Prospecting in a Soft Market By Steve
Waterhouse
Yesterday, I worked with a group of wonderful sales
people who sell for one of the leading companies in
their industry. You would all recognize the brand. They
were complaining (only a little) that the market was
soft and that it was affecting their business. I asked
them two questions. First, how big is the total market
for your product? Answer: over $200 billion.
Second, for
you to be a superstar, how much business would you have
to do? Answer $150 million or 0.075% of the market. If
their market were to shrink by 25%, which would mean
world-wide disaster, a superstar would need 0.1% of the
market. In other words, even in the worst of situations,
there would be 1000 times as much business available as
anyone would need to be a superstar. They got the point
and they agreed that tough times just mean sifting
through more leads to find the nuggets.
Prospecting is a necessary part of sales and
something that many sales people do poorly. Done
correctly, it becomes as much a part of your routine and
as important as a great presentation or a winning close.
Here are 14 tips you can use to improve the
effectiveness of your sales team's prospecting efforts:
Define the type of prospect that is likely to want
your offer. Separate your list of prospects by size or
opportunity. A=big, B=medium, C=small Set individual and
group goals for new contacts per day Work the A list
first. Whales are always better than minnows Minimize
distractions and maximize call time Use the telephone
for as much of the selling process as possible Have
several good value statements written in front of you
Brainstorm common objections (there aren't many new
ones) Develop effective counters to objections Work in
pairs and coach each other Record your calls and review
them (at least your side of the call) Leave value-based
messages on voice mail Call early, late, lunch hour,
anytime. Keep it up forever! Good prospecting requires
skills, persistence, coaching and management support.
Done consistently, it can be the path to dramatic
business growth or insurance against slower times.
If your company is ready to turn your sales team into
a business generating machine, our Power Prospecting
program may be just the ticket. We'll show you how it's
done and help your managers learn to keep the activity
going long after we are gone.
For a free copy of "How to Leave a Voice Mail That
Gets Results", please email article14@waterhousegroup.com
and ask for article #14.
Steve Waterhouse is Principal and Founder of Waterhouse
Group (www.waterhousegroup.com), a sales consulting and
training company that helps companies dramatically
increase their sales. He can be reached at
1-800-57-LEARN or
info@waterhousegroup.com.
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