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Categorizing Your Prospects

Guest post by: Gary Silverman

Article Overview: Coming off of a slowdown in business you need to have an accurate assessment of the “condition” of your customers. For the sake of simplicity and giving your salesforce a meaningful tool I have identified 4 specific customer types that really isn’t brain surgery but common sense. It is more important than ever to qualify your customers so you are better equipped to learn how to sell them and when to sell them, making an effective counseling interview essential. The four I have identified are: Loyal Customers - Buying Loyal Customers - Not Buying Previous Customers - Lost to the Competition Never Bought - Possible Intenders

Categorizing Your Prospects

It should be easy to identify who’s who as all you have to do is ask...something many salespeople are afraid to do. Customers do not transmit their intentions or identities telepathically, oddly enough they will cooperate by answering intelligent questions put to them by professional salespeople.

Lets dissect each type of customer and establish a game plan.

Loyal Customer - Buying

They have kept your business afloat during challenging times and helped you build your core client base while growing your business. We need to guard ourselves from taking them for granted, losing our competitive edge, or letting our customer service slide. These customers know your company and are alert to any negative changes in your business. Now is the time to express your appreciation to them. A simple thank-you note, a personal call from the owner or manager, or a loyalty program that gives them discounts on certain items or volume purchases. Your “loyal customer” may be checking your honesty and value by approaching your competition. Be careful, it is easier to keep a customer than win them back. Before you contact this customer be armed with the facts. How much did they spend with you in 2009? How did that compare to 2008? Has their purchasing patterns changed? What is the revenue trend? Is is flat, on the increase, on the decline, or wavy? This will provide insight prior to your contacting them. Having the facts when you meet with them will impress them.

Loyal Customers - Not Buying

This may (hopefully) just be a function of their business and not yours. Meet with them to learn what their expectations are for the future. Tactfully determine when you can see their name on the board again. Don’t put them on the defensive, set the tone of the meeting as an impromptu discussion about the economic climate...big picture stuff...like you’re asking for their advice. This will be a good time to humble yourself by asking if there was something that you did wrong or need to change. Invite their input on how to improve your products or services. Thank them for their past business, and express how valuable the relationship is regardless of whether they are actively buying from you. They may even seek your advice. You need to walk away with the confidence that when they are ready to buy again you will still be their first choice.

Previous Customers - Lost to the Competition

Here’s your challenge. The tone of the contact must be apologetic, humbling, and designed to solicit their input on how to avoid losing any more customers. They may be a lost cause but they can still provide valuable input on how to change your customer experience so it doesn’t happen again. You are really asking for a second chance and the opportunity to show that you have truly changed. You may not get all of the business back immediately. The objective is to get some of the business back over a period of time. But you have to change if you value their business. You must be willing to adjust the way you do business with them, something you will have to evaluate. That being said, only approach those customers who you want to get back. Let the others continue on. You may have to offer price adjustments, rebates, refunds, change their account rep, modify your delivery times, or whatever your previous customer recommends. Make THEM part of the solution. If you show a sincere concern by asking for their business again while bringing up the times when the relationship worked (don’t get too sentimental) you will succeed.



Never Bought - Possible Intenders

This is fairly simple. It’s business to business 101. First determine why they never bought. Have they tried but you dropped the ball, or did they have no knowledge of your company? If you dropped the ball...refer back to the previous paragraph. If they never heard of you now is your time to shine. You need to determine what they buy and from whom. That will help you determine the value of their business and how to go about selling them. Sell yourself first, the support of your company, and the features and benefits of your product or service and the value you represent. You know the drill.

2010 will provide a greater opportunity for your business to gain market share as the economy is starting to grow and there should be less competition in the marketplace. Don’t get left behind. Insure the core strengths of your business are as good as you believe them to be. Inspect what you expect.

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Article Tags: common sense, counseling



Related Forum Posts
Re: Email Etiquette - [quote="jvprosperity":24jznj58] The P.S. suggestion is good but it depends on the type of communication (e.g. Autoresponder series verses one off emails to Clients or Prospects)[/quote:24jznj58] Andy, You are right. I was mainly referring to Auto Responder emails. To end a normal email, I attach signatures. Takuya
Simple way to avoid Cold Calling - Gary, A chiropractor I work with hates cold calling (me too!) and he uses a technique to warm people up to using his services - it's so simple! In Sales your dealing with 3 pools of people: 1. Strangers 2. Prospects 3. Returning Customers You need to move people from one pool to the next. We'll concentrate on #1 and #2 as it's most relevant to your question. My Clients does the following (you just have to tailor it to your situation - be creative). My Client (we'll call him Bob) Bob leverages his time and resources to only get people that need his offer (pain relief) to put their hand up. Dealing with Strangers can get expensive and they don't like to be told what to do as they have no trust or relationship built with him. So to get Strangers to put their hands up he writes up an offer with a free report on a particular pain relief - let's say lower back pain (note: he can simply just change lower back pain to neck pain and have a new report). and uses multiple marketing vehicles to promote the Free report - magazines, newspaper, forums, postcards, private clinics etc. The only people picking up this information are the very people Bob would like as customers as they have Lower back pain. Bob's Free report ends with him stating his services and includes a Free in-house Consultation with no obligation. You'd be surprised at how easily Bob converts Strangers into Prospects. Note: They become prospects when they ask for the Free Guide and in exchange provide their contact details. This gives Bob unlimited opportunity to contact them for the Free in-house consultation with no obligation to continue using him. At this stage Bob's ability to close the sale lies in his office providing good customer service, Bob's ability to help the prospect and provide value at the free in-house consultation. Notice, he hasn't had to pick up the phone to COLD-CALL his Stranger pool or his Prospect pool. Hope that example helps to increase your prospecting!
Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succ - Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed Ronna Lichtenberg 2005 From the inside cover: "As a woman, you probably feel uncomfortable when it comes to promoting yourself and asking for what you want." WHAT IN THE HECK IS THIS, I asked myself when I read that. Women are the fastest growing business owners in the US and Canada, there are t housands of women executives and CEOs - though not as many as might be expected, admittedly, yet the book opens with this surely out of date stereotype. However, as she continued to give examples of women who had high paying jobs but were routinely not paid as much as men because it hadn't occurred to them to ask for raises, etc., I decided it was probably true for a majority of businesswomen... Anyway, more of the info from the jacket: "Other books have told you how to get what you want by being more like a guy. Pitch Like A Girl tells you why its an advantage to be who you are and how to do better by bringing more of yourself to work." The TOC: 1. Pink and Blue 2. The Quck-dry Chapter 3. What's In your head that's not in his 4. The Me, Inc Mindset 5. Visioning: Discover What You Really Want 6. Identifying Prospects 7. Pre-pitch homework and heartwork 8. Crafting the pitch 9. Pricing the pitch 10. Packaging the pitch 11. Delivering the pitch 12. Closing Conclusion A Word to the guys The Empathy Quotient The Systemizing Quotient Bibliography And on a side note - non-fiction books without indexes - of which this is one, annoy me.


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