Effective Prospecting
To build or maintain a successful distributorship, it is essential for you to have a constant flow of new leads. The ability to consistently find new people with whom to do business will set you apart from your competitors. An effective prospecting system makes it possible for you to acquire new accounts that can both expand your market and replace those accounts lost due to attrition and economic conditions.
DIVERSITY IS THE KEY
Keep a sufficient flow of prospects coming your way by developing several effective lead-generating programs. They must be diverse and aimed at all types of industries. It is essential that you do not get yourself in a position of becoming too dependent upon leads from one single source.
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Here’s an example of one distributor who got “burned” by one of his best customers:
I had been selling promotional products for about two years when I fell into what I thought was a gold mine. My largest customer, the Purchasing Manager for a major company, agreed to introduce me to some fellow purchasing agents. Needless to say, this introduction led to some very lucrative business associations. So much so, that I really stopped prospecting for new leads. I had so much business from this group of purchasing agents that I became lazy. I also made the mistake of telling my customer who had made the initial introductions about my success. Lo and behold, he ended up leaving his company and becoming a promotional products distributor and stealing some of my accounts!
I have now learned to keep my mouth shut and to never depend on one person or source for new leads.
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ULTIMATE PROSPECTING
Truly professional salespeople treat their customers in such a professional manner that their customers tend to recommend them to others. This type of “word of mouth” advertising is the strongest and most cost-effective form of prospecting. In fact, it brings customers to you! Review the following list of actions to see if you are doing these things on a daily basis:
Call people back as quickly as possible.
Do exactly as you say at all times.
Never find fault with customers.
Deliver more than you promise.
Refrain from arguing with customers, suppliers, and associates.
Get samples and orders delivered on time.
If you answered “yes”, then you are probably reaping the rewards that come from satisfied customers. If not, adjust your business practices so that your customers will want to recommend you to others. Since “word of mouth” advertising is the fastest way to build any business, you will be the beneficiary of the most effective form of lead generation.
ASK YOUR CUSTOMERS
To stimulate the use of “word of mouth” prospecting, feel free to ask your better customers for leads. Perhaps they would be willing to share some of their own friends’ or vendors’ names with you and let you use their name as a reference. When you are given these names, try to make personal visits on each one with the purpose of introducing yourself. At each stop, leave your card and a brief note stating the purpose of your visit if the contact is unavailable. A friendly follow-up call should then be made to those you did see on the first call. Effective prospecting with the help of satisfied customers builds a calling base that can expand your own business at a very rapid pace.
LEARN TO NETWORK
A great place to find new prospects is at community activities and social functions. By attending a variety of events, you will put yourself in a position to meet and mingle with hundreds of potential prospects. Join a church group, become a member of your local Chamber of Commerce, or pick up a new hobby; do whatever it takes to find ways to put yourself in places to meet like-minded people. There is no limit to the numbers of new prospects that can result from this form of lead generation.
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Here is how one distributor jump-started her business:
After my last child left for college, I decided to earn some money so that my husband and I could afford to do more traveling. I started selling promotional products on a part-time basis for a friend of mine. I did reasonably well for the first few months by calling on some of my husband’s customers; he sells building materials to home builders. Then I got the “selling fever” and decided to prove that I could
come up with my own leads. I attended my first local Chamber of Commerce “business after hours” function. Once the initial nervousness wore off, I got busy introducing myself to everyone in the room. I was so proud of myself when I got home. I tallied up my night’s introductions and realized that I had met five new people who owned companies and were who were looking for gift items. Needless to say,
I had found my niche. Instead of depending on my husband for leads, I became a “joiner.” As I look back over my six years of selling, I can attribute over $500,000 worth of orders to prospects I have met at social functions.
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HAVE A PERSONAL CALLING PLAN
Successful selling is partly a numbers game. The more calls you make, the more prospects you will identify. Of course, the key is to make calls that yield the best results. Personal visits tend to produce higher quality leads in a shorter period of time, because they allow you to gather better information needed to qualify potential customers. Any truly effective calling plan must contain a qualifying step in order to cut down on the time wasted chasing dead leads. Personal calls do this better than any other method of prospecting. Keep the following things in mind when developing your own personal prospecting program:
Commit to making a certain amount of new calls each week.
Make your first calls on people you feel comfortable seeing.
Call on industries with which you are familiar (i.e., mortgage, banking, and construction).
Develop a calling strategy that works with any industry
Organize the calls in an order that is time-effective (work a certain area of town, plan some new calls when out calling on current customers, etc).
By regularly seeing new prospects, you are able to cover all the bases. Unless you visit a new company, there’s a good chance that you will not generate business from it. By scheduling adequate time to make new calls, and then following through with the effort, you will increase your chances of effective prospecting.
LET THE MAIL BRING THEM IN
For the last thirteen years, we have used bounce-back card programs to produce leads. In 1990, we lost a customer who had purchased more than $75,000 a yearly from us because of a corporate buy-out. As a result, we decided to develop a consistent lead generation program and looked at several options. We decided that by offering people a nice gift, they would be more likely to let us call on them. So we developed a series of card programs offering different gifts if individuals returned the card. To make sure our gift cards were taken seriously, we offered something of value, from expensive pens and Fiskars scissors, to handsome desk clocks. We are currently using a custom-imprinted popcorn tin from Sweet Nut Tree to reward those who return our cards.
By consistently sending out our gift cards, we are able to attract approximately thirty new accounts each year. We find our prospects in lists regularly published in our local business journal. We personally call each company to get the name of its marketing director. Then we enter that information into our database, from which we print mailing labels. We mail the cards on a set day each week for four weeks. By doing so, we are able to achieve a 15% return rate. We call each person who returns a card to set up a definite time to deliver the gift. If the prospect requests that we just mail or drop by the gift, we explain that we want to make sure that he or she actually receives the gift. When we do see the prospect to deliver the gift, we casually explain the services that we offer and would like the opportunity to do business with them. For more detailed information about these programs, you can contact us through our website.
LEAVE NO SELLING STONE UNTURNED
Many salespeople often ignore another opportunity for new business—the diverse promotional product needs at a given company. Remember to offer your current customers products that they normally buy from other sources.
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Read the following distributor’s story to see what we mean:
I have been selling for four years and have built up a nice book of business. I spend most my business day servicing existing accounts, but I always allot a certain part of my day for prospecting. In fact, I think my prospecting skills are better than most. While making a sales presentation one morning to my largest account, I noticed that she was wearing a beautiful lapel pin which included her company
logo and a small diamond. It seemed strange that I had never noticed the pin on one of my previous fifty calls! When I finished my presentation, I complimented her on the attractive pin and asked where it came from. She told me that the head of Human Resources ordered several hundred of them from a local jewelry store. They used them to reward employees who had worked at the company for more than three years. I suddenly realized that my prospecting skills were a bit lacking because I was not seeing all of the selling opportunities in front of me. I decided on the spot that I would not be leaving potential business to others. I instituted a new selling policy to ask for business in as many departments as possible.
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Many salespeople are so focused on what they are selling on a particular day that they never think about the bigger picture. Larger companies have a number of departments that purchase specialty items. Your relationship with a company may be with the marketing department, but for some reason you have never taken the time to call on the personnel or safety departments. Each time you establish a new business relationship, ask that person who else in the company might need your services. You will be surprised to learn about the amount of business that is out there waiting for you. All you have to do is ASK!
No matter what you call it, the art of finding new business is critical to your success. Without doing so, it may be difficult to realize your goals. By objectively looking at your situation, then developing and maintaining several prospecting plans, you will amass the leads necessary to sustain your business. And watch your business soar! by Don Sanders, 10/22/2004