Category — Sales Prospecting

You finally got the meeting you sought with a top executive at a prospective client. You prepare well for the session, researching the company and the individual you’re meeting with. After the small talk dies down, you ask your “killer” question:

“I’d like to get a better understanding of your issues. So, what keeps you up at night?”

Terrible question. Awful. Clichéd. One of my clients, the CIO of a large bank, told me that he kicks people out of his office when they pull out that question.  Read more...

It’s been said that salespeople don’t plan to fail, they simple fail to plan! How much time do you currently spend preparing for your client appointments? If you’re honest with yourself, the answer is probably not enough.

In my opinion, the single most common characteristic shared among all successful salespeople is the value they place on pre-appointment preparation, research, and planning. I believe that when W. D. Boyce founded the Boy Scouts of America in 1910 he selected “Be Prepared” as the organization’s motto, because he understood that preparation was the key to unlock the door of opportunity.  Read more...

You are not always selling, but you are always prospecting.

The definition of prospecting is identifying the organizations and individuals who have a potential need for your products/service/solutions.

Let’s get serious about prospecting.  Let me be candid: we make it more difficult than it is.

Here’s the simplified version of prospecting:

You understand your products and services.  You believe you have something to offer the prospect.  You have a firm conviction your solution is better than what is being used at the present time.  You believe your advantages are valuable to the prospect.  You want to share these advantages with your prospect.  Read more...

Every customer has a price range where they are willing to make a decision without any further thinking. I refer to this as the Price Tolerance Ratio – also known as the PTR.

Knowing your customer’s PTR is critical. I believe it is one of the major obstacles salespeople fail to comprehend. As a salesperson, when you don’t understand a customer’s PTR, at least one of the following results is inevitable:

* You offer a price that does not maximize the profit potential.

* You get the order but encounter resistance from the customer that hinders the relationship.  Read more...

What’s the first thing most of us in sales do every day? I bet you can’t wait to get to your email, or check Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. What time do you surface from all this activity?

Some of my clients tell me, “Lunchtime.” I don’t really think that’s accurate, but the truth is we waste hours every day on activities that don’t contribute to business development. These are hours spent on activities that don’t deliver a return on your time investment.  Read more...

Success in sales doesn’t just happen. It’s the product of a lot of hard work. However, this entails more than adopting time-honored ways of finding new prospects and closing more deals (although, to be clear, that’s still really important). You also need to take chances and try new things to connect with your audience, and that includes taking a close look at the growing range of socially-focused tools that are available out there these days.

Why is this so important? No matter what you sell, the direct audience for your product or service isn’t businesses, organizations or institutions. It’s people. So it’s worthwhile to take a minute and think about common characteristics that we all share.  Read more...

Prospecting via email can be wildly rewarding, or incredibly frustrating. Get it right, and each of your campaigns can deliver you fresh sales opportunities within days, and sometimes even minutes. Get it wrong and you risk wasting your time, or even worse, irritating potential clients.

So what makes the difference?

After years of experience, and dozens upon dozens of successes, we’ve found that it’s all in the approach.

In fact, we’ve coached clients through a number of simple steps that have helped them double or triple their prospecting email response rates virtually overnight. Here are a few of the highlights.  Read more...

Sales prospecting is a lot like exercise. We all know that we need to do it, we usually have a good idea of how to do it, and we can be pretty certain of what the long-term results will be… and yet, that doesn’t make it any easier.

The issue, of course, comes down to discipline. To enjoy that pipeline full of fresh, qualified sales leads later, we have to do some things that might be inconvenient or uncomfortable today.

The good news, however, is that the discipline you need to prospect isn’t as hard as you might think. Here’s how you can fix your prospecting problems virtually overnight.  Read more...

There aren’t many certainties in selling. What works well for one person can be a dead end for another, and what looks like a sure sale can easily deteriorate into a missed opportunity.

One thing you can count on, however, is that a lack of strong, qualified leads will always be a stumbling block on the way to new business.

In that way, prospecting and lead generation are somewhat unique activities. While you can be a strong presenter, closer, or negotiator, none of that will ever matter if you don’t have enough leads to work with. And yet, coming up with a full sales pipeline is a constant challenge for sellers in every field and industry.  Read more...

Give me a salesperson who’s struggling to fill his or her calendar with client appointments, and I’ll show you a sales rep without a phone script.

Unfortunately, many salespeople labor under the false belief that they’re too experienced to use a phone script and as a result, sabotage their phone calling effectiveness and income.

A well-designed and properly rehearsed script is a powerful tool for projecting a confident and competent professional image. In addition, a script guarantees that every call is delivered in a consistent and concise manner.  Read more...