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Part Five - Prospecting for More Sales

Written by: Lawrence Atkinson

Article Overview: Part Five of a Ten Part Series. In this series, we explore all the different avenues of prospecting necessary for a business to succeed. Think of your business as a a beautiful garden, and then consider all the things you need to do to keep that garden beautiful and growing, rather than dreary, dead or decaying. Need help with Prospecting? Feel free to get in touch with us via our website.

Part Five - Prospecting for More Sales

So what are the three types of prospecting calls? There are:

Cold Calls You don't know them, they don't know you.
Warm Calls You know then, they don't want you.
Hot Calls They know you, they trust you, they have a need.

Remember, selling is a numbers game. What I mean is, you need to pay attention to a
lot of numbers and we'll look at some a little later on; but here it is worth remembering that each time you are out on a cold call it is costing you whatever your “dollar per hour” value is. Have you worked out your dollar per hour value? It is a good idea to do that. It puts some definition to what you do - you need to be producing an income in excess of that to "keep your business".

The next step on from cold calling is pre-call planning. Pre-call planning puts you in the classification of warm-to-hot.

Pre-call planning means doing your homework before you call on your prospect. This type of call puts you in control - it's also much more cost effective than just grabbing your briefcase and heading off for a few "drop in and see" calls. Pre-call planning saves hours on the road. Instead of hitting the road, hit the research and find out information on your prospects.

Where can you get information on your prospects?

 The media
 Personal friends
 Business Contacts
 Telephone books
 Keeping your eyes and ears open

Pre-call planning also allows you to control your time with a particular prospect.

If used effectively:

 You decide before the call if you want the business
 You control your time.
 You make the moves to get the business.
 You use persistence to win the customer.

Continued in Part Six

Related Articles
  Sales Prospecting Techniques
  Sales Prospecting for Sales Results
  Sales Prospecting
  Prospecting it is simple only DOING counts
  Sales Management, Prospecting, and a Sense of Urgency©

Article Tags: briefcase, business contacts, cold call, cold calling, cold calls, eyes and ears, hitting the road, homework, numbers game, persistence, personal friends, prospects, telephone books



Related Forum Posts
Prime Means of Selling - Prospecting and Selling aren't the same. Prospecting is finding the few within a target group who are prime candidates for your service. I don't think everyone will agree on what "prime" means but I'd say if the prospects actively want what you're offering and have the ability to pay for what you're offering then they qualify as "prime".
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Patent information - I'm also interested in Part 2. Thanks.
Patent Process - Interesting to hear your experiences with the patent process - what's Part 2?


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