C5 prospecting - azea PDF

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Prospecting- the Lifeblood of Selling Many types of selling require prospecting. Without previous knowledge of who might purchase a product, the salesperson locates individuals and/or organizations that have the money, authority, and the desire to buy. Because people tend to do business with the people they know, plus feel salespeople are not honest or ethical, prospecting is not easy. Buying from a stranger is getting harder and harder. People want to trust the person they buy from and they buy from people they know. All salespeople who begin their sales careers prospecting look forward to the day when most of their sales come from present customers. Frequently, these salespeople gain new customers through referrals from customers. Referrals are earned by demonstrating your integrity, trustfulness, and character to the customer who eventually provides you the referral. Ethical service builds relationships and is based upon the truth. As discussed in Chapter 1, the sales process refers to a sequential series of actions by the salesperson that leads toward the customer taking a desired action and ends with a follow-up to ensure purchase satisfaction. Although many factors may influence how a salesperson makes a presentation in any one situation, a logical, sequential series of actions exists that, if followed, can greatly increase the chances of making a sale. This selling process involves 10 basic steps, as listed in Exhibit. Steps one and two are discussed in this chapter, and all steps are discussed in greater detail in the following chapters. Steps three through nine comprise the sales presentation itself. Before a sales presentation can be attempted, several important preparatory activities should be carried out.

Prospecting is the first step in the selling process. A prospect is a qualified person or organization that has the potential to buy your good or service. Prospecting is the lifeblood of sales because it identifies potential customers. A salesperson must look constantly for new prospects for two reasons: 1. To increase sales. 2. To replace customers that will be lost over time. A prospect should not be confused with a lead. The name of a person or organization that might be a prospect is referred to as a lead. A lead can also be referred to as a suspect, indicating that the person or organization is suspected of being a prospect. Once the lead has been qualified, it becomes a prospect. 2 As a salesperson, you can ask yourself three questions to determine if an individual or organization is a qualified prospect: 1. Does the prospect have the money to buy? 2. Does the prospect have the authority to buy? 3. Does the prospect have the desire to buy? A simple way to remember this qualifying process is to think of the word mad. A true prospect must have the financial resources, money, or credit to pay and the authority to make the buying decision. The prospect also should desire your product. Sometimes an individual or organization may not recognize a need for your product. As later chapters show, your challenge is to create a desire for the product. The sales prospecting funnel illustrates how all leads and prospects are considered and filtered out as they are subjected to the three mad questions before they become qualified prospects. Locating leads and qualifying prospects are important activities for salespeople. Obtaining new customers and selling more products to present customers are the ways to increase sales. All salespeople lose X percent of sales or customers per year. Customers are coming in and going out of the salesperson’s sales base. New customers come into the top and leave through a hole in the bottom of the bucket. It is always easier to sell a satisfied customer than an unsatisfied one or a prospect. The cost of acquiring a new customer is higher than keeping a present customer. This is why service and follow-up after the sale are so important to salespeople. Sources of prospects can be many and varied or few and similar, depending on the service or good the salesperson sells. Naturally, persons selling different services and goods might not use the same sources for prospects. A salesperson of oil-field pipe supplies would make extensive use of various industry directories in a search for names of drilling companies. A life insurance salesperson would use personal acquaintances and current customers as sources of prospects. A pharmaceutical salesperson would

scan the local newspaper looking for announcements of new physicians and hospital, medical office, and clinical laboratory openings, whereas a sales representative for a company such as General Mills or Quaker Oats would watch for announcements of construction of new grocery stores and shopping centers. Frequently salespeople, especially new ones, have difficulty prospecting. Meeting strangers and asking them to buy something can be uncomfortable for people. Many salespeople prefer to see others who have similar characteristics to themselves— although in most cases, the similarity need not go this far! To be successful, prospecting requires a strategy. Prospecting, like other activities, is a skill that can be constantly improved by a dedicated salesperson. Some salespeople charge themselves with finding X number of prospects per week. Indeed, Xerox (a large manufacturer of copiers and other types of business equipment) asks its sales force to allocate a portion of each working day to finding and contacting several new prospects. A successful salesperson continually evaluates prospecting methods, comparing results and records with the mode of prospecting used in pursuit of a prospecting strategy that will result in the most effective contact rate. The actual method by which a salesperson obtains prospects may vary. The most recent advancement in prospecting is the use of the Internet to find potential buyers. This is called e-prospecting, and it is a fast and easy way to find information about individuals or businesses by using technology. Individuals Finding information on the Internet about individuals can be very helpful to a salesperson. For example, Yahoo offers a people search on its site, yahoo.com , and it is free. The site can even give you a list of an individual’s neighbors and their phone numbers. Some sites, such as peoplesearch.com , can provide you with extensive information about someone for a fee. Peoplefinder.com offers a list of over 200 different links to sites that search for information about people. Some of the links are free, and others are not, depending on the amount of information they give. A search engine could also be used to find information on a person. Organizations It may be important for a salesperson to find information about a company. In today’s edriven world, most businesses have their own Web sites. On these sites, a salesperson can find useful information that can help him or her decide if the company is a potential buyer. Many businesses may be found by simply entering the company’s name followed by “.com.” For example, if you are looking for information on Dell, you can type in www.dell.com as the universal resource locator (URL), and it will take you to the company’s Web site. Bigyellow.com , bigbook.com , and switchboard. com are all Web sites that offer a search for businesses. Search engines such as www.yahoo.com, www.altavista.com, and www.lycos.com can also be very helpful in finding a business’s

Web address. Many cities also have their own Web sites now, and they often list information on companies in the area and links to their Web sites. The cold canvass prospecting method is based on the law of averages. For example, if past experience reveals that 1 person out of 10 will buy a product, then 50 sales calls could result in five sales. Thus, the salesperson contacts in person, by phone, and/or by mail as many leads as possible, recognizing that a certain percentage of people approached will buy. There is generally no knowledge about the individual or business the salesperson calls on. This form of prospecting relies solely on the volume of cold calls made. The door-to-door and the telephone salesperson both employ cold canvass prospecting. Cold calling is tough! Contacting strangers day after day is challenging even for the most motivated individuals. Yet many new salespeople have to begin their sales careers cold calling to get customers. Once someone is sold, the salesperson has two possibilities for future sales. First, satisfied customers are likely to buy again from the salesperson. That is why I stress the importance of building a relationship with the customer. It is critical to your success. Second, the customer often refers the salesperson to someone she knows. This is known as the endless chain referral method of prospecting. This is a very effective method for finding customers. Customers and customer referrals are the two best sources of future sales, with repeat sales from customers being better. A referral is a person or organization recommended to you by someone who feels that this person or organization could benefit from you or your product. Don’t ask current customers, “Do you know anyone else who could use my product?” Rarely are clients eager to judge whether colleagues are prepared to make a purchase. Instead, ask whether your customer knows any other individuals or organizations that might be interested in finding out about your product. If you sense hesitation from customers to give out referrals, it’s probably because they are afraid that their associates may not want to be pestered. Say, “Let me tell you what I’m going to do with any names you give me. I will make one phone call to each party, indicate that you were nice enough to give me their names, and give them a brief outline of what we do. “If they express an interest, we will get together and I will give them the same professional service I’ve given you. If, on the other hand, they express no interest, I will thank them for their time and never call them again.” This approach puts your customers at ease and moves solid, new prospects onto your lead list. Don’t forget that your prospects are friends, neighbors, relatives—anyone and everyone you know or come into contact with. They may know people who are looking for your product and the great service you provide your customers. Everyone is a prospect! Orphaned customers are customers whose salesperson has left the company. Salespeople often leave their employers to take other jobs; when they do, their

customers are orphaned. These orphans are great prospects. A salesperson should quickly contact such customers to begin developing relationships. You can turn orphans into a lead-generating gold mine. In addition, if you’ve been selling for a while, you’ve surely built up a backlog of inactive accounts. Weed out the names who for whatever reason will never buy. The rest are solid prospects. Call them again and find out why they’re not buying from you anymore. What would it take to change that? They may have stopped ordering your type of product altogether, or they may have gone with a competitor because of a special onetime offer, or there may have been a management change and therefore a change in buying patterns. You have to determine why the customer stopped buying from you. After you do that, reestablishing contact and turning that prospect into a customer again is standard sales procedure (SSP). Organize a group of salespeople in related but noncompetitive fields to meet twice a month to share leads and prospecting tips. To get started, write a formal mission statement, charge dues to ensure commitment, and grant membership to only one salesperson from each specific field. Next, set up administrative procedures and duties to keep the club on track and committed to its stated mission. Finally, establish guidelines for what constitutes a good lead, and track prospect information and effectiveness. Group the leads by effectiveness so members can better understand which leads can help the rest. You may even have every member who closes a lead contribute to a kitty. Each month the winner can be the member who provided the most closed leads. Make a list of what your ideal prospect looks like. Ask yourself the following questions: ■ Who are my ideal prospects? ■ Which economic bracket do they usually fall into? ■ What kinds of organizations do they belong to? ■ What characteristics do most of my existing customers share? ■ Are they married, single, widowed, or divorced? ■ Do they have children? ■ Do they have particular political leanings? ■ Do they have similar occupations, educations, hobbies, illnesses, transportation needs, or family concerns?

And the key question: ■ Where am I most likely to find the greatest conglomeration of people who fit

my prospect’s profile?

The sales process involves a series of actions beginning with prospecting for customers. The sales presentation is the major element of this process. Before making the presentation, the salesperson must find prospects to contact, obtain appointments, and plan the entire sales presentation. Prospecting involves locating and qualifying the individuals or businesses that have the potential to buy a product. A person or business that might be a prospect is a lead. These questions can determine if someone is qualified: Is there a real need? Is the prospect aware of that need? Is there a desire to fulfill the need? Does the prospect believe a certain product can be beneficial? Does the prospect have the finances and authority to buy? and Are potential sales large enough to be profitable to me? Several of the more popular prospecting methods are cold canvass and endless chain methods, public exhibitions and demonstrations, locating centers of influence, direct mail outs, and telephone and observation prospecting. To obtain a continual supply of prospects, the salesperson should develop a prospecting method suitable for each situation. Once a lead has been located and qualified as a prospect, the salesperson can make an appointment with that prospect by telephone or in person. At times, it is difficult to arrange an appointment, so the salesperson must develop ways of getting to see the prospect. Believing in yourself and feeling that you have a product the prospect needs are important....