Those qualified prospective customers will all have five com- mon traits. The fewer they have of those traits, the less qualified they are. You want people or organizations with the following qualifications:
They have an awareness of their need for whatever it is you sell.
They have both the authority and the ability to pay for it.
They have a legitimate sense of urgency relative to acquir-
ing it.
They trust you and your organization.
They are willing to listen to you.
What good would it do for you to present even the most perfect message to a prospective customer who doesn’t know that he or she needs your product, doesn’t have sufficient funds to pay for it, has no authority to access those funds, has no heartfelt immediacy to purchase it, or doesn’t trust you? Yes, you guessed correctly—none. No good at all
So, here’s the biggest trap to avoid: don’t be satisfied with using any of these phrases with a prospective customer who merely agrees to listen to you. That is pure folly. It’s fool’s gold that will only take you closer and closer to sales failure.
Think about this situation logically and honestly. What are the chances of your encountering someone who has all five of the characteristics of a qualified prospective customer by cold calling, either by phone or by knocking on doors? You guessed it—extremely slim at best.
However, if there is no strong marketing effort, if brand aware- ness is low, if resources are limited, or if there is no other prospect- ing strategy available, this may be your only option. In that case or if cold calling is your strategy of choice, we will, of course, address what to say and when to say it. Nonetheless, at this point there might logically be some question in your mind about whether you should use this low-yield, yet deceptively inexpensive method of prospecting for any long term when so many other options, as explained in this book, could be available to you.
The secret to selling is to be in front of a qualified prospec- tive customer when he or she is ready to buy, not when you need to make a sale.
What does that mean? Simply this: timeliness is by far the single most important skill in prospecting—period.
However, you do need to have an appropriate strategy (or better yet, set of strategies) that clearly defines your prospecting effort. You must maintain the top-of-consciousness position in your prospective customers’ minds in such a way that they think about you at the time they decide to pursue the purchase of a product or service that you sell
This book will carefully recommend specific words and phrases linked to a wide array of strategies. There really is no other way to design it. What you say and how you say it are nec- essarily intertwined with what you do in order to get in front of a qualified prospective customer. Again, the primary purpose of this book is for you to know exactly what to say when you are in front of a qualified prospective customer at the right time. However, those words and phrases are contextualized by the strategy you use. There is no way around it.
Again, be careful not to use the words and phrases in this book with prospective customers who meet only the least important of the criteria—merely being willing to listen to you! Just because someone is willing to listen certainly doesn’t mean that he or she is a qualified prospective customer. And that is a trap that has caught lots and lots of salespeople—and can be fatal to your sales career.
A final thought here: the only real inventory you have as a salesperson is your time. So don’t waste it. Even if you are using the exact, right phrases, don’t waste them on the wrong people.
The Three Biggest Myths in Lead Generation
Myth #1:“Prospecting Is a Numbers Game.”
Myth #2:“All Prospective Customers Are the Same.”
Myth #3: “Positioning Is for Companies, Not for People.”
Myth #1:“Prospecting Is a Numbers Game.”
That is simply not true. Prospecting is first and foremost a game of accuracy. It is all about delivering the right message to exactly the right people at precisely the right time and in the right way.
Of course, the more you do that, the more you will be able to prospect more effectively. Remember: it is important to be accu- rate, correct, and on target and not to waste a lot of time either with the wrong prospective customers or delivering the wrong message at the wrong time and in the wrong way.
Myth #2:“All Prospective Customers Are the Same.”
Some prospective customers will never buy, no matter what you say or do.Therefore, abandon them before they take up too much of your time.
s Some prospective customers will take up vast amounts of your time, regardless of how good or effective you are. Therefore, determine who they are and minimize your time with them.
s Some prospective customers are purely comparison and/or price shoppers.Therefore, determine who they are and never allow them to compare“applestoapples”or “driveyoutoyourknees.”
s Some prospective customers will never be profitable. Therefore, be sensitive to the future you face if you deal with too many price-shopping prospective customers.
s Some prospective customers are not strategically correct for you or your organization.Therefore, look at the bigger picture, not just the sale.
Myth #3: “Positioning Is for Companies, Not for People.”
This assumption couldn’t be more incorrect. To most prospective cus- tomers, you are your organization. And how you present yourself relative to minor concerns—such as timeliness, dress, style, image, grammar, etiquette, and demeanor—and to larger issues—such as how you establish yourself with regard to business acumen, imple- menting a strategy, possessing marketplace and technical knowl- edge, demonstrating expertise, and providing strong account management—positions you well or poorly. The choice is yours.
The Three Biggest Lead-Generation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Mistake #1: Dealing with the Wrong People at the Wrong Level.
Mistake #2: Spending Too Much Time with Unqualified Prospective Customers.
Mistake #3: Employing the Wrong Lead-Generation Strategy.
What is the best strategy for you and your prospective cus- tomers? Only you can determine that. Perhaps these few obser- vations might help:
s Who your present customers are . . . or are nots Who your prospective customers are . . . and are not s How your customers deal with salespeople like you s What their policies are relative to purchases
However, your decision or strategy for prospecting could also be driven by the following factors:
s Where you are in your sales careers Whether or not you have current or inherited businesss Your personal skill setss Tools you have at your disposal (digital, phone, etc.)s The product or service you sells Who your best targeted prospective customers might be s Budget considerationss Marketing supports Clerical supports Purchasing patterns of prospective customers
Transactional, relational, or strategic
You need to engage prospective customers based on the way they buy— not based on the way you sell. In their expectations of the sales experience, your prospective customers generally will be trans- actional (they buy and move on), relational (they want a mean- ingful, ongoing interaction), or strategic (you jointly anticipate their future needs).
However, no matter what your strategy, eventually you will likely lose many of the accounts you win. There will come a time when you will be replaced for any of hundreds of reasons. It may not even be your fault. So let’s face it, no matter what you sell or to whom you sell it, you do need to deal with this reality: learn to service your customers as well as you are able to do so and con- sistently go out and find others to replace them before they leave!
And you need to do that every single day of your sales career—and that is true whether you have been in sales for 20 days or 20 years!
What are your most common prospecting situations? They can likely be broken into at least the following categories:
s Face-to-face, formally or informally, on purpose or by chance
s By telephones At trade showss Through referrals from current customerss Through referrals from people other than customers s At networking eventss Response to mail, e-mail, or fax campaignss By selling current customers more
In each of these situations, you’ll need to know the importance of your unique Direct Value Statement (DVS) and know how to use it. This is a straightforward, easy-to-say, and easy-to-understand statement that clearly and declaratively communicates the funda- mental reason why your organization exists and why you’re selling its products or services. It is likely the most important thing you’ll learn in this book. Yet most salespeople never master the concept. In fact, surprisingly, some never even know it exists.
Sample Direct Value Statement:
“We assist our clients in the banking industry to improve their profitability. We do this by reducing their fixed opera- tional costs, improving employee performance, and geo- metrically expanding their marketing efforts.”
The DVS is such an important concept that we’ll be spending some time showing you how to design your own. Why is your personal DVS so important? Because it quickly, clearly, and pre- cisely defines for a prospective customer exactly who you and your organization are, what you do, and how you do it. Better yet, it defines clearly what you do and how you do it in the way that it benefits your customers or clients. It also identifies your core customers.
Ultimately, your DVS will play a central role in virtually every prospecting situation in which you will ever find yourself. In fact, it will be referred to in practically every prospecting scenario explained in this book.
No matter your business, your DVS can always start with the same phrase:
“We assist clients (or customers) in the _____________ industry (or business) to ______________________. We do this by ___________________.”
However, in order to do that, you must really understand what end-result benefits you actually deliver to your customers.
You also need to know what end-result benefits your targeted prospective customers and current customers actually want to gain, enjoy, achieve, or have.
Here are several DVS examples:
s We assist our clients (or customers) in the industrial manufac- turing industry (or business) to design their products more effi- ciently. We do this by providing cost-effective design software.
s We assist our clients (or customers) in the health-care industry (or business) to provide first-rate care to their patients. We do this by providing practical, useful education behind our diagnostic products.
s We assist our customers in the furniture industry (or busi- ness) to earn greater add-on sales to their products. We do this by providing customer relationship tools and strategies.
Your DVS is extremely important in many venues. You can use it for gaining appointments, imbedding it into pre-approach communication tools, meeting people, and answering the inevitable question,“What do you do?”
Again, the structure is always the same: “We assist our ______________ in the ____________ industry (or business) to ___________. We do this by ____________.”
No matter what your business, venture, service, or industry, this statement will work for you. Therefore, I’d urge you to give some very serious thought to answering these four questions when developing your own direct value statement.
s Do you work with individuals, organizations, enterprises, associations, or governments?
s Do you specialize in an industry? A specific segment? A unique market? A certain type of business?
s What do you assist your customers in doing? Reducing their costs? Improving their productivity? Reducing employee turnover? Maximizing financial returns? Gaining market share? Increasing stock value? Improving their profits?
s How do you do that? By improving processes? Improving manufacturing yield? Providing upgraded equipment? Offering education? Guaranteeing on-time delivery?
If you cannot easily, quickly, and comfortably communicate the fundamental reason why people or organizations would choose to do business with you and precisely how you do what you do for your customers, you will surely have a very serious problem when prospecting for customers. In fact, this is so critical that if you can’t verbalize those things, you may likely never even get your foot in the door.
In the final analysis, people will choose to do business with you in order to reduce or eliminate a problem, solve an issue, improve a situation, make easy purchases, or enhance their posi- tion. They are all vitally interested in solutions. That’s really what it is all about.
Some more DVS examples:
s We assist our clients (or customers) in the software industry (or business) to reduce personnel costs. We do this by offering screening and assessment services, hiring systems, and reten- tion programs.
s We assist our clients in the long-term health industry (or business) to provide better care to acutely ill patients. We do this by having the largest research facility in the world with the most scientists dedicated solely to critical, long-term care
issues.
s We assist design engineers in the metal fabrication industry
(or business) to provide real-time system feedback. We do this by having the most comprehensive troubleshooting software in the market.
Your turn. Fill in the blanks of your Direct Value Statement.
We assist _____________ [clients or customers] in ________________ [industry or business] to _____________ [what you help them to do]. We do this by ______________ [what you do to help them].
Craft your DVS and use it over and over again. It will prove to be invaluable to you in gaining appointments with even the most difficult prospective customers.
Three Types of Contact
There are three primary situations in which you launch yourself from a “standing start”—you have no current customers, you have no one who can refer you, or you have absolutely no way to receive company-generated leads.
s Cold contact—a phone or face-to-face interaction with a prospective customer who may never have seen or even heard of you or your organization.
s Warm contact—a phone or face-to-face interaction that is preceded by a “pre-approach contact” by some direct means, to include referral. What makes this strategy “warm” instead of “hot” is simply the last sentence of any pre- approach communication (purpose statement) and the P.S. section of any communication. More about this later.
s Hot contact—a phone or face-to-face interaction based on some form of pre-approach communication with a formal response mechanism that the prospective customer returns to you electronically, via response card/letter or other form (fax, e-mail, or phone, for example). More later here as well.
No matter what method you do choose, the secret to success is the same: it’s the list. A lousy list will yield lousy results no matter what you send, say, or do. It all starts with having a good list; the tighter it is to your offering, solution, price point, etc., the better.
The second key is your offer. And that includes what you say. A later section will supply you with the precise words that will work with specific customer types (no matter what you sell); teaser copy you can use for envelopes, e-mail subject lines, or postcards; a sample document (word for word); exact words to use with each type of customer to describe your product or serv- ice, yourself, your organization, and your benefits; and words to avoid using at all costs. You’ll also be supplied with ads to place either electronically or through conventional methods. You can also use these exact, precise phrases to engage in meaningful face-to-face or telephone conversations about your product or service, company, benefits, and relationships with your prospect.
In many of these situations, you will be using your Direct Value Statement. Prepare it carefully—and memorize it. Use it as indicated.
To see which methods work best for you, you may want to test your strategy. Try one form with 50 prospective customers and an alternative form with another 50. That’s called a split test.
Don’t spend all your time or your entire budget on a bad list or a bad offer. Either way, you lose.