Well, yes and no. Yes, you can build your business to a point where you make no more cold calls by developing a network of satisfied customers and business associates who regularly refer you business. No, it does not ever end because you must do some prospecting of a sort to recruit your network of those that send you referrals. (By the way I’m excited about the potential of online networking through web sites such as Linked In, ( www.linkedin.com )
Wherever you are in your business growth cycle, you must prospect so you might as well be good at it. Here are some tips:
• The goal of prospecting is to convert suspects into prospects. A suspect is someone who appears to fit your target market, e.g. retail businesses with less than $2 million a year in volume, or the 14607 zip code, etc. A prospect is someone who has the Money, the Authority and the Desire (MAD). A fully qualified prospect meets all three criteria. In B2B sales, your objective is to get appointments with partially qualified prospects to fully qualify them.
• Don’t waste time pursuing suspects who are not fully qualified. Perhaps you just wish they were qualified, or you hope that they’ll be qualified or they are such a good match that they should be qualified. Denial can inflict the best of us.
• View prospecting as the integral part of the sales cycle that it is. Not something that you do when you have time, or something that you rely on others to do, but a routine first step down the road to a sale. Accept that you have to turn over a lot of rocks to find the goodies, and just take one suspect at a time.
• Prospect with a plan. Whether it is by geography, vertical market, sales volume etc., prospect systematically. Reason; none of the good prospects will fall between the gaps, you will get a sense of accomplishment in having covered a specific market segment and it is more efficient.
• Prospect regularly and frequently. Prospecting should be part of every sales person’s daily activity. Not monthly, or weekly, but daily. If you want a steady supply of prospects, you must have a steady supply of leads.
• Make friends with marketing. It’s their job to generate leads. Get to know them, give them ideas and find out who they are targeting and when. If you can help them improve their job you both benefit.
• Persistence counts. According to a recent National Sales Executive Association survey, 80 percent of all new sales are made at the fifth call to the same prospect. So, review your prospect list regularly and make those calls.
Prospect to Prosper - To learn more about this author, visit John Brennan's Website.
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John Brennan
(Visit John's Website)
John Brennan Ed.D.
Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal
Development, LLC, a training and
development firm. Interpersonal
Development has provided sales training
and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps
from over 100 companies.
A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan
received his doctorate from the University
of Rochester. His dissertation researched
the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling
Technology in training people in
interpersonal skills. While he has spent
most of his career designing or delivering
training, he was also a Vice-President of
Sales of a training and development
franchise with operations in 25 markets.
Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered
sales training in North America, Asia,
Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He
has been a guest speaker at numerous
national and regional professional
conferences.
When Microsoft wanted Best Practices
articles on sales for their web site, they
called Dr. Brennan. The results are at office.microsoft.com/e
n-us/FX011387391033.aspx
His firm’s clients have included Volvo,
The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman
Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the
Economist Group and countless small
businesses.
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