| Prospecting Woes? Get A Better Strategy | | | | With our Catalog Builder software, customers are |
| In prospecting, your objective most often is to | | | | dramatically reducing their catalog costs and time |
| persuade a new customer to agree to meet with | | | | requirements while growing their top-line sales due |
| you face-to-face. To gain that commitment, you | | | | to the new markets they're able to tap. |
| must convince the prospect that you are | | | | 4. Ask for Commitment: Prepare to ask for what |
| someone worth meeting. Every customer's first | | | | you want to achieve as a result of making this |
| major buying decision is whether to buy you-the | | | | call - for instance, a face-to-face meeting. |
| salesperson. They'll never decide to buy your | | | | Example: |
| products before they've bought you. | | | | Would you be open to exploring how we might be |
| You must begin to "sell yourself" in your very first | | | | able to reduce your costs and drive more sales |
| call on a new prospect. | | | | toward your company? |
| Here is a quick, four-step prospecting strategy | | | | Start with this basic approach. Tinker, refine, and |
| that allows you to begin "selling yourself" | | | | document your results until you have tailored the |
| immediately. | | | | most successful prospecting strategy for your |
| 1. Introduce yourself: Use your people skills to | | | | individual situation. |
| politely introduce yourself and your company. Say | | | | In The Field: |
| please, say thank you, and use the prospect's | | | | A major supplemental-insurance company |
| name twice. | | | | improved its prospecting results dramatically when |
| Example: | | | | it adopted a strategic framework, then |
| You: Hello, (first and last name) please? | | | | documented and fine-tuned an approach that |
| Answer: This is he/she. | | | | works best. |
| You: Thank you, (first name). This is (your first | | | | Before the company made that move, it |
| and last name). I'm with (company). | | | | assumed that a dismal batting average was |
| 2. Gain Attention: Make a very brief capabilities | | | | simply a fact of life in prospecting. "We were |
| statement about your company. What is the | | | | having trouble getting in the door," admits district |
| most appealing thing you can say about your | | | | coordinator Lisa Thompson, "But we didn't realize |
| company's offerings? Choose a capability that is | | | | that our ratio of calls to appointments was |
| fairly universal, so as not to eliminate any potential | | | | unnecessarily low until we implemented the Action |
| customers. | | | | Selling sales skills process to prospecting. |
| Example: | | | | "We were so focused on getting our message |
| My company, (its name), has created a | | | | across before the prospect could tell us they |
| remarkable software product that makes it | | | | weren't interested that we missed the whole |
| extremely easy for our customers to create and | | | | point of the call," Thompson said. "After learning a |
| maintain product catalogs, then produce them in | | | | unique selling process through Action Selling Sales |
| just about any media from paper to Internet. | | | | Training, our calls are structured correctly |
| 3. Create a Vision: What desirable goal can the | | | | [Introduction, Gain Attention, Create a Vision, and |
| prospect achieve due to the benefits of your | | | | Ask for Commitment], and we are crisp in our |
| products or services? Communicate that goal as | | | | delivery yet focused on getting the appointment. |
| vividly as you can. | | | | Our ratio of calls to appointments is 38 percent |
| Example: | | | | better than before. |