Strategic selling method

STRATEGIC SELLING

I/ PROSPECTING: PANNING FOR SALES GOLD

1. The Tools of an Effective Sales Prospector

Prospecting is the search for customers whose business needs are best served by your company's solutions. A good salesperson needs to be an excellent sales prospector. When prospecting, it’s important to organize yourself and gather the tools you’ll need.

Some of your tools are internal resources. Sales prospecting is a lot like marketing. Your aims and goals are much the same. Most companies have sales support or marketing resources.

Your company's existing tools, like customer relationship management, business intelligence tools, and applications that manage sales activities in the cloud can help you find and track prospects. That’s what they're designed for.

The Internet is your friend. Use it to hunt down industry news and blogs that your prospects are likely to follow and follow them yourself. Keep up with global business, politics, and world news. These affect your prospects and competitors. Subscribe to online newsletters to stay up-to-date on potential prospects and projects.

You probably have a smartphone. Use it to track, classify, and modify your prospect information. There's an app for pretty much everything, including several available to help organize your customer information. Find a system that you’re comfortable with and use it.

With all of this information, you can create profiles of your prospects. At the click of a mouse or the swipe of a screen you can access their company facts and demographics, financial performance, their company mission and philosophy, who they use, and who uses them.

There's a mountain of useful information out there. Use it. After all, there could be "gold" just waiting for an eager prospector.

1. Using Prospecting Soft Skills

Your greatest assets are the knowledge and interpersonal skills you've gained and developed during your career. A great prospector uses their whole tool kit.

Networking is, and will always be, one of your most useful sales tools. You can refine and expand your network using social media profiles. These days, social media is a must, not only for networking, but for staying up-to-date on your industry. Think of your network as potential prospects, clients, or referrals.

In person you can pick up on verbal and nonverbal cues. And it's personal. And private. Online and social media contact is great for breaking the ice, but when possible, a personal call or meeting is when to make your pitch.

Beyond networking, you need a communication strategy. This is your plan to mine your prospects successfully. There are many different communication channels available to you, so choose wisely.

Like networking, mix up your communication strategies. Some prospects are more likely to respond to an e-mail than a phone call, and vice-versa. Some prospects are avid social media users. Others might generally ignore it. Use your research to come up with a communication strategy for each of your prospects, adjusting them accordingly to their individual styles. One size does not fit all. Using the wrong approach with a prospect can be a costly mistake.

1. Don’t fall for the Prospecting Myths

Many people start off thinking that sales automation software replaces the need for prospecting. One thing sales automation software can't do is generate a prospect list. The software is only a tool. It's up to you to know how to use it effectively. You must still do your own research, whether it's following social media profiles and industry newsletters, or gathering references from your professional network.

Some sales professionals see prospecting as purely a numbers game. They're buying into another myth and they're liable to end up bitterly disappointed

Quantity is nice, but quality is better. Your best results come from identifying the best prospects outside of your existing customer base and planning a strategy for approaching them effectively.

Of course you should take care of your current customers and keep working to expand your established accounts. But focusing only on customers you already have is risky and leaves the rest of the field wide open for the competition. You might make a living this way, but you'll never thrive.

Prospecting and lead generation are not the same. While they're closely related, in truth, generating leads is a one-way street. It involves reaching out to potential prospects with ad campaigns, newsletters, events, and that sort of thing. A lead can't be a prospect until you reach out to them. Prospecting is two-way communication between you and the potential prospect. A lead can certainly turn into a prospect, but not without your efforts to make them one.

Prospecting only begins when you know what the prospect wants. As a matter of fact, sometimes your prospect doesn't actually know what they want. And even when they do, they don't know how well your solutions will meet their needs. This is where your prospecting skills and sales techniques come in. It's your job to draw out their wants, needs and opportunities. Talking with them lets you validate their thinking and gives you the inside track. It allows you to show how your products and services add value to their businesses. Talking with them – exploring what you can do for them – turns prospects into customers.

1. Prospecting: Get Your Strategy On!

There are the companies that need the very solutions you can provide. Those are your prime targets. Prospecting is how you find them.

Strategy one is to identify the market most likely to benefit from your products and services. Markets are segmented by a lot of different factors, like type of business, size, locations, and revenue. Within these segments, potential customers can be differentiated by demographics like age, gender, ethnicity, or income. Even things like personal interests, lifestyles, and attitudes further divide the market. Market segments splinter off almost endlessly. Which ones can you best serve? Who are the specific people and companies who need what you have to offer?

...