The Initial Sales Contact

When the Prospect Initiates the Contact

Prospects will visit you during normal business hours if you have a store or business location. If you do not have a store, they might contact you by phone, mail, email, or through your website to request information, ask questions and/or to make a purchase.

Prospects who visit or contact you are very good potential customers. They have done their homework and look you up. Pay attention to what they want. Give them good service and convert them into your customers.

Prospects might also call at odd hours to find out when you're open or where your store/office is located. Be sure your answering machine message, answering service or website answers these questions.

When You Initiate the Contact

One of the most common initial contacts is a "cold call" conducted by phone or in person. A cold call refers to a contact made with prospects who have not indicated they desire the call. It's obviously much more efficient - and most say more successful - to conduct cold calls on the telephone rather than to drive around town, but you might have a reason that warrants an in-person cold call on occasion.

Make an appointment, giving them choices of appointment times and meeting locations.

Here are some ideas to help turn cold calls into warm prospects:

·         First, determine your objective and the purpose of your call. Your purpose may be to make an appointment, to inform, to question, to talk to a certain person, and to sell. Additionally, determine if you want to close the sale on the first call or simply pave the way for a later call or sales presentation.

·         Try to do a little homework before the call. If you know someone who may have insight or information about the prospect, call them.

·         Send a fax or mail some information prior to the cold call. Reference the information in the call, but don't open with, "Did you get the information I sent?" This allows the prospect to simply say, "no," just to get you off the phone. Instead, try something like, "I sent you some information by fax yesterday; I'm following up to provide additional information . . ."

·         When you're ready to make the call, make sure you have all the materials you need at hand. For example, if the purpose of your call is to make an appointment, have your appointment book open and a working pen or pencil in front of you. Having brochures and product photos are useful too.

·         State your purpose quickly - within 15 seconds.

·         Get prospects interested by asking questions that make them think.

·         Make statements that build rapport and confidence.

·         Use humor - people love to laugh.

·         Be sincere.

·         Be friendly - people like to buy from people they like.

·         Keep your eye on the prize - never lose sight of your objective, regardless of the outcome of the call.

In my next post, I will elaborate on The Sales Presentation.

Prospecting Slides

Prospecting

Finding qualified prospects for your products or services is a necessary first step in the sales process. You need to have someone to sell to before you make a sale. But, making certain that there is a good possibility that they will buy is what makes them "qualified prospects."

An often used method in prospecting is finding out where your competitors are selling to. These are potentially your customers if you are able to convince them to switch to your brand.

Another method is desk research. Decades ago, flipping the yellow pages or phone book/trade directories is the norm. Now all you need is Google the information you want online. For example, if your products and services are used by ship or rig builders, type in “ship or rig builders” in Google search, and you will have a list of all prospective clients.

How about networking? Getting friends and business associates to refer you to a potential customer is common in many countries, like China and Indonesia.

Once you've identified prospects, you will want to learn all you can before you approach them. How is their company set up? Do they have a purchasing department? Or do every purchase goes through the technical department for evaluation before the purchasing department is involved? Is the boss or director personally involved in all purchasing matters?

Contacting each prospect takes a lot of time and energy so look at each potential prospect carefully to:

·         determine your sales approach and plan your sales calls

·         determine which products and services best suit particular prospects

·         uncover reasons why you should not pursue some prospects, saving you valuable time and resources

In my next post, I will elaborate on the Initial Sale Contact, the second step of the Sales Process.