Searching Out the Sale ? Five Guidelines for Prospecting

 

Without a doubt, sales is more profitable and satisfying when you are able to identify and access a steady stream of enthusiastic customers. The process of finding those customers is called prospecting, and it can sometimes be a daunting task.

According to Anthony J. Urbaniak, a prospect is a person or institution that can both benefit from buying the product or service and afford to buy it. The process of identifying good prospects is called "qualifying" the prospect. The person or organization must be able to benefit from the product or service; those who have no use for it are not qualified prospects. Also, no matter how badly a prospect may want the product or how much they can benefit from it, if they cannot afford it, they are not qualified prospects.

There are no hard and fast rules as to the processes different sales organizations use to prospect for and qualify new business. In some companies, prospecting is done on the outside sales level. Those tasked with the majority of sales activities are also responsible for mining their territory for new business. In other organizations, telesales teams actively pursue new business and funnel qualified prospects to account managers and other sales reps. Other companies rely on the web, print advertising or other means to generate inbound leads that can be distributed based on a variety of different methods.

For the time being, we will assume that those sales professionals reading this module are tasked with prospecting duties. Rather than relying on others in an organization to provide them with prospects, they must hunt in their own territory to generate new business. Listed below are five general guidelines that will make prospecting easier.

• Make Prospecting Part of Your Routine – Some sales professionals set aside an hour each day to prospect for new business. Others set aside one day a week to focus on making calls and setting new appointments. Whatever works best for you, make sure that prospecting is something that is planned and done on a regular basis. You may choose to prospect every morning from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM or every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1:00 PM. Find a schedule that works for you and stick with it. Just as a basketball player must continuously practice to maintain his edge, so must a sales professional continuously prospect to keep his or her sales edge. Without regular prospecting, sales numbers will inevitably shrink.
• Use Tools To Aid the Process – When prospecting, make sure you have a solid tool set to make your calls as effective as possible. Don’t ad lib your way through the opening moments of a call. Have a "script" handy to help guide your initial remarks. Learn your script backwards and forwards so you can deliver it naturally. You’ll eventually be able to modify it on the fly based on your situation.
• Take Notes – The possibility exists that you’ll be talking to a lot of people. Keep track of what is being said via a contact manager. CRM tools like Siebel, web-based systems like Salesforce.com or others like ACT! and Goldmine are all helpful. These systems allow you to stay organized, stay on top of your opportunities and track sales.
• Stay Above the Fray – As you talk to new prospects, avoid "trash talking" the competition. Sell customers on your company. Use benefit statements to your advantage and sell them on your strengths. Any assumptions about how the competition doesn’t stack up should be left to the prospect.
• Roll With the Punches – Part of prospecting is rejection – lots of rejection. You’ll have to grow some thick skin and learn not to take things personally. When a prospects says they’re not interested and hangs up, deal with it and move on. There’s no point dwelling on rejection. It won’t do you any good.

Follow these guidelines and the prospecting process will become easier to manage. Eventually, it will become a natural part of your day or week – something that needs to be done along with proposals, paperwork, conference calls and all the other activities that take up your sales day.

 

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March Sales Quick Tip of the Month – Get Right to the Benefits

When making a prospecting call, go straight to the subject of benefits. Your products features may be cool, but they may not meet the prospect’s need, or it may not be obvious to the prospect exactly how these features could meet their need. A benefit is any way that the features of the product or service will meet the real, felt needs or important goals the prospect has. It could be convenience or time saved, which translates into money saved. It could be efficiency or increased productivity, which translates into larger profits. It could be a lot of things. If you don't tell the listener, they have to figure it out for themselves. Save them the trouble. Many salespeople lead off their opening sentence with the benefit, and then explain the features that lead to it. If your company has unique qualities, make sure to say so. Emphasize your competitive advantages! Show them what you have that others don't, and how that benefits them.