Marketing chapter 6a prospecting the lifeblood of selling

Main Topics The Tree of Business Life: Prospecting  The Sales Process Has 10 Steps  Steps Before the Sales Presentation  Prospecting—The Lifeblood of Selling  Where to Find Prospect

Prospecting—The Lifeblood

of Selling

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

ABC’s of Selling, 10/e

Copyright © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc All rights reserved

Main Topics

 The Tree of Business Life: Prospecting

 The Sales Process Has 10 Steps

 Steps Before the Sales Presentation

 Prospecting—The Lifeblood of Selling

 Where to Find Prospects

 Planning a Prospecting Strategy

 Prospecting Guidelines

Main Topics, cont

 The Referral Cycle

 Call Reluctance Costs You Money!

 Obtaining the Sales Interview

 Wireless E-mail Helps You Keep in Contact and Prospect

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The Tree of Business Life: Prospecting

Guided by The Golden Rule, remember:

 People buy from those they know and trust

 Prospecting is not easy unless you focus on helping, not selling

 People who trust you give referrals

 Referrals take the burden of prospecting off the salesperson

 Referrals are earned through integrity, trust, and character

Exhibit 6-1: The Selling Process Has

Some Prospect, Some Do Not

 Many salespeople prospect, both those selling business-to-business and those selling

to consumers

 Financial services as life insurance

 Real estate

Some Prospect, Some Do Not, cont…

 Many organizations do not prospect

 Examples are large consumer goods firms, such as General Mills* and Colgate*

* products and associated images used for illustrative purposes only

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Compensation for the Salesperson that Prospects is Sometimes:

 Based upon 100% commission – if you do not sell, you do not earn

Compensation for the Salesperson that Does Not Prospect is

The Prospector Has the Most Challenging Sales Career

 This is the “order getter” who:

 Finds a lead

 Converts the lead into a prospect

 Sells one day, and

 Sells in the future too

 WOW! That is a challenge

Steps Before the Sales Presentation

 Prospecting > Appointment > Planning

Exhibit 6-2: Before the Sales Presentation

Prospecting–The Lifeblood of Selling

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 Prospecting – identifies potential customer

 Lead – name of a person or organization (also referred to as a

suspect)

 Prospect – qualified person or organization

Prospecting — The Lifeblood of Selling

 Prospecting – identifies potential customers

 Prospect – qualified person

Prospecting–The Lifeblood of Selling

 Sales Prospecting Funnel

 All leads and prospects must be considered and filtered through the MAD process before they become qualified prospects

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The Leaking Bucket Customer Concept

 All salespeople lose X amount of sales and customers per year This is illustrated in

the Leaking Bucket Customer Concept:

 Customers come into the top and leave through a hole in the bottom

Where to Find Prospects

 Sources may be varied or few

 Persons selling different services and goods might not use the same sources

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Planning a Prospecting Strategy

 Prospecting requires a strategy

 A skill that can be constantly improved

Exhibit 6-4: Prospecting Methods that Work!

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 Customers and customer referrals best sources of future sales

Prospecting Methods, cont…

 Prospect Lists – trade pubs, list-selling firms

 Become an Expert – get published

Exhibit 6-5: The Processing System Within a Telemarketing

Center

Exhibit 6-6: Reports From a Telemarketing Center to Other Marketing Groups Within

the Firm

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Prospecting Guidelines

 Three criteria are:

1.Customize to each prospect

2.Concentrate on high potential customers fruit

3.Call back on no-buys

 Always keep knocking on prospect’s and customer’s door to help them

Referrals Are Used in Most Prospecting Methods

 Sales lead clubs

 Public exhibitions and demonstrations

 Center of influence

 Telephone

 Networking

The Prospect Pool

Exhibit 6-7: Components of the Prospect Pool

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The Prospect Pool

The Referral Cycle

 Obtaining referrals is a continuous process without beginning or end

 Referral cycle – when and how to ask for referrals

 The parallel referral sale

 Sell the product to person

 Obtain prospect name(s) from person

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Exhibit 6-8: The Referral Cycle:

When to Ask for Referrals

The Referral Cycle cont…

 The secret is to ask correctly during referral cycle

 The preapproach contact phase

 Mention personal contact

 The presentation

 Build rapport (high-context cultures), explain agenda

 Product delivery contact phase

 Service and follow-up contact phase – customer service

 Ongoing opportunities to maintain contact with customer

 Don’t mistreat the referral

 Be professional

 Follow through on what you have told referral

Don’t Mistreat the Referral

 Mistreatment can have a ripple effect

 The mistreated referral tells your customer – you may lose both!

 Remember to follow the Golden Rule

Treat the Referral Like a Customer

 Once you have sold the referral, and gotten more referrals, ask the new customer to

contact the referring customer on her experience with the salesperson

 Now you have two customers giving referrals

 This can create an endless chain of referrals quickly filling your prospect pool with only

customers and referrals

 Now, no more cold calling

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Call Reluctance Costs You Money!

 Call reluctance refers to not wanting to contact a prospect or customer

 For many salespeople, owning up to call reluctance is the most difficult part of

Obtaining the Sales Interview

 Key factor in selling process is obtaining a sales interview

 The benefits of appointment making

 Telephone appointment

 Personally making the appointment

Believe in yourself

Develop friends in the prospect’s firm

Call at the right time on the right person

Do not waste time waiting

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The Telephone Appointment

stimulate interest

Wireless E-Mail Helps you Keep in Contact and Prospect

 Wireless E-mail helps keep the sales representative mobile.

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Summary of Major Selling Issues

 The sales process involves a series of actions beginning with prospecting for

Summary of Major Selling Issues, cont…

 Popular prospecting methods

 Cold canvas

 Endless chain methods

 Public exhibitions and demonstrations

 Locating centers of influence

 Direct mailouts

 Telephone and observation

 Salesperson must develop ways of getting to see the prospect

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