Prospecting is the lifeblood and key to success in sales.
Daily prospecting is like sowing seeds every day. This ensures that you can harvest continuously.
Sales professionals who get involved in too many activities, including sales presentations, either forget or don't have enough time to continuously prospect.
That's when problems arise. They go into feast or famine mode. Even though it is very hard to tell when today's prospecting will show results, the process must continue. Regardless of how busy a person is a today or how well they are doing, if they are looking to achieve good results is selling they must engage in prospecting every day.
This is because no matter what happens, there will always be a small percentage of your existing client base will leave you; eventually, the business will dry up and at some point become non-existent. your inflow and retention of prospects must be greater than the outflow. Only then can you grow.
There is a blog on Sales Closing Techniques - 5 Steps
WHAT IS THE DISSIMILARITY BETWEEN A SUSPECT AND A PROSPECT?
A suspect could be anyone, whereas, a prospect is one who meets the following three criteria. He has:
- A need for your product
- Ability to take a decision
- Money to buy your product
Keep your focus on your target market: Be aware that you cannot sell winter clothes in a warm climate. In selling, a salesperson must identify his prospect based on industry, age, occupation, income, etc.
To maintain a constant flow of new prospects, one needs to have multiple approaches, as one method cannot be relied upon exclusively. The salesperson, over a period of time, will develop his own level of comfort in the prospecting method.
SOURCES OF NEW CUSTOMERS
- News media
- Competitors
- Industry association memberships
- Referrals from friends and clients
- Networking through fraternal organizations
- Telemarketing
- Direct mailing
- Advertisements
- Cold calling
- Websites and blogs
- Trade shows
- E-marketing/Social Media
METHODS OF PROSPECTING
NEWS MEDIA:
Newspapers, magazines, companies or industrial groups announce promotions of new executives or new CEOs. I remember from my selling days that some people, very successfully, used to call the ones who were recently promoted. Regardless of the source of prospects, the method of prospecting remains identical, by and large. I shall elaborate just a few as follows:
DIRECT MAIL MARKETING:
I recall when I was selling, we had one Salesperson who was amongst the top producers in our office. His marketing plan was very simple.
He consistently sends ten mailers a day because he knew that five days later he would have to make phone calls to follow-up. Ten mailers per day cumulatively became fifty mailers a week. That means he made fifty phone calls a week. However, this way only for the first week and even more in the following weeks. Gradually, over a period of time, with proficiency and good telephone handling skills, his ratio from mailers to appointment increased. Eventually, it resulted in making him one of the top salespersons in the company.
The above example is a good one for marketing, consistency of follow-up and closing a sale. However, in the above example, if you notice there was no fancy strategy requiring special skills. The reason for success was a commitment, self-discipline and consistency above all.
TRADE SHOWS:
Trade shows can be a tremendous source of business. Professionals, who effectively work trade shows, keep the following in mind - they define very clear goals, as to what they want to accomplish through the show. Is it:
- Exposure from show presence.
- Getting leads to follow-up later.
- Close deals on the spot.
- Distribute samples.
- Organize a show, especially to generate interest or urgency to buy your products.
- Just collect business cards to get possible qualified data, or
- Re-establish contact with your existing customers.
EXISTING CUSTOMERS - THE BEST SOURCE OF NEW PROSPECTS IS THROUGH REFERRALS FROM EXISTING CUSTOMERS:
I always ask my customer, why they brought our product, how satisfied are they, what were their needs, what benefit did they receive from buying your product? Then, ask yourself the same question.
If you have answers to the questions, then you have actually identified your prospects. All people who fall into this category are your prospects.
Also, if for any reason, the business stops or slows, one can always make an effort to go back to existing customers for additional business, provided you have built a relationship.
COLD CALLING:
While I was selling products, I noticed that cold calling was not a very common way of prospecting, and I must say it was not one I enjoyed, yet there were some people who were top producers and used cold calling very effectively as a prospecting tool.
I recall one gentleman, who would invariably make it a practice to make four cold calls for every confirmed appointment. The reason was that he used to call the two adjoining places on each side,
whether homes or offices. So, with one confirmed appointment he used to make two cold calls on either side of the confirmed appointment, fully prepared with a cold call script and benefits statement.
Thus, he made the extra calls at no additional expense, little effort and better time management. Everybody would not be available or interested, but even if he got one new lead without much extra effort that contributed to making him one of the top salespersons in his office.
E-MARKETING/SOCIAL MEDIA:
Social Media is now one of the most growing prospecting media as over here you meet with the people who are looking for your product or are in the Industry we are targeting. We can use this media to explore a relationship with the clients who have shown familiar with our products/Services.
Even we as a salesperson can use this media to answer our customer question and build a relationship with them.
SIGNATURE PRESENTATION:
A good sales professional creates a sixty-second grabber, or something called a trademark' or 'signature presentation'. This means that if you meet somebody at a get-together and they ask what you do if you are going to give a long speech, you are going to lose out.
If you have time for only one sentence, that sentence must be such that generates inquisitiveness and has the other party saying "Tell me more about it." Now, their desire to get information is greater than your desire to tell.
CONCLUSION:
Prospecting is the method of sorting out potential customer or clients to develop new business. The top goal is to manoeuvre prospects through the sales funnel till they eventually convert into revenue-generating customers.
This clarifies that simply having good intentions doesn't get business. Good and consistent action brings business.
Being organized is important, but it is more important to be persistent and committed. There are people who are not the most organized but are committed and persistent, which makes them successful.
Consistent action in the right direction produces results. The Key is consistency.
I also have a blog on Deciding the effective way of presentation Approach and Method
About my blog on Prospecting, if you have any suggestion please leave the comment below.
very nice post
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