My Prospecting Process

Get Contact Names

Once you have identified your list of viable suspects, you will need to uncover a contact name of the decision maker. Social media and the internet are useful, but they best way is to call up the company and ask them. Now, your company may have already given you a database to work on. I wouldn’t trust that the information is correct and so I would advise you still call them up anyway. If you are introducing your product or service by using some kind of marketing material, this can be a gentle way to kick off the relationship.

For instance, you could say to the person who answers the phone: “Hello, I wonder if you could help me. I am looking to send some information to the person responsible for XXX, about XXX and I am just wondering who I need to send it to.” If you stop there, one of three things will happen:

They give you the name – make a note of it, thank them and hang up. (They may even put you straight through).

They don’t know who you should send it to – in this case send it through to the most likely Job Title or department.

They have a no-name policy – see point 2.

Letters

Once you have your contact name, post off your literature or brochure along with a covering letter. If you would like a MS Word copy of a prospecting letter template, contact me and I will send you the one I use.

Telephone Prospecting

Give the prospect about 2 or 3 days to receive the letter before you call them up. Telephone prospecting is the first stage of selling process, proper. It’s not for the faint hearted, but if you get good at it, it can pay handsomely. Remember where the prospect might be in their buying cycle. If they call you, you are more likely to have competition.

Before making the calls, get yourself into the right frame of mind. If you work from home, get ready as if you were going to the office: showered, suited and booted. Organise your environment accordingly, with everything you need. Remove all possible distractions. Standing up is a great idea, it gives dynamism to your voice. Smile while you dial. The prospect will hear it in your voice. Be polite and thank them for their time.

Scripts

If you would like a copy of a telephone prospecting template, contact me.

Cold Call Reluctance

A final word about cold call reluctance. There is a saying from where I come from – “Shy kids get nowt”. Otherwise translated as if you don’t ask you don’t get. If the thought of cold telephone calling fills you with dread, you are not alone. You have to get over it though. There are many ways to overcome cold call reluctance. One trick is to translate each phone call into a £ amount. For instance lets say you get 1.5% commission for each sale. Using our figures from the post on sales targets, each telephone call earns you £2.50, that’s £62.50 a day.

Another trick is to reframe it. Instead of ringing for a yes, you are collecting nos. How many no’s can you get today. This is a trick I learnt in a book called Go for No! Remember the more no’s you get the more yeses you will get.

The best cure for cold call reluctance, though, is to just do it and do it repeatedly. Do a little and often every day. Soon enough your mantra will be 25 calls a day, that’s just what I do. Twenty five calls a day that’s my job. Twenty five calls a day. If you would like coaching in prospecting or overcoming cold call reluctance, please do get in touch .

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Prospecting

Assuming that you are in business, you will need a steady flow of new customers. Much of the modern business literature talks about marketing, especially on-line, on the one hand. On the other side, there is a lot written about face-to-face sales technique and the dark arts of influence. Prospecting for new business today is still an essential part of the selling process. With internet marketing, the customer is becoming more and better informed.

Once the customer has identified their own need and made a decision to buy, they will then conduct their online search. The customer may or may not stumble upon your website, depending on how optimised your site is for the Search Engines. If your business has a strong traditional marketing presence or brand, they may visit your site, along with your competitors. Either way the customer is in the research frame of mind will probably build a short list of potential service providers. Hopefully you will be on this short list, so that your phone rings or your inbox pings, but “Hopefully you will be on this short list”, is not good enough for the professional salesperson. The successful sales person doesn’t wait for the phone to ring or email to ping. She makes things happen. Prospecting is how you make things happen.

Prospecting

Prospect is the first skill for you to practise. Think of prospecting for customers as gold prospecting. You are literally sifting through people and sorting out those who are ready to buy from those who aren’t.
For instance let’s say you have one hundred prospects. If you sorted them out by their likelihood to buy it may look something like this:

100 prospects:

• 30 People are ready to buy right now. They have their credit card ready. Don’t dilly-dally with these people. Take their credit card details there and then. They don’t want to hear about features and benefits; this might actually put them off buying. All they need to hear is “Sign here please and we can get started”. Make them a customer now.
• 30 People are shopping. This is a good group to spend time with, as you can tell them the benefits of you, your product and company. This is especially true if they are members of your niche market.
• 30 people are curious. Don’t waste much time with these people. Give them some information and let them come back to you later.
• 10 People will never buy from you. Ignore them.

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