I published this post on Pre-Call Planning in June of 2008. When I first wrote it, I was thinking of pre-call planning the first appointment with a prospect. My thoughts were that if you can have a kick-butt first appointment, it lays the groundwork for a successful sales process.
In talking to sales people and sales leaders recently, it seems as though they are doing a good job of pre-call planning, but only on "presentation" meetings. You know, the meetings where you take in your proposal and/or PowerPoint and try to convince the prospect to choose you?
What they are not doing a good job of is pre-call planning on all the calls that lead to the presentation meeting. As you can imagine, this is leading to a lot of presentations to prospects who do not "deserve" presentations. They are spending a lot of time, effort and money with little to show for it. Worse yet, it is taking time away from servicing current clients and prospecting for new clients who "qualify" for a presentation.
Make sure your team is doing a great job of pre-call planning on all sales calls leading up to the presentation. Pay special attention to that initial call, where so much of the potential relationship is established.
As a kid I can remember racing to the dinner table one evening hungry enough to eat a horse but my ravenous appetite quickly went south when I caught a whiff of what I considered to be the nastiest vegetable known to man…Brussels sprouts.
My head twitched, my nose wrinkled, and my lips curled as my mother rolled her eyes and said…”Eat yah vegetables Bwobee if you wanna grow up to big and strong like yah fatha.”
My father, a handsome and very successful salesperson, took one look at my pale and pouty face and said…”You know son, prospecting is a lot like eating Brussels sprouts. They don’t necessarily smell good but they’re good for you.”
Prospecting for new clients is a necessary function of the sales process so before you turn your nose up to prospecting and decide to dig in you’ll want to make some assessments and creat a game plan to make sure that your initial call will be a quality contact and not “dialing for dollars”.
Here are some thoughts and strategies that will help you to become more successful at prospecting.
Assess your current situation and ask yourself the following questions;
What is my territory or market segment?
Is my brand easily recognized by my prospective customer?
Who is my competitive set and how are they selling against my brand/product/services?
Am I experienced and successful at prospecting?
What are my strengths/weaknesses?
Do I continually have enough leads to generate business or do I have to supplement leads with additional prospecting?
How much time do I have to devote to prospecting and can I commit to the process long-term?
What are my sales goals? Are these numbers realistic and achievable?
Prospecting Strategies
Seek out a mentor who is successful and holds to the same high standards that you do.
There’s gold in your backyard. Start digging near your office first.
Ask your existing customers for a testimonial or to refer you to other prospective customers.
When networking be a good listener, ask open-ended questions, and get a business card.
Qualify your prospect ranging from a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being best) and don’t pursue those that fall below 7.
Create a script that gets you past the gate keeper and in touch with someone who writes the check.
Resist selling on the first call. It’s an opportunity to get to know your prospect and to identify if your product or services meets his needs.
If there is light at the end of your call do whatever it takes to arrange an appointment before you hang up.
Don’t bad mouth your competitive set but be ready to share why your company/products/services are better.
Don’t end your day with a prospect that says “No”.
Tom Costello is the CEO of Groups International, a diversified Group Travel Management Company.
Posted by: Tom Costello | June 18, 2009 at 03:28 PM