Prospect Planner Factsheet
PROSPECT SCHEDULE
Finding new prospects is a challenge whether you’re a new business owner or a hardened veteran of the industry. In fact, when it comes to the sales process, prospecting is the part entrepreneurs struggle with most. Because prospects are customers-in-the-making – whether they buy today or a year from now – sales success begins with effective prospecting
Prospecting creates a steady flow of new customers.
The key is to identify those who fit your organization’s customer profile and hold the potential for becoming buyers.
When you qualify the right prospects, you can build steady growth and avoid the ups and downs of sales that frustrate some sales professionals. “Prospects equal options,”
Prospect with the Right Goals in Sight
Prospecting is about finding the right buyers and turning them into customers. And to succeed, businesses must be relentless and efficient. Efficient prospecting techniques enable businesses to accomplish three critical tasks:
1. Add new prospects
2. Replace lost customers, and
3. Sell new products to existing customers.
“Keep your sales prospecting pipeline full by prospecting continuously”
Always have more people to see than you have time to see them.
It’s a neverending quest. The most successful sales organisations continually find creative ways to uncover new prospects, find ways to help them and attract customers.
The Right Attitude Sets the Course
Businesses can follow every prospecting protocol and come up emptyhanded if they approach this critical aspect of selling with the wrong attitude.
Prospecting, like anything else, can be viewed positively or negatively. “How we feel when we start to prospect is going to impact our success,” .
“You have to possess a belief that what we are doing is actually helping people. It doesn’t matter what it is that we’re selling. What matters is that we’re solving a need for a prospect. If you start thinking of prospecting as just a numbers game, you won’t have much success.” Your prospecting results are highly influenced by attitude.
Determination, perseverance, enthusiasm and a positive attitude are the backbones of prospecting success.
Because prospecting is both art and science, the correct mindset leads to successful prospecting – and ultimately more lucrative sales.
MAKE AN ACTION PLAN YOUR PRIORITY
Most sales professionals are pumped to start the day when they have a deal to close. The idea of spending the day prospecting isn’t as exciting.
That’s why prospecting often gets put off until a later day … when everything else has dried up.
However, if it’s a priority all the time, the pipeline will never dry up. Prospect driven sales professionals with a clear action plan give prospecting the time and discipline it requires to be done well.
An active prospecting plan includes time to identify potential customers, ways to initiate action and strategies to cultivate relationships and grow business. You plan to stay effectively busy.
Make these steps part of your action plan, recognizing that the most successful salespeople include prospecting in their weekly (sometimes daily) routine.
ResourcefulSelling Prospecting Action Plan
Create your ideal prospect list. Answer these questions:
1. Who are my best customers (not necessarily the biggest, just the best)?
2. Where did I find them?
3.What industry is my best target based on my experience?
4.What is my ideal customer’s company size?
5 .Who is the decision maker for what I sell?
Identify how you can interact with them. Answer these questions:
1.Who are my prospects’ customers?
2.What industry and community events do they attend?
3.What social events and organizations are they most active in?
4.What blogs, newsfeeds, social media and print publications do they read and trust?
Divide your prospects into 2 lists.
Now that you can pinpoint your ideal prospects, create two lists – Need and Want.
For example, the Needs may need to grow or shift or change to meet new industry specs.
And the Wants may want to replace a competitor’s product, upgrade technology or try a new process.
Then you can tailor your approach to each. And don’t worry about segmenting at this early point: It will only increase success later in the sales process.
Develop 10 questions for each type of prospect.
You want questions to create a dialogue that uncovers unfulfilled needs and how you can help. Customers can learn anything they need online. You want them to talk so you can qualify the best prospects as customers.
Set specific goals and expectations.
You want to set about 10 specific meaningful and manageable goals for the week or month. Include target number of meetings, phone calls, referrals, social media activity and networking events.
And remember: You’re often contacting people who don’t expect you. You can’t expect them to buy. You can only expect to learn something that will help you start a more in-depth conversation later
Create a calendar and schedule prospecting time.
Don’t leave prospecting to chance. Schedule the time you need to focus on each type of prospect and each goal. One strategy that works: Schedule prospecting time for similar situations together – for instance, all your Needs at the beginning of the week and all your Wants later in the week, or different industries each week of a month. That way, you get in the right flow and use information learned in one situation to help in another.
Take action.
A solid plan includes whom you want to contact, what you want to ask and hear and how you’ll do it.
As you develop your pipeline, allocate your time to ensure you can spend time both on prospects that might be smaller in size, but you can close quickly as well as the large opportunities that will take months to close.”
The ideal calendar has sales people spending 40% of their time developing and executing their prospecting plan and 60% of their time on activities with existing customers.
Find Your Ideal Prospects
While your approach to prospecting should be planned, recognize that prospecting can happen almost anywhere and at any time. Start with solid research and analysis (plus your action plan and goals) to find prospects of interest. Know what prospects do and their likely objectives.
You can find plenty of details for online searches, colleagues, press releases, annual reports, and social media.
From that, choose a few of the most effective avenues for approaching prospects.
1.Referrals. Never stop asking current customers if they can refer you to another person or organization whom you can help.
2.Networking. Join two or three local organizations (such as the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, and Toastmasters International) and several industry associations. Become an active participant or leader to find more prospecting opportunities. 3.Warm calls. Referrals and people who’ve asked for information or help offer the opportunity to make a warm, somewhat familiar contact.
4. Cold calls. Email and phone calls are the best inroads for cold calls to prospects who don’t know you.
5.Email. Personal messages – not mass marketing messages – will work best.
6.Events. Industry events, such as trade shows, offer a steady flow of prospects who already have an interest in your product or service.
7.Mail. Marketing and Sales Development can help create the right materials for reaching out, but don’t underestimate the power of a personal, handwritten introduction.
8.Social selling. It’s a more powerful tool than ever. More on this robust channel for prospecting follows. Remember it is more about social media networking than direct selling.
9.Transitions. Organizations and individuals in transition open great prospecting opportunities. Watch for competitors and potential prospects to make changes to staff. That’s when buyers might feel neglected and are open to change.
10.Old ties. Don’t overlook lost accounts. Time heals many wounds. Lost customers are sometimes hot prospects. Approach them with caution, first understanding why the account was lost, then determining what would need to change for prospecting to be considered.
INCREASE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKING
Social selling or social media networking will get you noticed. More prospecting can and needs to be done via the most popular business social media channels: LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
Here are some steps and tactics to follow.
1.Follow and listen. Start following prospective companies and any members of their C-suite who are active in social media on their LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook pages. You don’t want to send requests for meetings immediately. Keep an eye on what they post to understand the subjects that interest them as an organization and individuals, plus any concerns they voice. You’ll see clues in what they retweet, like and share.
2. Make personal connections. For LinkedIn in particular, send invitations to connect with company decision-makers. If they accept the invitation, introduce yourself and your company more formally and in depth. hashtag and ask to meet up. If they share your content, thank them and ask if it’s OK to make a brief call to talk a bit more about the subject.
3. Join in. Comment on their original posts. Join conversations that generate a lot of buzz: They’re clearly a hot button. Share their content and like what they’re sharing. Send congratulations when they announce good news.
4.Ask for a meeting. Once you’ve connected and engaged in social media, you’re more equipped to ask for a meeting. Find out if they’re going to an industry event or local event by watching for posts with that event’s hashtag.
Then start a conversation with that hashtag and ask to meet up. If they share your content, thank them and ask if it’s OK to make a brief call to talk a bit more about the subject.