How do I spot prospects that are actually time wasters?

I refer to "time wasters" as "crazy customers!" That's a little bit tongue in cheek I know, but after 15 years of professional selling, I've seen more than my fair share of "crazy customers".

So what is a "crazy customer"? It's a customer that appears to be in the market for your product or service. They may have even gone to the trouble of seeking you out and contacting you - but in the end, they will never buy from you. What's even crazier is they may even buy a similar, (if not identical) offering to yours, and do so at a more expensive price. Why? Because they're crazy of course! At least that's what the salesperson believes.

So how do you spot the "crazies"? Sadly, for too many businesses their sales pipelines are full of prospects and customers that seemingly demonstrate strange, mysterious and unpredictable behaviours. This type of customer conduct perplexes salespeople no-end, and is also one of the contributing forces behind the ever present 80/20 principle, that suggests 80% of your business derives from 20% of your customers.

This magical ratio also applies to salespeople, particularly the ones that end-up spending most of their time with customers that never buy. This reduces the time and energy available to invest in customers that are ready, willing and able to buy now! As a result, this limits the amount of value the salesperson is able to create per customer and their capacity to develop meaningful relationships with real customers.

Here are three tips to help you quickly spot and manage those "crazy customers":

1. Know exactly who your customer is.
If your business doesn't have a clearly defined 'customer definition' - create one today! If your salespeople are vague on whom your customer really is this makes spotting them a costly challenge.Most sales-messages are too diluted pointed at perceived target markets that are too broad. I like to simplify things and ask the key people in the business: "Where does 80% of the profit derive from?" or: "Who are your best customers and why?" The answers will tell me exactly who the customer really is. I'm not interested in ideal customers in three years from now (that conversation can come later), I want to know what's happening in the business right now. This piece of insight is your best starting point.

 2. Understand what really motivates your customers.
Why should a customer buy from you today, as opposed to tomorrow, or never? What's important to you may not be important to your best customers. Take your best customers out for a coffee and ask them what's important to them. You should find their responses similar. Once you know what's important, have the courage to make your business, the way you communicate, and sell - all about them!

 3. Have a front-end qualification process.
Once you know who your customers are and what's important to them - this makes finding more of them a lot easier. I always encourage salespeople to lead the right customers through an established sales-process. This starts with a qualification technique to help you cut-through to your 'real' customers.

A simple conversation is all that's required to help determine whether or not the prospect qualifies and has the potential to be a best customer: 

Q: What problem do you need solved?
Q: What is the ultimate outcome you would like me to help you create?
Q: Do you have X budget allocated?
Q: When would you like to take order?

The answers should then be cues that trigger the salesperson to lead the prospect in the right direction; either to the next step in the sales process or to the door if they are indeed "crazy"?

 The quickest and surest way to get a salesperson to identify genuine opportunities is to provide them with as much focussed information on the 'real' customer as possible, including: a customer-centric USP and the customers buying fears, frustrations and aspirations. Your salespeople are then empowered with the information they need to determine if they are speaking with the right customer, or not. This makes weeding out your time wasters an intuitive and efficient task. This blog as seen on Smartcompany.com.au