8.1 The Importance of Quality Prospecting and Lead Generation

Let's begin by examining the importance of quality prospecting and lead generation because getting this part right is going to vastly increase your chances of closing more sales and earning more income as a direct result.As we said at the outset, this is an art form in its own right and it is easy to understand why as you need to be able to follow what qualifies as a quality lead and also how to target the correct people in the first place.

Quality prospecting is an essential part of the sales process as it is the one thing that can turn your career into something that is actually sustainable. However, it is important for us to point out that this is not actually involving selling as the two things are very, very different and it is important to keep that in mind at all times.

Furthermore, you must also remember that prospecting will result in you generating leads, so one does indeed follow the other, but there is a problem. The problem is that not every company will teach its sales team how to carry out prospecting and that is not only surprising, but it is also making life harder for you.

Now, we quickly need to address one problem that can strike a surprising number of people when it comes to prospecting, anxiety. This is something that even the most experienced salespeople can suffer from at various times, but it is how you deal with those issues that is the most important part. Anxiety is something that can either be a significant help or it can hinder people depending on how that energy is channeled.

Accept that it is part and parcel of the process and everybody else is feeling it in some way or another, so you are not alone.

8.2 Basic Steps to Find the Best Leads

So, after understanding the importance of prospecting and lead generation, how do you actually go about finding the best leads?The first point we need to stress is that this is not something you can just do whenever you want. Instead, it is essential that you have a plan in place that is easy to follow and which, by the end of it, dictates how and where you are going to find those all-important leads.

One important point to think about is that the business you are in will have a certain methodology as to how you can qualify a lead in the first place. Your company should be able to provide you with certain criteria that a lead should meet, as well as provide you with some insight as to where you should be prospecting according to the market you are required to target. This is something you will often need help with, but at the same time it does stop you from wasting time looking in the wrong areas for people who are just not suitable for whatever reason.

In addition, the way in which you contact the individual can also be determined by the type of product you are selling. The idea of cold calling is something that often fills people with dread, although we will cover that in another module, but your product determines your strategy so it helps you to shape your prospecting approach.

People who are good at prospecting will begin by having a firm idea of their objectives, their goals, and then formulating a strategy on how they are going to get to that end goal. Of course, at this moment, the goal is hitting a target of a certain number of leads, but you still have to understand the steps that must be taken to get there in the first place. So, these are the key steps that should form the basis of your prospecting plan.

1. Assessment

You must begin by assessing your situation both on a personal level as well as from a business point of view. When doing so, ask yourself these kinds of questions.

What are the key characteristics of the area you are targeting?

Where does the product or service best fit into the market?

Is your company or product something that is already recognized by others?

Do you have a previous history of prospecting and already have the required tools?

How have you previously generated leads and in which way?

How good have you been at converting the leads to know how many you need?

How much potential business is out there, according to market research?

How much time have you put aside for the sake of prospecting?

The idea here is that you need to build a better idea of your situation and to also begin to formulate a plan as to the market you need to focus on at this moment in time. You also have to be honest with yourself and do not be afraid to ask for more training from your company regarding prospecting if you do not feel confident enough.

2. Your goal

The next step is to determine what your goals are and they may be defined by your own hopes and aspirations or they could be set by the company you work for. If this is the case, then you must look at breaking it down into the number of leads you have to generate in order to reach that target, as this will help you to determine the length of time you have to commit to prospecting in the first place.

However, it is important you set goals which you know you can actually achieve and that you do not set yourself a target that results in you having to spend your entire day prospecting.

3. Create a strategy

The third and final step is to create the actual strategy that you will put into action for the prospecting part. To be honest, there are a number of different strategies that can be employed. First, set aside time each week to dedicate to it rather than allowing it to consume you and take over your working life. There has to be a balance or you could ruin the rest of your job.

Next, you have to be honest with yourself and what you are good and bad at when it comes to prospecting and spend time trying to improve those weaker areas as this will increase your conversion rate.

Addressing your problems will just make life so much easier. Another key strategy is spending the time finding out the details of those people who are the actual decision makers. Why talk to the monkey when you should be talking to the monkey grinder instead? You will only waste time if you do not do your research in advance. In addition, when you do get to the decision maker, always get a qualified response from them rather than just assuming you know what will happen next.

Finally, make sure you have a list of potential clients that is much longer than the number you need to get appointments with and be prepared to work through the list one by one. You are never going to get everybody, so you must ready yourself for a number of rejections, but that is part of the game and as long as you have extra people lined up, then it will not have as big an impact on your sales.

8.3 What to Avoid when Prospecting

As usual, there are certain actions you must avoid doing when prospecting simply because they will make your life so much harder as a direct result.

It is important that you follow the rules when trying to generate leads or you could ruin your chance of the individual ever being a customer at all thanks to the way in which you handle the initial contact.

1. Never fail to understand both your product and the prospects

You have to make sure that you understand the product or service you are selling as well as understanding the prospects themselves. A failure to do this can lead to poor communication and this will then make it harder for you to understand where you can position yourself in the market and, of course, you could end up trying to generate a lead with completely the wrong person.

2. Avoid choosing the wrong method

It is important that you look at the service or product you are offering as well as who you are targeting to make sure you select the correct method for contacting people in the first place. You may think cold calling somebody on the telephone is something that is outdated, but that is not actually the case. Instead, there are still a number of industries where that approach works, for example, double glazing can do it, although IT services find it harder, but you would not tend to prospect as a double glazing salesperson by going door to door. All this would do in that example is to antagonize potential clients who feel that their personal space has been invaded and you are hardly going to be able to seal the deal right there and then are you?

3. Being too forceful

You have to remember that not everybody is a fan of prospecting, even though it is nothing against you personally, so you have to be careful in what you say and never be too forceful. That is not to say that you have to adopt a softly-softly approach because that will not work either, so this is where your training really does come into fruition. If the person objects, do not try to continue or fight a losing battle because all you are doing is hampering your ability to potentially have that person contact you in the future when they need whatever it is you are offering. This point is itself rather important to remember because of the way in which sales can work. It is not always going to result in a sale at this moment in time, but who knows what the future may hold and when those people you have contacted may possibly turn into a client.

4. Not being clear enough

This is not meant to be derogatory to those people you are calling, but often you have to assume that they know very little about what you are offering them. That is not to say that you need to refer to them as being stupid as this is certainly not the case, but rather you have to make sure that you are explaining yourself clearly enough from the get-go.

For a potential client, there is nothing more frustrating than to be on the end of a phone call out of the blue and then struggling to get to grips with what the person is saying. You want to have them ask you interesting questions which help you to sell the product better, but if you need to continually explain yourself, then this frustration will only lead one way and it is not to your advantage. Furthermore, avoid getting into too much technical jargon as it can come across as you trying to show off and that does not generally go down well.

5. Never promise something you cannot follow through on

The final point that applies no matter the industry you work in or the products you are selling, is to never promise the potential client something that you know you cannot follow through on. Building up their hopes with false promises or simply lying to them is going to destroy your reputation in an instant as well as that of the company you are working for.

The problem here is that some sales people can feel under so much pressure from their manager or company to hit targets that they can say things they do not mean. However, do not make false promises just because you think it will help you to get an appointment because the next person you contact might be looking for exactly what you have to offer.

As you can see, the key is to be clear, concise, and honest when prospecting and there literally is no other way of doing it. There is no doubt that you will get better at prospecting and lead generation the more you do it and there will be mistakes made at the outset and that is entirely normal. However, there is a real need to learn from those mistakes in order to further your career as that is the real key to becoming better at prospecting.

FACT

Professional salespeople sell value, not low price. A study concluded that in business to business sales, only 14% of all buyers considered the lowest price to be the primary reason for making a purchase.

Source: salestalent.com

8.4 How to Take Action on the Leads

Finally, we need to discuss how you then take action on the leads you have generated, because once again, there is a kind of protocol associated with it or you could easily undo all of your hard work in getting to this point in the first place.

Taking the correct action means being professional in your approach just as you have been when initially seeking out the prospective leads. The worst thing a salesperson can do is to get a lead that could potentially evolve into something and then just ignore it. You must remember that there is only a limited window of opportunity whereby you can take action on that lead and hopefully turn it into something more concrete. On most occasions, you will only have one chance to turn a lead into a sale and with competition being so tough, it is all too easy to miss out on that opportunity along with the knowledge of knowing you are going to be unable to go back to that individual or company ever again.

So, keeping it in mind that you need to take action, how do you do it?

The answer to that question lies in how the initial prospecting went as that will determine what your next course of action is going to be. If you have ever heard of the saying 'strike while the iron is hot' then that is something which applies to this point in time.

When making the initial contact with the prospective client or customer, it is important that you judge their reaction in order to ascertain if you should push that little bit harder to either go forward with the sale or to at least arrange an appointment to see them in person and talk to them about what you are offering.

Under no circumstances should you leave a potential client hanging in mid-air and unsure as to what will happen next as that is not only unprofessional, but it is unfair to them as well. In addition, you should never just assume that something is going to happen as this confidence can, at times, be mistaken for brashness on your part and that is one thing which is certainly going to turn people away from you.

However, if we assume the initial contact has gone well, then it is essential that you get an appointment confirmed and read back the details and get the client to reconfirm what they said.

Now, you have to remember that they could back out and change their mind, but that is why it is important to get the appointment arranged for as close to the current time as possible in order to avoid a prolonged cooling off period. This cooling off period can prove to be a disaster for a number of salespeople so even though you do not want to appear to be too desperate, you also do not want to go to the other extreme.

In order to counteract this issue, you should put the ball in the court of the client by asking them what time is suitable and if your diary is full, then provide them with a number of options to choose from. This makes them feel as if they have more power and they are then more likely to actually book that appointment rather than just leave it alone and that, in turn, puts you in a better position as well.