ProspectingKurt Komaromi

Sales +

Sales

Promotion

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Learning Objectives

• Understand the importance of developing a prospect base

• Identify important sources of prospects

• Describe criteria for qualifying prospect

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PProspect, Prospecting, and Prospect Base Defined

• Prospect: a potential customer that meets the qualification criteria established by your company

• Prospecting: identifying potential customers

• Prospect base: made up of current customers and potential customers

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PImportance of Prospecting

• Sales people must deal with customer attrition:

• Customer may have a one-time need

• Customer may move outside the salesperson’s territory

• Firm may go out of business or merge

• Sales may be lost to the competition

• Most companies lose 15-20% of their customers each year

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PGirard’s Ferris Wheel—Supply

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Prospecting Requires Planning

• Increase number of people who board the Ferris wheel

• Improve the quality of prospects

• Shorten sales cycle by determining which prospects are “qualified”

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• Referrals

• Centers of influence

• Directories

• Trade publications

• Trade shows and special events

• Telemarketing and e-mail

• Direct-response advertising and sales letter

• Website

• Computerized database

• Cold calling

• Networking

• Educational seminars

• Prospecting by non-sales employees

Sources of Prospects

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Referrals

• Prospect recommended by current satisfied customer

• Ask contact who else could benefit from product

• Referral organizations: facilitate networking

• Friends, family members, persons of influence, or opinion leaders

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Lead Generation

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Directories

• Business and industrial directories

• Most trade associations publish directories

• Includes company info and key contacts

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PTrade Shows/Publications

• Trade shows and conventions - efficient way to meet prospects

• Trade publications - specific to each industry

• Trade associations - gain access to

potential buyers

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Telemarketing

• Telemarketing: the practice of marketing goods and services through telephone contact

• To identify buyers and generate contact lists for sales staff

• To qualify prospects

• To verify sales leadsgenerated by other methods

• To conduct follow-ups

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PDirect Response andSales Letters

• Direct response advertising: features inquiry cards or information requests via mail or telephone

• Sales letters: send sales letters to decision makers, then follow up

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Website

• Websites provide a cost-effective way for sales professionals to:

• Project personal image

• Present product information

• Generate leads from visitors

• Establish e-mail lists

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PComputerized Databases

• In-house databases: firms often have a comprehensive customer database

• Purchase databases or commercial lists: price usually set on cost-per-thousand names

• Wide range of precise lists available from variety of sources such as infoUSA

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Cold Calling

• Calling prospects without referrals

• New salespeople often rely on these

• Introduce yourself and your company to a prospect

• Must be strategically planned

• Prelude to in-person appointment

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Networking

• Making personal connections

• Networking guidelines:

• Meet as many people as you can

• Tell them what you do

• Don’t do business while networking

• Offer business card/contact info

• Edit contacts and conduct follow-ups

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Three Types of Networks

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Educational Seminars

• Provide opportunity to showcase product without pressuring to buy

• Require extensive preparation

• Start value-added process

• Can present at industry-sponsored seminars or offer your own

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Non-Sales Employees

• Non-sales personnel can be valued source of leads

• Prospecting not exclusive task of sales force

• Non-sales personnel oftenneed training and incentives

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Qualifying Prospects

Basic questions:

• Does the prospect need my product?

• Does the prospect have the authority to buy my product?

• Does the prospect have the financial resources to buy my product?

• Does the prospect have the willingness to buy my product?

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Portfolio Model for Classifying Prospects

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PCollecting and Organizing Prospect Information

• Sales data can be collected and organized into Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems

• Examples of popular applications:

• Salesforce.com

• Oracle

• NetSuite

• Microsoft

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PUsing CRM Technology for Pipeline Management

Sample CRM pipeline dashboard from Salesforce.com