Filling Your Pipeline with the Right Kinds of Prospects

Part 2 of 3: Convert Your Strong Suspects to Good Prospects (2018年1月26日)

By David Yesford

In Part 1, we talked about avoiding the numbers game in prospecting by consciously doing research through the internet and other sources to identify Strong Suspect companies that are likely to be “good for you.” This is the first part of finding good prospects by increasing the quality of suspects. As a result, you will decrease the number of suspects you will need to find a good prospect.

The second part of making your prospecting effort more effective involves extracting “Who are you good for?” from within your list of Strong Suspects. People buy for their own reasons, not yours; therefore, experienced salespeople know there needs to be evidence of obvious mutual benefit in a potential sales relationship in order to make the effort worthwhile. By increasing the quality of the prospects you choose to access, you reduce the number of prospects that you need to access.

Here’s how it might work for you . . .

We have already established that the perception of prospecting is often seen as a lot of work without guaranteed results. Instead of putting a lot of work into high-cost access and selling activities with half-qualified suspects, stop and consider how you might be able to help this client before you make first contact.

To do this, you need to have a good sense of the value of your offering and how that will help your good suspects.

Start by considering your offering’s value:

• What business problems do you typically solve for customers? Do you have examples of this with existing customers?
• What can customers do because of your offering that they could not do before?
• What do you typically help customers improve, increase, or decrease? Metrics elevate the specific value.

Armed with a sense of your own offering’s value, you now need to ask, “Do any of my Strong Suspects want or need what I have to offer?” Search for what’s most important to these suspects right now. Revisit your research with a curious eye toward your Suspect’s current goals, objectives, critical success factors, or marketplace challenges. Review annual reports, Google press releases, and read company website materials.

When you find an obvious link between what they need and what you have to offer, you earn the right to promote your Strong Suspect to a Good Prospect. While this seems like a lot of work if you are used to “dialing and smiling,” with the link to how you can solve the Suspect’s business issue and the knowledge from your research, you will find the foundation for a strong access message and, eventually, a strong foundation for a sales relationship.

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作者介绍

David Yesford

David Yesford担任Wilson Learning全球高级副总裁，在制定和实施人力绩效解决方案领域拥有超过27年的经验。他为客户在战略方向和全球化视角方面带来了宝贵的经验。David曾参与销售及领导、在线学习和战略咨询领域的核心内容设计。David目前也是Wilson Learning全球执行委员会的成员。他曾担任中国和印度的总经理职务。他是多本书的特约作者，包括《双赢销售》，《灵活应变销售》，《社交风格手册》和《销售培训图书2》。David是一个活跃的全球演讲者，并在美国、欧洲、拉丁美洲和亚太地区的商业刊物发表了大量的文章。

阅读更多， David Yesford