Prospecting

1. Prospecting, Identifying and Qualifying………

Selling is all about locating a potential buyer, making an effective sales pitch and
getting the order.

But simple as it may seem, it is in fact a complex communication and learning

process for both the salesperson and the prospective customer.

Prospecting is essentially the planning work, which enables the

salesperson to eliminate non-buyers.

Thus, the most important part of the selling process lies in locating the
most promising prospects.

This involves 4 steps:

 The first step is to identify the prospects.

 The second step is to find the qualified potential customers and establish their
validity.

 The third step is to determine their probable requirements.

 The fourth step is to relate company products to each prospect’s

requirements.

2. Identifying the Prospects

Identification of prospects is a taxing job and every sales person should try to collect
information about the potential customers from all available sources.

These sources can be either or a combination of the following:

 Current Customers: The current satisfied customers who

spread positive word-of-mouth.

 Referrals of satisfied customers, also called “Endless

chain”.

 Center of Influence: People who act as an influence for

others, such as housewives, bankers, family members, local
politicians, famous personalities etc.
  Sales Trainees: These are referred to as “spotters” as they help to spot the
potential customers.

 Directories: Regular telephone directories, membership directories of trade

associations and professional societies.

 Mailing List: List of persons and organizations for direct mail advertisers,
pamphlets, etc.

 Trade shows, exhibitions, etc.

 Cold Canvassing: calling on a potential customer without any prior

appointment.

3. Qualifying Of Prospects
An excellent sales presentation will fail when it is delivered to a person or a company
that has no real need for the product or the service, cannot afford to buy it, or is
very satisfied with its present long-term supplier.

Thus, prospective customers must have the willingness, the financial capacity, and
the authority to buy.

These factors, which one has to consider in order of qualifying a prospect, can be
summarized in the acronym MAN, i.e.:

M ONEY: The ability to pay for the product or service

A UTHORITY: The ability to make a commitment on his own.

N EED: The need for the product or service exists.

4. Determining their probable requirements

Once a prospect has been identified, you should not show haste in making an
appointment soon and delivering your sales pitch.

It is important for you to understand that first of all as much information as possible
about the prospective customer should be gathered and a lot of planning should be
done before you contact the prospect.

When information is assembled on each tentative prospect, it becomes easier to

estimate the probable requirements of each, for the types of products sold by your
company.
Prospects with requirements too small to represent profitable business should be
removed from further consideration, unless their growth possibilities show promise.

Even after tapping all readily available information sources, you may need additional
information to qualify certain prospects, and for this you may need to make a
personal visit to the prospect (i.e., “the suspect”). These visits may not bring in
sales, but they save time, as prospects are separated from non-prospects.

These visits may be made due to either of the following objectives:

 To gain more information about the prospect.

 To relate the prospect’s needs and concerns to the attributes and benefits of
the products and services.

 To obtain permission for the demonstration of the product.

 To introduce a new distributor.

 To settle past disputes and so on….

5. Relating Company products to each prospect’s requirements

The final step is to plan the strategy for approaching each prospect.

You should first select those of your products that seem most appropriate for a
particular prospect.

Your presentation shall now be easy to construct and tailored to fit the prospect.

You should have clear idea about specific objections, the prospect may raise, and
other obstacles to the sale that may be encountered.

You are now ready to contact the prospect, the only tasks remaining are making an
appointment, approaching the prospect, deciding how to open the presentation, and
determining how to persuade the prospect to become a customer.

Concentrating only on the prospects and not the suspects leads to saving of
time and energy; accumulation of all possible information about the
prospect; and sales presentation becoming more focused.
6. Exercise
Find out how successful you are in terms of prospecting. Tick the option,
you think is most suitable for you.

Options:

A – Always

B – Frequently

C – Occasionally

D – Never

       Do you gather information regarding the financial position of the prospect?

A B C D

       Do you recognize your prospects special needs or problems before targeting
him/her?

A B C D

       Is it important for you to notice, who gets involved in making the buying
decision on the buyer’s end?

A B C D

       Do you gather information on the buyer’s special characteristics and other
interests?

A B C D
 Do you decide before
hand, the motivation or appeal that is most likely to be effective for
your prospect?

A B C D
        Do you make sure that your company’s products and services satisfy the
special needs of your customer?

A B C D

Analysis:

For each

A – 4 points

B – 3 points

C – 2 points

D – 1 point

6 – 11: You lack skills in effective prospecting. You show haste in making an
appointment and delivering the sales pitch. You need to have patience and gather
information on all aspects.

12 – 17: You understand the importance of prospecting but you must further develop
on this and give a tailor-made presentation.

18 – 24: You are perfect in identifying and qualifying the prospect. Continue planning
ahead as this shall boost your confidence in handling the sales pitch.