussion about engaging young learners, I shared how a Texas elementary school implemented our storytelling approach. Their Spanish program saw unprecedented engagement, with students spontaneously using the language outside class. This authentic success story sparked dozens of meaningful conversations with other educators.”

Their main tactic? Shifting from selling to solving real problems. When a group member asked about keeping students motivated, they shared insights from their story-driven method.

Begert wraps it up: “These contributions positioned us as trusted education partners rather than vendors. School administrators started reaching out proactively, already convinced of our expertise through our consistent value-adding presence.”

9 B2B Lead Generation Tips from Experts

Strategies are one thing, but there’s no substitute for real-world experience. Here are nine expert tips to help supercharge your lead generation.

1. Consider the end goal.

It might seem counterintuitive, but your end goal isn’t making sales — it’s making customers. Sales in isolation drive temporary revenue increases, but if every lead buys one product or service and never comes back, your potential pool of purchasers quickly dries up.

Customers, meanwhile, represent a steady revenue stream, as they regularly return to make additional purchases or upgrades.

This is especially critical for B2B lead generation. B2B sales processes typically take longer than their B2C counterparts, have higher purchase prices, and may include multi-year contracts.

2. See opportunities, not failures.

What happens when you don’t make the sale? It’s an inevitable part of the B2B experience: Negotiations that are going well may suddenly stall, or business needs may change in response to market demand, leading to sales that almost cross the finish line but come up just short.

While it’s tempting to see these unclosed deals as failures, they’re actually opportunities. Here’s why: If sales teams can forge relationships with B2B prospects, they can set the stage for opportunities down the line.

Consider a B2B lead that abruptly pivots due to changes in business strategy. Rather than simply walking away, sales teams can recommend tech- or service-agnostic products that could help leads solve their current challenges. The result? When it comes time to make new B2B purchases, your company is top-of-mind.

3. Be smart about social media.

Great content helps capture lead interest and kickstart conversations. Social media can help amplify the impact of content — for good and for ill.

For example, if you’ve got in-depth content that’s performing well in SEO and generating leads, posting it on social media can help drive more interest and create more opportunities. If, however, your content isn’t getting the response you anticipate, social media will make the problem worse. The only difference? More people will see it happen in real time.

Put simply, social media is like a loudspeaker. Don’t announce anything you don’t want heard.

4. Test, test, test.

It’s not new. It’s not flashy. But it is absolutely necessary for your B2B campaigns to succeed: Test, test, test. And when you’re done, test some more.

Here’s why: What you don’t know can hurt your bottom line. Consider a new marketing campaign with a new logo and tagline for your value proposition. On paper, it looks like a great idea. C-suites love it, marketing teams are excited, and sales teams are ready to start fielding calls. And then … nothing happens.

As it turns out, your new campaign didn’t resonate with your target audience. Now, you’re left with two choices: Sink more money into a failing effort or scrap the project and start over, costing even more time and money.

Thankfully, there’s an alternative: Test. Use A/B testing to try out campaign ideas and see which one sticks. Use surveys, emails, and even phone calls to discover what prospects like about your website, your content, and your campaigns. Make changes in line with their responses, and then — you guessed it — test.

5. Leverage long-tail keywords.

Wondering how to generate b2b leads through SEO efforts? You need to look in the right place. Sure, you could spend time and money creating general campaigns that might capture some target audience interest but will mostly go unnoticed. Or, you can make sure that you find your audience — and your audience can find you.

To accomplish this goal, start by defining your target B2B customer. What industry(s) are they in? What does their budget look like? What are their pain points? Once you’ve found your audience, find where they are online. Look at their websites, their social media pages, and their recent press releases.

This gives you a sense of what these leads have, what they want, and what they’re looking for. Equipped with this information, conduct a keyword volume search. What you’re looking for are long-tail keywords — keywords that are three or more words long.

These keywords have lower search volume than their shorter counterparts but target a specific audience. Prospects searching these keywords know what they want and are far more likely to convert. By finding your audience and identifying their ideal keywords, you can capture more of your target market.

6. Implement a lead scoring system.

Not all leads are created equal. Lead scoring helps prioritize the most qualified leads based on factors such as industry, budget, engagement with your content, and interactions with your sales team.

Assign a score to each lead, so you can focus your efforts on those who are most likely to convert.

Having the right lead scoring system in place made all the difference for Expo-Genie’s sales team. Before using SalesWings, they had no way to track lead interest beyond email opens.

The team was flying blind when it came to understanding who was truly engaged. With predictive lead scoring in Salesforce, the sales team could track website visits and identify when leads became warm or hot, even weeks after the initial contact.

This helped them target leads at the perfect moment, leading to a 30% increase in opportunities, a 25% boost in closed deals, and an extra $20K in revenue over the past few months.

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7. Use webinars.

Webinars are an effective way to generate B2B leads by sharing valuable content and engaging with your audience live. Promoting relevant topics attracts leads, while a Q&A session builds trust and showcases your expertise.

One of my favorite books is Diary of A First-Time CMO Vol 1 by Cognism’s CMO, Alice de Courcy, in which she talks about how, in the early days at Cognism, she turned webinars into a winning tactic.

Courcy changed her “make that sale” mindset and instead of chasing sign-ups, she focused on creating content that fueled more engaging, high-impact webinars. Plus, she rewarded attendees to boost participation.

Alice hosts live cold-calling sessions where participants can try out their scripts and make calls, while a subject matter expert provides real-time coaching to help them improve.

If attendees miss the live session, they lose out on the chance for personalized, one-on-one feedback.

8. Implement referral programs.

Get your current clients to spread the word. Offer irresistible incentives like discounts, exclusive content, or special rewards for every referral. Since people trust recommendations from colleagues or partners, tapping into your existing network can bring in highly qualified leads who already know and love your business.

I’ve recently read a great case study by Referral Factory that highlights how a B2B financial services business grew significantly through a referral program. This company faced challenges — low conversion rates from PPC ads and difficulty reaching the right audience.

To overcome these struggles, they launched a double-sided referral program where both the referrer and the new customer received rewards. For every successful referral, the referrer earned an Amazon voucher, and the new customer received a £25 discount. They promoted the program through email marketing and added referral links across their website and transactional emails.

The results were nice:

• 5,691 leads generated
• 3,758 new customers acquired
• 66% conversion rate.

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What stood out was the viral effect: 21% of referred customers went on to refer others, creating a strong loop of growth.

9. Start with free to make more sales.

“The way you position yourself at the beginning of a relationship has a profound impact on where you end up,” notes Ron Karr, author of Lead, Sell, or Get Out of the Way.

The old saying holds true: You never get a second chance to make a first impression. And what better way to make a great first impression than by offering leads for free? Maybe it’s a demo of your product, a free eBook, or in-depth market research.

As long as it’s something that your target audience wants, it’s a great way to get the relationship off to a great start and demonstrate that you understand the market.

The Winning Formula: Mix and Match

If I had to choose just one strategy from these seven or one tip from these 9, I couldn‘t. I can’t even say that one works better than the others.

The combination of several is what actually brings the desired results. Recognizing what will work and what your audience will love is “the key to the success” you’re looking for.

Try out multiple tips and strategies to see what combination works best for your product, market, and B2B sales lead generation goals.

What do you think of when you hear sales canvassing? Door-to-door visits? Politicians pitching their platforms? Fundraising calls?

Sales canvassing comes with that all and much more, and is a common practice in sales. In this piece, I will give an overview of sales canvassing, explain the strategy’s benefits, and give salespeople’ tips for succeeding with canvassing techniques.

Table of Contents

• What is canvassing in sales?
• Benefits of Sales Canvassing
• Sales Canvassing Tips

Contact with these new leads can occur through four different methods: cold-calls, door-to-door visits, email and mail, and networking.”

Cold Call

When canvassing through cold calls, a salesperson will call prospects after obtaining their phone numbers. These calls are unsolicited, meaning that there is no previous contact between the salesperson and the customer, and the customer has not asked to receive a call from said salesperson.

According to The State of Cold Calling 2024, this approach typically yields a conversion rate of about 5%, with sales reps needing an average of three cold calls to establish contact with a lead.

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Cold-calling is typically done as an effort to make direct sales or drive leads and nurture customer relationships. For example, if you don’t close a deal over the phone and convince a customer to purchase your service, maybe you’ve persuaded them enough to sign up for an email list. From there, you can send follow-up emails and further nurture the relationship, and encourage them to become customers.

However, for cold calling to truly be effective, we all know it has to be done exceptionally well. Smart. Thoughtful. Without rushing or sounding like you’re just trying to sell something.

💡Example: When a prospect mentioned working with another vendor, say, “That’s exactly why I’m calling,” subtly positioning your offering as complementary or an opportunity to uncover gaps rather than as a direct replacement.

Top three tips I learned from this webinar:

• Avoid sounding overly pushy or assumptive.
• Use curiosity-driven phrases like, “I’m not sure if it is or isn’t,” to engage prospects without pressure.
• Frame offers as “second opinions” or a chance to double-check current solutions, making your approach feel less threatening and more helpful.

Door-To-Door

Door-to-door canvassing involves visiting the households and businesses of prospects that you’ve identified as being able to utilize your product or service.

Door-to-door sales typically see a 2% lead conversion rate, but top-performing reps often exceed this benchmark. While 2% might not sound impressive at first, let’s try to look at it this way:

D2D sales rep approaches 100 people in a day. With a 2% conversion rate, that results in 2 sales. Over a 20-day work month, that adds up to 40 sales.

The best thing about this is that you’re only visiting relevant locations, and the homes and businesses aren’t chosen at random. Like cold calls, the customers haven’t asked to receive a visit from you, which classifies the practice as a canvassing strategy.

For example, if you’re going door-to-door to advertise your tree trimming business, you’d purposely choose neighborhoods where homes have a significant amount of foliage. Going elsewhere would be useless, as there wouldn’t be any work for you there.

The fear of hearing “no” when you’re face-to-face with someone is always worse than reading it in a message or hearing it over the phone. But you’ll love this piece of advice Oliver Lester shared in one of his sales lessons:

“One key thing is to get in the right mental state before you even knock. Confidence is everything. And here’s the thing: I don’t get confidence from a homeowner telling me I’m good or from making a sale. Confidence comes from me deciding I’m good enough and flooding my brain with positivity.”

Mail and Email

Canvassing via postal mail and email involves sending a written sales offer to prospects via postal mail or email. They’re less direct forms of canvassing, but the contacts receiving your pitch are still new.

This method is a valuable strategy, as customers have the opportunity to assess your product or service on their own, rather than feeling the pressure to make a decision over the phone or face-to-face. If a customer feels stressed because you want a response right away, they may be more inclined to say no.

Common everyday examples of postal mail canvassing are advertisements that you receive in the mail from local businesses. Maybe there’s a new restaurant down the street, and they’ve written compelling copy to convince you to visit their restaurant.

And when it comes to crafting emails that sell, I came across a great Mailshake case study worth reading. Robert Allen from Acme Advisors & Brokers transformed his cold email strategy with a simple A/B test, increasing his reply rate from 9.8% to 18%.

How did he do it?

Allen analyzed negative replies and uncovered a recurring issue: recipients were questioning the legitimacy of his offer. This insight became the foundation for his strategy shift and eventual success.

He replaced vague phrases like “potential buyer” with specific details about why each business was being targeted.

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This extra personalization not only eased skepticism but also increased positive responses to over 70%, leading to 30+ meetings from just 206 prospects!

So, to succeed in outreach, listen to feedback, tweak your messaging, and watch your results soar.

Explore the topic: I highly recommend Lemlist’s sales playbooks to refine your canvassing email skills.

Networking

Networking is another form of direct sales canvassing, and it typically occurs at events that salespeople attend because they know prospective customers will be in attendance.

For example, a sportswear company may have their salesperson go to a volleyball tournament because they know there will be teams there that may sign deals with you to use your clothing as their team uniform.

Although networking is a targeted effort, it’s not meant to close on-the-spot deals but rather to plant seeds for the future. Your prospects may give you their email or phone number that you can use to set up further appointments for sales-focused conversations.

Remember that networking is great but also quite risky and, I’d say, a slippery slope. You don’t want to come off as intrusive, and under no circumstances should it be obvious that your goal is to sell.

As Tom Abbott says, “As much as I love speakers, they always want to promote themselves. Don’t be that guy.”

What to do instead?

If you ask the legendary business coach Andy Elliott, he puts it perfectly: Mastering sales networking is about “mastering” a stranger. His tips focus on building genuine connections and tearing down barriers.

Smile and make a great first impression.

Start every interaction with a big smile — one that shows your teeth and shines through your eyes. A warm and welcoming demeanor instantly sets a positive tone. As Elliott says, your attitude can uplift someone else’s day. Combine this with a firm handshake, fist bump, or high five to create an instant connection.

Speak with familiarity.

Approach people as if you’ve known them for years. Avoid robotic sales pitches and instead focus on being relatable and likable. Comment on the event, their company, or a general vibe of the event. Explore shared pain points in their role. A head of sales must struggle with setting up a good lead score, so you can ask them about that and simultaneously qualify a lead.

Whether you’re selling a product or an idea, people are more likely to engage if they feel comfortable around you.

Be genuine and practice consistently.

According to Andy, getting these skills takes practice. Make it a habit to greet every person you pass with a friendly “Hey, how are you doing?”

This simple act opens doors for deeper conversations. Genuine care for others is the foundation of long-term relationships, and in sales, this authenticity leads to trust — and success.

Watch a short Elliot’s training for more tips:

Benefits of Sales Canvassing

Some salespeople may feel apprehensive about engaging in canvassing, as it may force them out of their comfort zone. Cold-calling people that you’ve had zero contact with can seem daunting, especially since sales calls can come with rejection. However, there are significant benefits that canvassing can bring to salespeople and the businesses they work for.

1. Unlimited contact opportunities

For businesses, a significant benefit to sales canvassing is that there is never a shortage of contacts. Once you’ve outlined your target audience, simply generate a list of prospects that fall into this category, and you can begin calling them, visiting their business, and sending them mail. If your business is experiencing a period of stagnant growth, sales canvassing is a valuable strategy to consider when existing leads are running dry.

2. Deep insights into the target audience

Cold-calling customers can also help businesses learn more about their target audiences. To explain the reason behind your call, you’ll need to give detailed information about the product or service you’re selling and why it will benefit them.

The prospect will need to follow up with an answer, likely providing reasoning and information behind their decision. These personalized interactions give more information about customers than what is gained from them signing up or subscribing to your service from your website.

3. Cost-effectiveness

Canvassing is also economical, as it doesn’t require any additional money spent on hiring and training sales consultants or creating new departments.

The teams that already exist within your sales department can participate in canvassing, from salespeople to sales managers.

4. Unlimited skill growth and development

The salespeople who do take part in canvassing will learn valuable sales skills, like learning how to deal with rejection, the best ways to communicate with customers, and how to create sales pitches that convert customers and drive sales. You’ll learn the strategies that bring you the most success so you can continue using them as you grow in your role.

A benefit for both salespeople and the businesses they work for is that there is no limit to canvassing. You can call as many people as you want, send as many emails as you wish, and visit as many houses as you want. There is an unlimited number of actions you can take, which helps businesses expand their clientele and is valuable for salespeople looking to gain experience and perfect their skills.

Sales Canvassing Tips

Effective sales canvassing is a great way to manage your sales territory and learn new skills. Nevertheless, the process may feel daunting, as it’s all about making contact when there’s never been contact before.

Let’s go over a few tips for salespeople to keep in mind when canvassing.

Identify target markets.

Without knowing who your customers are, it’ll be challenging to create a prospect list. Thus, a crucial practice in sales canvassing is identifying your target markets. Do this by creating buyer personas — representations of your ideal customers that are created based on relevant data and research.

HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool can help you through this process.

Example

If you offer landscaping services, the prospects you contact must be land plot owners, have a garden or yard, etc. Those who would use that service. You wouldn’t want to reach out to people who live in apartment buildings, as they have little use for gardening when they don’t have their own yard. A better-suited prospect would be the building manager or property owner.

Having the necessary information to understand who your customers are and who they should be makes it easier to focus your time on qualified leads, saving you time and effort. Creating buyer personas and identifying target markets is beneficial for small businesses and enterprise companies alike.

The best example I can think of in email sales canvassing is how Peregrine, a turn-key commercial solar power service, set 55 appointments and closed two deals in 6 months.

Source

With Belkins’ help, the team used Google Earth to measure the square footage of the roof and other sources to estimate the average monthly electricity bill. This way, they sourced only those leads who could gain from the proposal and save a feasible amount of money from electricity bills.

Set goals.

This step influences a sales pitch. The goals may vary:

• Solicit customer feedback and upsell.
• Qualify a lead.
• Make an instant sale or attract first-time customers.
• Spark interest and lay the groundwork for future connections.

Or maybe your business hopes to grow its client list by 5% each quarter.

It’s also essential for you to set daily goals within those overarching goals. For example, maybe you have a goal to call 100 people by the end of the workday and obtain contact information from 25% of those calls. Whatever your reasoning is, identifying a purpose at the beginning will translate to the right words in your sales pitch.

Create a sales pitch.

Your pitch should clearly show the prospect why your product or service is perfect for them and how it will meet their needs. In the realm of 2025, the only pitch that will yield results is hyper-personalized.

Upskill: Peak at how to create a personalized email campaign for manufacturing with email templates that deliver.

Creating a sales pitch ahead of time can also help you prepare yourself and quell any anxieties you may have from cold calling or knocking on doors. If you’re calling many people within a day, this can also be a time-saving practice that helps you stay focused and organized.

I talked to Edward White, head of growth at beehiiv, and here’s what he recommends for pitching during networking:

“When canvassing new creators at events, I bring a brief, tailored report that shows how newsletters in their niche are performing. For instance, I recently approached a fitness coach who wasn’t monetizing their email list. I shared stats showing that sponsorships for fitness newsletters average $3,000 a month, with examples from similar-sized creators,” White says.

White notes that this approach cuts through skepticism because it gives them something tangible.

“It’s shortened my average pitch by 15 minutes and doubled follow-ups since they’re already intrigued by real numbers. Sharing actionable insights upfront proves our value and keeps their attention, even when they didn’t know us before,” White says.

If you’re a sales manager leading a team that often canvasses, consider creating a sales playbook where you share scripts and pitches that salespeople can follow when making calls and visiting businesses.

Don’t fret about hearing “no,” and be understanding.

A common trope that people associate with canvassing is rejection. While it may be difficult to understand, receiving a no from customers shouldn’t be taken personally. Understand that some people just aren’t interested in what you have to offer. Even when their “no” sounds harsh.

When talking to prospects who respond positively, they may still have questions or worries that they’re relying on you to address before they say yes. Be understanding of their pain points, and present yourself as the best resource to solve them.

Regardless of outcomes, recognize that people who are saying no likely have a good reason to do so. Some people dislike cold calls or being interrupted by a knock at the door. Others will see your sales email and flag it as junk or throw your brochures away. Aim to be understanding, no matter the outcome, and don’t take negativity personally should you encounter it.

Show, don’t just tell.

Rather than jumping straight into your pitch, share a short, relatable story about a problem you’ve solved. It makes your offer feel more personal and catches the listener’s attention.

Here’s a role-play scenario from Steven Spieczny, VP of Marketing at KOGNIC:

• Steven: “Hi, I’m Steven Spieczny from KOGNIC. You know, I recently worked with a mid-sized tech company that struggled to make sense of their data, and they were overwhelmed and couldn’t act fast enough. With our platform, they turned that around in just a few weeks and started making smarter decisions.”
• Prospect: “Is that so? What exactly did you do for them?”
• Steven: “We helped them integrate their data sources into one seamless system and used AI to identify trends they couldn’t see before. Could something like that help your team?”

“Prospects see how your product works through the lens of someone like them, making it easier to connect the dots,” says Spieczny.

Use a CRM.

When customers aren’t already in your system, it may be challenging to keep track of conversations with them, especially if you’re calling a significant number of people in a day. If people don’t give definitive yes or no answers over the phone, it’s also important to nurture that relationship and follow up with them.

At HubSpot, our Sales Hub helps salespeople streamline their processes. Within the platform, there are a variety of useful tools, like Sales Calling. Cold-callers will find value in this, as the platform allows you to make calls, record them, and take notes on the conversations you’re having (shown below).

When paired with the Sales Automation tool, it becomes even easier to follow up with leads that haven’t given definitive yes or no answers.

You can note their hesitation within the call record and then use the sales automation email tool to schedule follow-up contact to nurture relationships and convert them to customers. The image below depicts the follow-up automation options offered by the tool.

Hone your canvassing skills.

When I started out in sales, I was also afraid of hearing rejections, prospects yelling at me, or questioning my niche knowledge. The book “SPIN Selling” by Neil Rackham came to the rescue.

This is a holy grail for all salespeople who want to sell confidently and prevent or combat rejections. The book is based on real sales metrics, A/B tests, and role-play examples.

Invest time in canvassing books and training as they prepare you to encounter real sales challenges and come out as a winner.

A few good reads would be:

• “Selling to the C-Suite” by Nicholas A.C. Read and Stephen J. Bistritz — Focuses on gaining access to high-level decision-makers, an important aspect of advanced canvassing strategies.
• “The Art of Prospecting: Your Guide to Getting in the Door” by Tony Hughes — A practical guide to modern prospecting, including strategies for canvassing and using digital tools to supplement face-to-face efforts.
• “Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It” by Chris Voss — Teaches you the use of tactical empathy to build trust and rapport and introduces the “No” approach to build stronger agreements.

From “No” to Grow: Turn Rejection into Success

In sum, sales canvassing helps businesses grow. There’s an endless list of potential customers, and by reaching out and building relationships with new prospects, companies can expand their customer base.

Is it easy? Definitely not. You’ll hear “no” a lot and probably get some not-so-nice responses. But it’s all part of the process and progress, so don’t take it personally. Learn to filter it out.

Good communication and a solid approach are the keys that unlock (almost) every door.

Besides benefiting the business, salespeople who canvass gain valuable experience in learning how to engage with customers, answer their questions, and deliver compelling pitches that drive leads and close deals.

Staying in touch consistently is key to keeping sales prospects interested, customers engaged, and vendors happy. But with all the contact data flying around, that’s easier said than done. That’s where a contact management system comes to the rescue.

In this blog, I’ve rounded up 14 powerful contact management tools that’ll help your sales, marketing, and service teams stay effortlessly connected.

Table of Contents

• What is contact management?
• What is contact management software?
• 14 Contact Management Software Tools to Try
• The Case for Contact Management
• Benefits of Contact Management Software
• How to Choose the Right Contact Management Software

Efficient contact management helps businesses effectively use their contacts. It enables personalized communication, better customer service, and improved sales opportunities.

“Contact management software” is a catch-all term for data management software.

This software lets you track prospect, customer, and vendor contact information. This can include data like:

• Addresses.
• Individual employees.
• Associated companies.
• Open quotes.
• Orders.
• Sales history.

It’s a resource that can improve your sales efforts by simplifying communication and creating a single source of truth. Contact management software can also help streamline processes like outreach and lead qualification.

Contact Management Software vs. Customer Relationship Management System

Contact management software and customer relationship management (CRM) systems both handle data management and communication. But, CRMs can also help businesses manage sales, marketing, and customer service. A CRM can give a business a clear overview of the customer experience for advanced analysis, forecasting, reporting, and outreach.

In short, contact management software manages individual contact data, while a CRM system manages the full customer journey to drive business growth.

Try HubSpot CRM for free.

The Case for Contact Management

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned throughout my career is the power of consistent communication.

Early on in my career, I was tasked with organizing multiple projects at once, each requiring me to stay in touch with clients, colleagues, and vendors. Juggling all these interactions was no small feat. On a typical day, I would find myself reaching out to clients for updates or contacting partners for collaboration. With so many moving parts, my desk would quickly fill up with sticky notes, notebooks, and random scraps of paper, each containing important names, phone numbers, and deadlines.

The problem? If I lost one of these notes, it could throw off an entire project. I quickly realized how crucial it was to have organized, accessible contact information — and contact management software would have made my job much easier by centralizing all that information in one place.

Thankfully, technology has evolved to fill this gap.

Benefits of Contact Management Software

Here, I’ll highlight some of the key benefits of contact management software.

You can do more with less.

Some businesses use spreadsheets to organize contact data or let employees have their own system for keeping contacts. Besides creating chaos and bottlenecks, this approach silos information. A central space for contact management can:

• Save your employees’ time.
• Increase productivity.
• Give your team a more streamlined workflow.

It also enables you to add automation and other time-savers to your contact processes.

You can improve customer relationships.

Every conversation with every customer matters. A central source of customer data can make unique details available to the team members who need them. This helps your business meet expectations, nurture customer relationships, and personalize communication.

I’ve found that contact management software can improve the customer experience for greater satisfaction and loyalty.

You can enhance sales performance.

Contact management software often includes tools to:

• Manage sales leads.
• Keep track of sales activities.
• Analyze sales performance.

These tools can help your team find the best opportunities and use data to improve the sales process. These improvements can lead to higher win rates, shorter sales cycles, and better sales performance.

According to HubSpot’s State of Sales survey, 34% of sales teams say the biggest benefit of these tools is tracking leads, while 28% highlight improved customer retention.

You can enable team collaboration.

A central platform for contact details keeps customers from getting passed from department to department when they have a problem to solve. It makes it easier for teams to share the work it takes to keep your customers happy.

Improved collaboration means better results for your customers and your business. Check out this guide for more tips on making the most of your contact management software.

1. HubSpot

Price: Free forever; paid plans for larger businesses.

Get HubSpot’s Completely Free CRM

HubSpot’s free CRM is a contact management tool, plus so much more. You’ll never have to manually add or update contact records — HubSpot will take care of that for you after every interaction you have with a contact. Plus, contact records are enriched automatically with data from over 20 million businesses.

The CRM and contact management system is easy to get started with, use, and navigate.

Best features:

• Contact management.
• Pipeline management.
• Reporting dashboards.
• Company insights.
• Deal tracking.
• Email tracking and notifications.
• Prospect tracking.
• Meeting scheduling.
• Live chat.

The CRM is entirely free forever, but you can upgrade at any time to a paid plan for more features as your business scales.

Useful customer feedback: “Managing hundreds and thousands of contacts is next to impossible without a CRM, and HubSpot makes the job very easy with all the automation and reporting available. It’s perfect for organizing and transmitting all sales materials.”

💡Pro tip: Get HubSpot’s free-forever CRM platform that’s easy to start, will scale with your business, and allow you to grow better.

What I like: Sure, I’m biased because this piece lives on the HubSpot blog — but that doesn’t change the fact that HubSpot is a stand-out CRM with great contact management features.

The biggest benefit for businesses is the automation that comes standard with HubSpot. While it’s great to have a contact management tool that lets you input relevant customer, lead, and vendor data, it’s even better to have one that does it automatically, letting you focus on the next task at hand.

2. BIGContacts

Price: Free; paid plans start at $9.99 per month for 1,000 contacts.

BIGContacts CRM simplifies contact management to help small businesses build customer relationships. The tool offers a detailed view of contact records, including their phone numbers, location, emails, previous touches, transaction history, notes, and upcoming interactions.

You can store extra information under custom fields as well. Then, use these comprehensive contact records to personalize various outreach communications and campaigns.

BIGContacts allows you to capture data from web forms automatically, eliminating manual effort and potential errors. The platform brings contacts and tasks to one place, making it easy to stay updated with upcoming activities.

The contact management CRM provides the functionality to tag and sort contacts through static and dynamic contact lists to improve segmentation.

The tool integrates with several business applications, such as accounting, analytics, and marketing software. I think this makes it easier to manage everything related to your contacts from a single platform. BIGContacts also provides remote access, allowing you to keep tabs on your contacts from anywhere.

Best features:

• Comprehensive contact management.
• Automated tasks and reminders.

• Email marketing integration.
• Customizable sales pipeline.
• Reporting and analytics.

Useful customer feedback: “Adjusting to working with the software is very easy. Users can share information and view each other’s activities related to certain job tasks.”

What I like: I like free things. You like free things. We all like free things. BIGContacts offers a “Forever Free” account that includes contact management and marketing campaigns for up to 100 contacts per month. Need more? It’s $9.99 per month for 1,000 contacts and additional features.

Speaking of features, I’m a big fan of BIGContacts import spreadsheets option and its automated follow-up tasks, both of which save sales and marketing teams a lot of manual work.

3. Contact Boss

Price: Plans start from $10 per user/month.

Contact Boss is a CRM solution for small businesses. The name makes it clear: Contact Boss is all about helping businesses effectively manage their contacts. Features include legacy data transfer of existing contacts into Contact Boss’s cloud-based CRM solution, along with the ability to create contact reminders and quickly search for contact information.

Not sure if Contact Boss is for you? Start with a one-month free trial and see if it’s a good fit.

Best features:

• Event management.
• Visitor contact capture.
• Audit and security functions.
• Customizable fields and categories.
• Email integration.

Useful customer feedback: “The best thing about CRM Database Manager is how easily we can manage visitor and call logs, plus the flexibility the product offers is amazing.”

What I like: Creating contacts was — as you’d expect — easy with Contact Boss. What I really liked was the ability to either create a contact from scratch by inputting all relevant data or use the “Quick Create” to fill in key details and then update contact info as time permits.

4. Jotform

Price: Free; paid plans start at $34 per month, with custom pricing available for Enterprise.

Experience the power of Jotform, an exceptional online application that empowers you to create and manage custom online forms for any occasion. The intuitive drag-and-drop user interface, combined with a no-code building tool, enables you to design forms, build apps, collect e-signatures, generate reports, and efficiently manage form data.

Enhance your workflow with Jotform’s vast platform, offering hundreds of valuable tools and widgets for seamless integration with various applications. Connect with CRM, project management tools, payment processors, analytics tools, and more.

Jotform Enterprise is a versatile and powerful solution that elevates your company’s productivity and efficiency.

Best features:

• Customizable online forms.
• CRM integrations with ActiveCampaign and Nextiva.
• Data management.
• Supports integration with payment gateways.
• Conditional logic functionality (IF/THEN checks to determine an outcome).

Useful customer feedback: “It allows me to easily create and customize forms without any technical expertise, and the drag-and-drop functionality makes the entire process intuitive. Additionally, the wide range of templates and integrations ensures that I can tailor each form to meet specific needs, whether it’s for event registrations, surveys, or payment collections.”

What I like: Jotform lets me easily build forms so I can capture exactly the data I want, the way I want it. This means less time spent combing through data for relevant information — since you make the form, you can make sure it’s capturing exactly what you need.

5. ActiveCampaign

Price: Plans start at $26 per month.

ActiveCampaign is a customer experience automation platform with a range of contact management features and capabilities.

I love that ActiveCampaign pairs its contact management capabilities with your customer lifecycle.

The process begins with reaching and engaging your audience, then nurturing and educating them, followed by converting and closing them, and lastly, supporting their growth. To start, the tool will have you create a contact list.

From there, simply add existing email contacts and then organize your contacts by list, tag, or custom field.

ActiveCampaign will prompt you to build segments for your customers to allow you to target and personalize content for them. This contact management solution will help you segment based on communications like emails and forms, too. Then, it’ll identify and pull out behavioral actions that will teach you more about customers in those segments.

ActiveCampaign also provides case studies. This can help you learn about the ways that other companies like yours are using the software’s contact management tools and how they segment their customers.

Best features:

• Email marketing automation.
• Sales automation CRM.
• Customer experience automation across various channels.
• Connects with over 900 applications.
• Advanced segmentation.

Useful customer feedback: “With ActiveCampaign…you can schedule appointments, add notes to contacts, and send them direct messages. To improve the overall user experience, you can send personalized messages to your website users.”

What I like: It’s no easy task for your sales teams to find qualified leads and close deals. What stood out to me about ActiveCampaign was its use of intelligent automation to streamline the contact capture process.

For example, if a contact visits your web page, the tool automatically updates their status to “Interested.” If potential spend meets or exceeds the value you set, a task is automatically created to call the customer. If not, automatic leading nurturing is implemented to help engage potential buyers.

6. Freshworks (Freshsales)

Price: CRM plans start at $9 per user/month.

Freshsales (from Freshworks) is a CRM and contact management system that helps you manage and nurture your contacts to create strong and lasting relationships with them. It automates contact data entry for you and provides 360-degree views of individual customers.

It tracks sales activities, manages sales tasks and appointments, and allows you to place calls or send emails without having to leave the tool. You can integrate with Google Workspace to access Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, and more, all from this system.

Best features:

• AI-powered lead scoring.
• 360° contact view.
• Built-in phone and email.
• Workflow automation.
• Customizable sales pipelines.

Useful customer feedback: “Users can efficiently manage their contacts, track interactions, and maintain a comprehensive view of customer details, such as email conversations, phone calls, and social media interactions.”

What I like: Freshworks doesn’t just work to improve your contact management — it does so in a way that makes this data easier to track, view, and manage. Drag-and-drop cards combined with clean sign-board interfaces make it easy to see what’s been done, what needs doing, and who’s doing what.

7. Moosend

Price: Plans start at $9 per month.

Moosend is an email marketing automation platform with advanced audience management features to keep your contacts organized. Its CRM capabilities let you easily manage your contacts through the contacts dashboard, monitoring who is active and who bounced to optimize your strategy.

The advanced segmentation capabilities help you collect in-depth customer data. And you can easily tag your subscribers based on different criteria and information to create tailored content.

For example, Moosend’s custom fields personalize your subject lines and content based on your customers’ names, birthdays, locations, and more.

Moosend’s lead generation tools will also help you expand your mailing lists by converting newsletter sign-up forms and landing pages. You can automate your contact management through marketing automation by creating specific automated workflows that will keep your list clean and engaged based on user actions.

Best features:

• Email marketing capabilities.
• Marketing automation based on user behavior and triggers.
• Landing page builder.
• Advanced analytics.
• Ecommerce integration.

Useful customer feedback: “This platform targets the required audience itself. This platform allows users to schedule different campaigns. It is quite a useful feature because the user does not have to remember the time and date for starting them.”

What I like: It’s worth mentioning that the Moosend logo is a cow with an envelope in its mouth. What’s not to like about that? But (thankfully) that’s not the only great thing about Moosend. I think this contact management tool stands out in the ability to see data about all of your contacts simultaneously and filter data based on custom criteria.

8. Keap

Price: Plans start at $159 per month.

Keap is a CRM and sales and marketing platform with a client management solution for small businesses. The platform offers a central location for client activity and communications. Plus, the tool automates follow-ups, contact record creation, and contact record updates for you.

You can also quickly personalize communications with contacts (such as forms, emails, and sales follow-ups) using the contact data that’s stored in Keap.

Integrate Keap with Gmail or Outlook, so all your email interactions are automatically updated in the associated contact’s record. There is also a wide variety of other business tools and software you can integrate with Keap. All your data is up-to-date and accessible from a single location.

Best features:

• Client management.
• Customizable sales pipeline.
• Email campaigns and follow-up automation.
• Appointment scheduling.
• Invoicing and payments.

Useful customer feedback: “Keap became much easier to use as we got to know the right ways of doing things starting from tag naming conventions, right ways of using Goals, Campaign links, etc.”

What I like: Keap lets you keep everything in one place but doesn’t restrict where your contact information comes from. Data can be automatically collected from custom-built lead forms, landing pages, or social media campaigns.

Plus, contact pages aren’t static. You can take quick actions directly from records either on Keap desktop or the mobile app.

9. Bigin

Price: Free; paid plans starting at $7 per user/month.

I think the value of Zoho CRM’s Bigin is in its simplicity — you can operate it easily without sacrificing power or functionality. Plus, it lets you manage your contacts with a full view of any communication you’ve had with them.

Emails, tasks, and notes specific to your individual contacts are all accounted for and easy to access. It also features tools that help you apply the information gathered during those communications to your sales efforts.

The most basic version of the platform is free to use and can accommodate 500 contacts for an individual user. That plan is ideal for small businesses, startups, and freelancers. Meanwhile, Bigin’s paid subscriptions offer more flexibility and features.

Best features:

• Pipeline management.
• Email integration.
• Workflow automation.
• Customizable dashboards.

Useful customer feedback: “We use Bigin to completely manage the contacts of clients, which makes it effective when we want to communicate with them. Furthermore, Bigin makes workflow management more effective, after identifying the business opportunities for growth.”

What I like: Bigin has a simple philosophy. The best way to use spreadsheets for contact management is not using them at all. It’s both clever and correct — while spreadsheets are great for static data, they’re a poor choice for managing customer contacts.

Bigin offers a lightweight contact management solution that’s cost-effective, works on any platform, and easily integrates with more than 5,000 apps.

10. Bitrix24

Price: Free; paid plans start at $49 per month.

Bitrix24’s contact management software’s suite of features offers standard contact management resources, including a centralized database for collecting and tracking prospect and customer contact information.

The tool also automatically logs and records all phone calls reps place or receive. The same goes for email communications — if you sync your email address with the platform, your entire history of email exchanges will be stored in your Bitrix24 contact manager.

If you’re interested in a free solution with functionality that generally isn’t available with standard contact management software, I’d encourage you to consider Bitrix24. As your business grows and you want more out of your contact manager, Bitrix24’s paid plans can accommodate your needs at reasonable price points.

Best features:

• Unified workspace.
• Social intranet.
• Document management.
• Telephony integration.
• HR tools.

Useful customer feedback: “We needed a system that allowed for unified communication, contact tracking, document management, and office setup. Bitrix24 allowed us to get up and running quickly.”

What I like: Bitrix24 is all about AI-powered CRM. This isn’t the kind of AI that sounds great on paper but doesn’t really deliver.

Instead, it’s the functional kind of AI that lets you capture contact information from websites, forms, live chats, calls, or social messages and automatically add them to your CRM. Plus, you can create customized triggers based on contact actions that help you keep in touch.

11. Streak

Price: Free; paid plans start at $49 per user/month.

Streak’s contact management tools can be integrated into your Gmail inbox, working alongside all other Google Workspace applications. The software also allows you to both maintain and share a timeline of customer contacts and communications. This can include data about email records, call logs, files, notes, and tasks.

Streak offers custom views of your sales pipeline. You can search, filter, group, and sort your contact data in any configuration, save those results in custom views, and share that data with your team.

I like that Streak is an accessible software, designed to easily integrate with your Google applications. It’s free for personal use, but there are also paid professional and enterprise-level plans.

Best features:

• Operates entirely within Gmail.
• Sales pipeline management.
• Email tracking.
• Mail merge for sending personalized bulk emails.
• Collaboration tools.

Useful customer feedback: “Some additional features worth mentioning are that you can track the openings of the emails shared, associations of specific contacts with specific deals, and best of all, setting up the pipeline as you wish.”

What I like: Streak integration with Gmail makes data capture easy, but in the contact management space, that’s par for the course. Where Streak really stands out is Streak AI, its “ultimate CRM co-pilot.”

With Streak AI, you get automatic data entry, custom email creation, and the ability to get answers using plain-language questions. No more talking like a robot — just ask, and Streak AI will answer.

12. Pipedrive

Price: Plans start from $14.90 per user/month.

Pipedrive CRM is decidedly sales-oriented, and its contact management resources reflect that.

The contact management features are meant to enable hard sales with data and automation. They add a new degree of insight and intelligence to a company’s sales efforts by gathering smart contact data and automatically pre-qualifying leads.

The platform includes tools to retrieve web data about your contacts from online sources like LinkedIn. Using this information, the platform can give you insight into the viability of pursuing the leads you gather.

Best features:

• Visual sales pipeline.
• Automated activity reminders.
• Goal setting and reporting.
• Email integration.
• Connects with over 500 tools.

Useful customer feedback: “The UX/UI is simple. I repeat, it is simple and perfect for sales guys. The deal view and the contact/company views are just simple and easy to work with. Anyone can just customize or add new fields if required.”

What I like: Customization is central to Pipedrive. Instead of being forced to use pre-built CRM and contact templates, I appreciate that Pipedrive lets you build custom views that give you snapshots of relevant customer data on demand.

13. Nimble

Price: Plans start at $24.90 per user/month.

Nimble CRM’s contact management features allow you to access all your contacts — across any mobile, cloud-based, or desktop records — in a single relationship manager.

Nimble’s prospecting tool automatically displays all contact information and company details for prospects and customers, including all emails, social interactions, messages, notes, and calendar events you may have exchanged with them.

The platform works seamlessly with Google Workspace and Office365 and features over 100 app integrations. It’s a powerful, versatile tool for keeping tabs on your contacts, how you reach them, and how they might fit into your overall sales efforts.

Best features:

• Unified contact management.
• Social media integration.
• Email tracking and templates.
• Activity management.
• Customizable sales pipeline management and reporting.

Useful customer feedback: “The system is organized, and you don’t tend to get lost in the small details with contacts. The ease of use and the possibility of linking more than one company to one person is a great advantage. It is flexible and easy to configure.”

What I like: Nimble lets you create contact records from anywhere. This could be your email inbox, your LinkedIn profile, your website forms, or anywhere else on the web.

Even better? It “automatically” creates a contact list that uses your existing contact list as a starting point and builds out this base with social and business data.

14. Nutshell

Price: Plans start at $16 per user/month.

Nutshell acts as a central repository for all your company’s customer knowledge and data. It’s a single location for you and your team to store and reference contact details, call notes, and email conversations with customers.

The tool’s contact management infrastructure — paired with its powerful sales automation tools — can help you streamline your sales process and easily qualify leads.

Nutshell also integrates seamlessly with applications like Slack and Google Workspace and is designed to suit the needs of businesses of every size.

Best features:

• Contact and lead management.
• Sales sequence automation.
• Email marketing integration.
• Reporting and analytics.
• Team collaboration tools.

Useful customer feedback: “Nutshell’s functionality, support, and cost made it an easy and smart choice. Reminders for follow-up are well designed and can be set according to your cadence, making it easy to keep track of your contacts.”

What I like: In a nutshell (see what I did there?), Nutshell helps you find the contact data you need, when you need it. No more searching through records just to discover the data you have isn’t up-to-date. Instead, Nutshell always gives you the most recent data for every person and every business your teams interact with.

How to Choose the Right Contact Management Software

When you’re picking the right contact management software, you want features that do more than just store names and numbers. Whether you’re a growing SMB or a large enterprise, here’s a rundown of the top things to look for.

1. Centralized Contact View

I want a software solution that consolidates all my contact information — emails, phone numbers, notes, and communication history — in one place. This way, I can quickly get the full picture, whether managing a small client list or thousands of contacts.

Why I look for this: Having a 360-degree view of each contact saves time and improves accuracy, which is huge for customer relationships. With this feature, you can personalize interactions and keep everyone in sync on context.

2. Customization

I don’t want a one-size-fits-all solution; I want the flexibility to tailor the software to match our processes, especially if those processes evolve.

Why I look for this: Customizable fields, layouts, and workflows let SMBs adapt on the fly, while enterprises can create more intricate, layered workflows without a hitch.

3. Automated Follow-ups and Task Reminders

I’m all about making things easier and more efficient, so I prioritize automation features like follow-up reminders and task notifications. Manually keeping track of reminders can be overwhelming, and missed follow-ups could mean lost opportunities.

Why I look for this: Automated follow-ups ensure my team doesn’t miss critical touchpoints with clients or leads. This keeps sales and customer support proactive and timely — a direct influence on retention and conversion rates.

4. Integration With Other Tools

Contact management isn’t isolated. That is why the software should mesh well with the rest of my tech stack, like CRM systems, email platforms, or project management tools. Without these integrations, you’ll end up toggling between platforms, which wastes time and invites error.

Why I look for this: Integrated tools work together seamlessly, cutting down on unnecessary steps and keeping everything in sync. This setup makes the most of the tools you already have and keeps data consistent, allowing your team to work smoothly.

5. Scalability

Growth is always a goal, so I assess whether the software can scale with my business. I want something that can handle an increasing contact database, added users, and more complex workflows without compromising performance.

Why I look for this: If the software can scale easily, I can avoid costly migrations later on.

6. Data Security and Privacy Compliance

With contact information comes a responsibility to protect it, so I’m looking for software with strong security measures and compliance with relevant regulations (like GDPR or CCPA). This shows me the vendor takes data protection seriously.

Why I look for this: If my customers’ data is at risk, so is my company’s reputation. For enterprise-level businesses, a data breach could be catastrophic, while for SMBs, it could be costly to recover from.

7. Reporting and Analytics

I like having data-driven insights, so I look for software that offers reporting and analytics. Seeing metrics on contact engagement, response rates, or sales conversions helps me assess (and refine) our strategies.

Why I look for this: Good analytics allow me to make informed decisions. For SMBs, this means insights into what’s working and where improvements are needed. For enterprises, analytics drive large-scale optimizations and strategic adjustments.

8. Mobile Accessibility

In a world where business happens on the go, I want my team to have mobile access to the contact management software. This is especially useful for sales or customer service teams who are frequently away from their desks.

Why I look for this: Mobile access ensures continuity, as team members can check or update contacts anytime, anywhere.

Cultivating Consistent Contact

I’ve learned that consistent contact helps prioritize prospects, engage customers, and keep vendors happy. Given the volume of contact data now collected and used by companies, however, manual processes simply can’t keep pace.

Contact management tools provide easy access to essential contact data, letting companies focus on what matters: Building reciprocal relationships.

Ready to cultivate consistent contact? Try out the tools above and find your best fit.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in February 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure to learn more about how we use AI.