Every manager has told you that prospecting is the life blood of your business. We say don’t do it. Prospecting is the activity of a sales laborer and not a sales professional. As a sales professional, your time is far too valuable for this clerical, time intensive activity.
Understand that prospecting is the monotonous activity of separating the prospects (those people with an interest and with money) from suspects. So if you had a list of everyone in Beverly Hills zip code 90210, you can safely assume that most have money. But how do you find the 1% that have interest in your product or service? You let a sales laborer do it.
Here are some examples:
1. You delegate prospecting to an outside firm that will design and print and mail a postcard or letter for you. That firm and the post office mail carriers become your sales laborers to deliver your 10,000 mailers. The 1% of the recipients that reply (100 people) are “prospects” and these are the people you should talk to now that the prospecting has been done.
2. You hire a telemarketer or telemarketing firm to call those 10,000 people with your presentation (could be an invitation to a seminar, offer for a booklet, etc). You only talk to the people who express interest.
3. You place an advertisement in the Beverly Hills edition of the LA Times offering your booklet “The Six Best and Worst IRA Rollover Decisions.” You talk to the 50 people that request your booklet. The LA Times is your sales laborer.
4. You hire a company to run ads for you on the Internet and find prospects that meet your criteria. You pay them per Internet lead.
Yes, these all cost money. If you don’t want to invest in your business, then get a job as an employee because you’re not cut out to be a business owner. You can be a sales laborer for someone else.
Sure, prospecting is the lifeblood of any business but you, the sales professional, shouldn’t be doing it.
To outsource your prospecting, visit Brokerville
Tags: client prospecting
Nice post and it makes sense when you think about it. There are so many ways to attract prospects now days it’s hard to justify the cost.
I believe the issue is decided by the level of the sales person’s preparation. If the sales person understands the needs of the prospective client, understands how his or her product or service helps the prospective client reach its goals, and understands the decision-making process of the prospective client’s organization, then persistence is appreciated. Look at ways you can make your prospecting more effective. Negative reactions are typically encountered when the prospect doesn’t understand the value you/your company brings to them. The biggest mistake that most sales people make is that they try to pitch their products or services far too early in the relationship.
Hello I agree with you. Internet marketing can be effective especially if your business is in a niche market, the cost per acquisition can be relatively low and it is all trackable. I also suggest SEO… it’s less expensive and long lasting. PPC is only as good as you pay.Thanks
This’s cool idea.For me the internet lead is the great way.
I like the thrust of the article but would suggest trying highly tailored facebook and adwords campaigns First before you recruit new labour.
Pay for results, try these techniques. Only hire an employee when more efficient methods have failed.
A good way to dramatically increase the responses to your calls is to simply ask a lot of questions and do a lot of listening when you initally meet the person. You become an ally at that point and not necessarily a sales person. Most people want to pitch when they meet somebody rather than build a relationship. Set yourself apart and listen. That is advice that has saved me hundreds of frustrated hours on the phones.
Becoming attractive to new clients by doing a good job and making sure the public can see it.
Great article, it all boils down to Time is Golden. Time management equals success and greater financial rewards!
You know it is good for you and it will produce positive results if you do it routinely. Professional salespeople prospect daily. It is important to block-off specific time on your calendar for prospecting activities such as phone calling and emailing. Treat your prospecting time with the same respect as you would any other important appointment, otherwise, there is a tendency that it will slip through the cracks. This is not the time to check your emails, play solitaire on the computer, make a personal phone call or chat with your associates. Stay focused and take your prospecting seriously. Set the tone by closing your office door and have your incoming calls held unless it is a call from a client or a prospect.
Your goal is to find customers who are buying. You must relentlessly and rigorously qualify your suspects. Pursue only those prospects who are fully qualified, not those you think might be qualified, those you wish were qualified, those who used to be qualified, those who are partly qualified, those who give the impression that they are qualified, or those who themselves want to be qualified.
Increase your prospecting activity, but before you even begin, do your homework on which prospects are worth pursuing.
well bobrichard nice postings and info, but it is also hard target to find people that keen to get paid on each generated lead.
I agree with you. Internet marketing can be effective especially if your business is in a niche market, the cost per acquisition can be relatively low and it is all trackable.
I agree that it’s great to hire someone to do the prospecting for you, but in today’s economy with companies tightening the strings i’ve found myself doing more prospecting.
Spreading yourself too thinly won’t help your business. It’s best to hire other people to work on specific tasks such as sales or marketing. If each aspect of the business has a person to overlook the process then it will be much more effective.
Prospecting helps businesses to effectively and efficiently identify and target customers, giving your company an edge in guaranteeing better sales and return on investment. Good prospecting by any sales organization requires the proper systems, managed with a positive accountability basis, using a consistent and persistent approach, and all done from a proactive mind-set. If you can accomplish all of those things, you are certainly ahead of your competitor, and that is where you want to be.
As a leader, YOU always dictate the conversation with your prospect. Don’t allow your prospect’s preconceived notions and objections to sabotage your prospecting efforts. One way to do this is a strategy called “pattern interrupt”. It simply means that you will direct your prospect’s attention away from her preconceived notions and bring the focus back to you. Put the burden of answering the “tough questions” back on your prospect.
[...] If you’ve been fed up with prospecting, got burnt out and really feel that excellent prospects are hard to find, see how the above ideas could be effortlessly applied at the Javelin Marketing Blog. [...]
You left out a Internet Marketing company to drive in leads via your website, but over all it is good useful information.
Axel
Interesting reading through this article and the responses contributed. Will take a further look around the javelin marketing blog.
Many thanks
This description may also be used with many other industries including pharmaceutical sales, insurance sales, retail sales and automotive sales etc. Managerial jobs require high quality organization and human relation talents and abilities.
Sales professionals use lead generation techniques that create the incorrect potential customers.Each one sequentially should carry a stronger call to action, and for that matter, the last should carry an apology to the intended reader that you were inadequate to make clear to them, an innocent victim, the dire threat that faces them that only your recommendations can mitigate!
how can we be helpful through internet marketing?
hi this is really interesting blog.Prospecting is the activity of a sales laborer and not a sales professional. As a sales professional, your time is far too valuable for this clerical, time intensive activity.please continue posted this type of another blog
I agree to the fact that sales laborers are good investments when it comes to looking for prospective customers. I have one of my own and she gives people a tour. So my business is as good as it gets.