Prospecting for Sales Leads
A salesperson with out leads is kind of like an automobile that is a little short on gas. A salesperson with out leads is not going to get very far; because with out leads salespeople are quite simply dead in the water.
With most of the sales organizations that I ran the very first thing I always taught a new salesperson was how to prospect and develop leads. This was normally taught in conjunction with learning the presentation, warm up and close. Prospecting was the most important though because the world's greatest salesperson could not sell anything if he or she had no one to sell to.
If need be one of my sales trainers or myself could always go on the call with the agent and assist with the presentation and close the sale. Therefore, I always insisted that the new agent first learn how to prospect and prospect well, for prospects that had an interest in talking with us.
Notice, I said, had an interest in talking with us, not simply an interest in buying the product we were presenting that evening. Talking to a buyer would be nice but if all we are looking for is buyers we will step over a good eighty percent of the sales that could have been closed easily, after a little work making a proper presentation and close.
Looking for buyer's is quickest way for a salesperson to starve to death that I know.
Another thing I will mention is that I never asked nor expected my salespeople to come up with a list of friends and relatives ( warm market ) that they could call on first. I personally would avoid this like the plague if at all possible. Any sales organization that requires this of new people I feel are being deceitful and dishonest with the newly hired salesperson. These companies are obviously more interested in who the new salesperson knows than what talents the new salesperson possess.
I would tell the new salesperson that it is alright to let their family and friends know what they are doing so that when and if they did get into the market for the product they would hopefully call them first. I also would let the salespeople know that I would prefer they learn to market to strangers first because there is an unlimited supply of strangers through out the world. This way, once they got good at talking and making sales with prospects that they did not know previously, they would be able to make a good living the rest of their life.
Should we teach our new salespeople to cold canvass on the phone or go door to door? In my opinion this practice is just courting disaster. If you don't mind having about a twelve hundred percent turn over in the sales department each year and watching your sales quota go straight into the toilet, well have at it.
I will admit when I first picked up a sales kit and started selling forty two years ago that these we acceptable methods of doing business. (Both Cold Canvassing and Cold Telemarketing) These methods can still be used today of course but there are just much better ways of prospecting with out going out and harassing the public and destroying your salespeople before they even get started.
I developed a lot of different ways of prospecting over the years because even though I was probably one of the best door to door and telephone canvassers alive, I still preferred to have some sort of lead method to work, there by avoiding having to knock doors cold are bother prospects on the phone during the dinner hour.
I should point out that there are neighborhoods in this country that are down right too dangerous to go knock doors in.
I made a great living working exhibits, developing direct mail pieces to follow up on and also getting lots and lots of referrals.
If you go to my website http://www.thesellingfool.com/ and read the section on prospecting you can learn how to develop more leads than your organization can work in just a few days. At virtually no cost, I might add.
Just a few years ago myself and a handful of sales people sold two to three million dollars worth of tangible products in a small metropolitan area with a population of less than two hundred and fifty thousand people, year after year for quite a few years in a row before saturating the market for that particular product.
So it can be done, it is just a matter of getting out there and doing it.
Billy J Gibson
thesellingfoolbjg@yahoo.com
http://www.thesellingfool.com/
With most of the sales organizations that I ran the very first thing I always taught a new salesperson was how to prospect and develop leads. This was normally taught in conjunction with learning the presentation, warm up and close. Prospecting was the most important though because the world's greatest salesperson could not sell anything if he or she had no one to sell to.
If need be one of my sales trainers or myself could always go on the call with the agent and assist with the presentation and close the sale. Therefore, I always insisted that the new agent first learn how to prospect and prospect well, for prospects that had an interest in talking with us.
Notice, I said, had an interest in talking with us, not simply an interest in buying the product we were presenting that evening. Talking to a buyer would be nice but if all we are looking for is buyers we will step over a good eighty percent of the sales that could have been closed easily, after a little work making a proper presentation and close.
Looking for buyer's is quickest way for a salesperson to starve to death that I know.
Another thing I will mention is that I never asked nor expected my salespeople to come up with a list of friends and relatives ( warm market ) that they could call on first. I personally would avoid this like the plague if at all possible. Any sales organization that requires this of new people I feel are being deceitful and dishonest with the newly hired salesperson. These companies are obviously more interested in who the new salesperson knows than what talents the new salesperson possess.
I would tell the new salesperson that it is alright to let their family and friends know what they are doing so that when and if they did get into the market for the product they would hopefully call them first. I also would let the salespeople know that I would prefer they learn to market to strangers first because there is an unlimited supply of strangers through out the world. This way, once they got good at talking and making sales with prospects that they did not know previously, they would be able to make a good living the rest of their life.
Should we teach our new salespeople to cold canvass on the phone or go door to door? In my opinion this practice is just courting disaster. If you don't mind having about a twelve hundred percent turn over in the sales department each year and watching your sales quota go straight into the toilet, well have at it.
I will admit when I first picked up a sales kit and started selling forty two years ago that these we acceptable methods of doing business. (Both Cold Canvassing and Cold Telemarketing) These methods can still be used today of course but there are just much better ways of prospecting with out going out and harassing the public and destroying your salespeople before they even get started.
I developed a lot of different ways of prospecting over the years because even though I was probably one of the best door to door and telephone canvassers alive, I still preferred to have some sort of lead method to work, there by avoiding having to knock doors cold are bother prospects on the phone during the dinner hour.
I should point out that there are neighborhoods in this country that are down right too dangerous to go knock doors in.
I made a great living working exhibits, developing direct mail pieces to follow up on and also getting lots and lots of referrals.
If you go to my website http://www.thesellingfool.com/ and read the section on prospecting you can learn how to develop more leads than your organization can work in just a few days. At virtually no cost, I might add.
Just a few years ago myself and a handful of sales people sold two to three million dollars worth of tangible products in a small metropolitan area with a population of less than two hundred and fifty thousand people, year after year for quite a few years in a row before saturating the market for that particular product.
So it can be done, it is just a matter of getting out there and doing it.
Billy J Gibson
thesellingfoolbjg@yahoo.com
http://www.thesellingfool.com/
posted by thesellingfool | 7:17 PM
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