Chapter

6
Prospecting—The Lifeblood of
Selling

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter
6

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 Chapter
6
Main Topics

 The Tree of Business Life: Prospecting

 The Sales Process Has 10 Steps
 Steps Before the Sales Presentation
 Prospecting—The Lifeblood of Selling
 Where to Find Prospects
 Planning a Prospecting Strategy

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 Chapter
6
Main Topics

 Prospecting Methods
 Prospecting Guidelines
 The Referral Cycle
 Call Reluctance Costs You Money!
 Obtaining the Sales Interview
 Wireless E-mail Helps You Keep in Contact and
Prospect

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The Tree of Business Life: Prospecting
T Guided by The Golden
T T Rule, remember:
T T TT  People buy from those they know
T T T T and trust.
 Prospecting is not easy unless you
Builds focus on helping, not selling.
 People who trust you give
referrals.
 Referrals take the burden of
prospecting off the salesperson.
 Referrals are earned through
Relationships integrity, trust, and character.

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 Exhibit 6-1: The Selling Process Has
10 Important Steps
1. Prospecting
The sales process
2. Pre-approach/planning
is a sequential
3. Approach
series of actions
4. Presentation

5. Trial close

6. Determine objections

7. Meet objections

8. Trial close

9. Close

10. Follow-up
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Exhibit 6-2: Before the Sales Presentation

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 Steps Before the Sales Presentation

 Prospecting  Appointment  Planning

 Rule of thumb:
 40% preparation
 20% presentation
 40% follow-up

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 Prospecting–The Lifeblood of Selling

 Prospecting – identifies potential customer

 Lead – name of a person or organization

(also referred to as a suspect)

 Prospect – qualified person or organization

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Prospecting — The Lifeblood of Selling
 Prospecting – identifies potential customers
 Lead – might be a prospect
 Prospect – qualified person
 Is prospect MAD? Does he or she have:
Q1. Money to buy?
Q2. Authority to buy?
Q3. Desire to buy?
…Then, prospect is Qualified
 The Prospector Has the Most Challenging
Sales Career
 This is the “order getter” who:
 Finds a lead
 Converts the lead into a prospect
 Sells one day, and
 Sells in the future too
 WOW! That is a challenge.

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 Some Prospect, Some Do Not
 Many salespeople prospect: both those selling
business-to-business and those selling to
consumers.
 Examples are:
 Financial services, such as life insurance
 Real estate

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 Some Prospect, Some Do Not, cont…
 Many organizations do not prospect.
 Examples are large consumer goods firms as
General Mills* and Colgate*.

* products and associated images used for illustrative purposes only

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 Compensation for the Salesperson that
Prospects is Often:
 Based upon 100% commission – if you do not
sell, you do not earn.

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 Compensation for the Salesperson that
Does Not Prospect is Often:
 Based upon mostly salary with a small bonus
and expenses such as car and office supplies
paid
 If you do not sell you still get paid…but not for
very long.

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 Where to Find Prospects
 Sources may be varied or few.
 Persons selling different services and goods
might not use the same sources.

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 Planning a Prospecting Strategy
 Prospecting requires a strategy.
 It is a skill that can be constantly improved

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 Exhibit 6-4: Prospecting Methods that
Work!

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 Prospecting Methods
 E-prospecting on the Web
 Individuals
 Organizations
 (1)Cold Canvassing – law of averages
 (2)Endless Chain – customer referral
 Customers and customer referrals best sources of
future sales
 (3)Orphaned Customers
 (4)Sales Lead Clubs
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 Prospecting Methods, cont…
 Prospect Lists – trade pubs, list-selling firms
 Become an Expert – get published
 (5)Public Exhibitions and Demonstrations
 (6)Center of Influence
 Direct Mail
 (7)Telephone and Telemarketing
 Observation
 (8)Networking (center-of-influence people)
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 Exhibit 6-5: The Processing System Within
a Telemarketing Center

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 Exhibit 6-6: Reports From a Telemarketing Center to
Other Marketing Groups Within the Firm

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 Prospecting Guidelines
 Three criteria are:
1.Customize to fit each prospect’s needs
2.Concentrate on high potential customers
3.Call back on no-buys
1. Always keep knocking on prospects’ and
customers’ doors to help them.

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 Referrals Are Used in Most Prospecting
Methods
 Eight of the twelve popular prospecting
methods directly ask for referrals.
 Referrals can be directly used in:
 Cold canvassing
 Endless chain customer referrals
 Orphaned customers
 Sales lead clubs
 Public exhibitions and demonstrations
 Center of influence
 Telephone
 Networking
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 The Prospect Pool

 Prospect Pool – group of

names gathered from various
sources

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 Exhibit 6-7: Components of the Prospect
Pool

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 The Prospect Pool

 Leads – know very little or nothing about

 Referrals – learned from referrer
 Orphans – company records
 Your customers – most important prospects

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 The Referral Cycle
 Provides guidelines for when a salesperson
should ask for referrals
 Obtaining referrals is a continuous process
without beginning or end.
 The parallel referral sale:
 Sell the product to person
 Obtain prospect name(s) from person

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 Exhibit 6-8: The Referral Cycle: When to
Ask for Referrals

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 The Referral Cycle cont…
 The secret is to ask correctly during referral
cycle
 The preapproach contact phase
 Mention personal contact
 The presentation
 Build rapport (high-context cultures), explain agenda
 Product delivery contact phase
 Service and follow-up contact phase – customer
service
 Ongoing opportunities to maintain contact with customer
 Don’t mistreat the referral
 Be professional
 Follow through on what you have told referral
 Don’t Mistreat the Referral
 Mistreatment can have a ripple effect.
 The mistreated referral tells your customer –
you may lose both!
 Remember to follow the Golden Rule.

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 Treat the Referral Like a Customer
 Once you have sold the referral, and gotten
more referrals, ask this new customer to
contact the referring customer on her
experience with the salesperson.
 Now you have two customers giving
referrals.
 This can create an endless chain of
referrals quickly filling your prospect pool
with only customers and referrals.
 Now, no more cold calling!
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 Call Reluctance Costs You Money!
 Call reluctance refers to not wanting to
contact a prospect or customer.
 For many salespeople, owning up to call
reluctance is the most difficult part of
combating it.
 About 40% suffer at some point

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Call Reluctance: How to Conquer the Fear

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 Obtaining the Sales Interview
 The key factor in selling process is obtaining a
sales interview.
 Appointment making:
 Telephone appointment
 Personally making the appointment

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 The Telephone Appointment
 Plan and write down what you want to say
 Clearly identify yourself and your company
 State the purpose of your call and outline how
prospect may benefit from the interview
 Prepare brief sales message – stressing benefits over
features and only enough info to stimulate interest
 Do not take no for and answer – be persistent
 Ask for an interview so you can further explain
benefits
 Phrase your appointment request as a question
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 Personally Making the Appointment
 Believe in yourself
 Develop friends in the prospect’s firm
 Call at the right time on the right person
 Do not waste time waiting

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 Wireless E-mail Helps You Keep in Contact
and Prospect
 No one needs constant contact with the home
office, customers, and prospects more
desperately than a sales representative.

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 Summary of Major Selling Issues
 The sales process involves a series of actions
beginning with prospecting for customers:
 Find prospects to contact
 Obtain appointments
 Plan the entire sales presentation

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 Summary of Major Selling Issues, cont…

 Popular prospecting methods:

 Cold canvas
 Endless chain methods
 Public exhibitions and demonstrations
 Locating centers of influence
 Direct mailouts
 Telephone and observation
 Salesperson must develop ways of getting to
see the prospect.
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 Chapter
6
End of Chapter 6

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.