Prospecting can help almost any salesperson enhance their performance. Prospecting takes up a substantial portion of a salesperson’s time when they are completely new to the company because they have no ongoing transactions to work on. However, if salespeople aren’t engaged and focusing on prospecting activities, they may fall out of the habit of prospecting on a regular basis. The difficulty is that being busy does not always generate more sales, leaving salespeople unhappy as to why their results aren’t increasing.
When asked how much their income would grow over the following 12 months if they invested 10-12 hours a week prospecting, the majority of salespeople believe it would double, some say triple, and nearly everyone believes it would increase by at least 25%.
So, if you’re wondering if you’re prospecting enough in your business right now, keep an eye out for these three warning signs that may suggest that you need to up your prospecting game.
Warning Sign #1
You’re still doing a lot of cold calling, not warm calling, after many years in the business.
If, after years in the industry, individuals still don’t know who you are when you call them, you’re not prospecting them enough to create the sorts of connections that can quickly lead to additional business. Many of the calls made by salespeople who prospect often become “warm calls,” meaning they are speaking with people they’ve already spoken with. So, if you’ve been in a particular industry for a while and aren’t getting a lot of warm calls, it might be because you’re not prospecting enough.
Warning Sign #2
You’re finding prospects with needs, but it’s too late to start working with them.
One of the worst scenarios a salesperson may have is this, y ou’ve found someone who is eager to help, but they’ve previously agreed to work with someone else…your competition. So why weren’t you in touch with these folks months ago when they first realized they needed to speak with a salesperson? It’s possible that it’s because you haven’t done enough prospecting throughout the year.
Warning Sign #3
You hear of deals closing in your market that you were completely unaware of.
If you learn through others that someone has bought, sold, or developed in the region you work in and you were unaware that the opportunity was available or that the individuals or firm were seeking a solution, it’s another clue that you’re not prospecting enough.
So, how did you do? Did any of these three warning signs seem to apply to you?
Prospecting is one of the most challenging activities for many of us to keep up with. Who wants to put yourself out there in a position where they can be rejected nine times out of ten or wind up chatting to individuals who aren’t interested in accomplishing anything at all?
The point is that the one call out of ten where individuals could be interested in doing something is the one that will bring you closer to your goals.
So, take a look at where you are in terms of prospecting right now. And if you believe that prospecting for 10-12 hours or more every week will significantly increase your revenue, do whatever it takes to make sure you get this prospecting done.
If you’ve been selling for a while, you’ve probably had at least one experience in which your prospect suddenly started giving you the “silent treatment.”
Anthony described this dilemma very poignantly when he called me a few weeks ago:
“I don’t know what to do when I get hit with the ‘silent treatment’ — you know, when I’ve worked with a prospect for quite a while, and we’ve had great conversations, and they’ve expressed interest in our solution — and then all of a sudden everything stops.
I try calling them back once or twice. I even send a follow-up e-mail, but nothing. They just disappear. And I figure I’ve lost the sale, and I don’t know what I did wrong, or what to do next. It makes selling feel like such a painful and arduous process.”
If this has happened to you, you may have felt anxious and confused. You may have told yourself, “It’s not as if I’m the one who did anything wrong. I put everything into the relationship. How can I rescue the sale if I can’t even get them to talk to me?”
The “Hopeium” Trap
There is a pressure-free way to reestablish communication when your prospect starts giving you the “silent treatment.” But first, it’s important to understand why the situation has happened in the first place.
Most of us who sell get caught up in “hopeium,” a comical term that means we focus our hopes and desires on making the sale. But hopeium can be a trap, because it’s impossible for you to keep in mind your most important goal: to learn your prospect’s truth.
When we fix our minds on the outcome — making the sale — we automatically begin anticipating how the process will go, and we also begin expecting that things will happen as we hope they will.
But if we’re in that mindset and our prospect suddenly breaks off communication, we feel lost, anxious, frustrated, discouraged, and confused. We become preoccupied with what went wrong.
We may even feel betrayed.
Is there any way to clear up the mystery?
Yes, by giving up your agenda and learning the truth about where you stand with your prospect –and being ok with whatever the truth may be. “But how can I learn the truth when they’re avoiding me?” you may ask. “And why do I need to let go of the sale?”
Let’s take the second question first.
If you approach your prospect while you still hope the sale will happen, you’ll introduce sales pressure into the relationship. This will push your prospect away from you and destroy any trust you have developed with them. Instead, you can eliminate sales pressure by telling them that you’re okay with their decision if they’ve decided not to move forward.
In other words, you take a step back instead of trying to chase and follow up with calls because you’re focused on getting a “yes.”
The bottom line is:
When a prospect gives you the “silent treatment,” it doesn’t mean you’ve lost the sale. It just means you don’t know the truth yet.
What you need to do is call and learn the truth.
Why is learning the truth so important?
Here are 4 important reasons:
1. You stop losing confidence in your selling ability. The “silent treatment” threatens our “hopeium.” We start blaming ourselves. We don’t know where we stand — a painful state of limbo. Our self-talk is negative and full of self-blame, and we’re on pins and needles wondering whether the sale will still come through somehow.
2. You increase your selling efficiency and decrease your stress level. Once you learn the truth about your prospect’s situation, you can either stay involved with the prospect or move on. I often say, “A ‘no’ is almost as valuable as a ‘yes.’” Why? Because it frees up your time to find prospects who are a better fit with your solution. This lets you work much more efficiently because you can quickly weed out prospects who aren’t going to buy. Knowing the prospect’s truth lets you walk away without that guilt-laden voice whispering, “If you give up, you don’t have what it takes.”
Learning your prospect’s truth translates into tangible results that equal real dollars. You’ll also put an end to the self-sabotaging stress that comes from living in “silent treatment” limbo.
3. Sales pressure pushes prospects away. When you respond to the “silent treatment” with calls and e-mails, you’re really telling them that you’re determined to move the sales process forward — which means you’re looking out for your needs, not theirs. This makes them mistrust you and run the other way.
4. The “silent treatment” — totally breaking off communication — is how prospects protect themselves from sales pressure when they don’t feel comfortable telling us their truth. The more we press, the more they run.
But the opposite is true, too. The more we relax and invite the truth, the more straightforward they’ll be with us. Prospects feel okay sharing what’s going on with them when they know we’re okay with hearing it.
How to Reopen Communication
After Anthony and I had talked about some of these issues, he said, “This all makes a lot of sense, but I’m still not sure what to say when I make that call.”
It’s simpler than you might think.
* First, simply give your prospect a call. (E-mail and voicemail are very impersonal, so use them only as last resorts if you can’t reach your prospect after several phone calls.)
* Second, take responsibility and apologize for having caused the “silent treatment”.
Here’s some language I suggested to Anthony that will make prospects feel safe enough to open up and tell you the truth about their situation:
“Hi, Jim, it’s Anthony. I just wanted, first of all, to call and apologize that we ended up not being able to connect. I feel like somewhere along the way maybe I dropped the ball, or I didn’t give you the information you needed. I’m not calling to move things forward because I’m assuming you’ve probably gone ahead with someone else, and that’s perfectly okay. I’m just checking to see if you may have some feedback as to where I can improve for next time.”
When you respond to the “silent treatment” this way, the results will probably surprise you. You may even learn that the prospect has legitimate reasons for not having gotten back to you.
You’ll also find yourself more productive and less frustrated. It’ll make a world of difference in your productivity level, your stress level, your income, and how much you enjoy what you’re doing.
Remember…
You haven’t lost the sale. You just don’t know the truth yet.
Ok-well not physically. As sales reps we continually try to stay ahead of our competition to gain the business. Staying ahead of your potential customers prevents surprises and keeps you in the running to win the business. Here’s how…
Beat them to the first contact! second, third, & fourth
Whether you are in a business where leads are generated for you by marketing or if you’re a hunter, make a point to beat your customer to the contact. You can’t wait on marketing to massage the customer into creating the right environment for the customer to call you. Beat them to it! Call first and if necessary call often. This is easier when you put the value of the customer first. When planning for your first, or next contact; make sure you have something in it for the customer. For example:
“I came across a new study in your field and wondered if you knew anything about this? What is your take on it? Here is how we’ve helped similar customers in the past.”
or
If it’s a follow-up to a first contact try this. “I came across this article the other day and I immediately thought about you and I thought that you might like it. By the way, what has transpired since we last spoke?”
or
“I received some news in a meeting today and I immediately thought about you. It would be a disservice for me not to share.” (this is a good one based on info that you receive in your weekly meetings; have new products launching, shipping dates changing?, revised offerings?, discontinuing a service?, use this info to possibly create urgency and to get in front of the customer)
This approach will take you constantly looking for ways to offer unique ideas or points of value to your customers. I can attest that this is much more successful than simply waiting for customers to contact you or using the same boring script that every other rep in your industry uses. This will set you apart in your field. Notice that neither of the above approaches involve leading with discounts or a promotion or a call to just “check in”. Customers today are bombarded with sales offers and/or reps immediately cutting price in hopes to sound interesting. This cheapens your product and quite frankly makes you sound the same of the five previous offers that the customer has heard.
Beat them to the competition!
How can I beat them to the competition if they already have a provider or if I’m the second or third provider they are investigating? Well, you can’t in a literal sense. You can however be proactive in your approach in addressing competition. Thinking that your potential customer is not going to vet you against other providers will certainly sink your battleship. I’ve been in situations in the past where the call or appointment was going great, the customer was seemingly agreeing to how my product fit their needs and my price was completely within the budget . Slam dunk, right? Wrong! This potential customer went with a competitor that they were previously looking at. I put too much stock in the excitement of the call and overlooked the fact that competition was a factor. A hard lesson, but necessary at the time.
Here is a scenario that just happened a few days ago to show what I mean about beating the customer to the competition.
I was towards the end of a call with a potential customer and she agreed that she liked our product offering. I asked for the sale ( an important step to getting to the competition) and she stated that she wanted to do a little more research and talk to her partner. I said “great!, people who do research typically end up being our best customers, just curious though what type of research will you be doing?” She responded with, “well I’ve found a few other companies on the internet”. “Great, lets talk about that and a few of the companies that you can find.” We spent the next thirty minutes discussing the different products and providers that are found throughout our industry. We ended the call with a significant order and I’m looking forward to her testimonial down the road.
You want to make sure that you address the competition on every call. If you dont’ you will be setting yourself up for a possible loss.
Here are few questions to ask on a call: How have you addressed this need in the past? What other resources are you considering using to address this? (internal/external), Are you looking at other providers? Who? What do you like or not like about what you’ve seen up to this point?
These questions will set you up to beating your potential customer to the competition.
Beat them to the sale!
Always ask for the sale. Confidently, Succinctly, and if ever in doubt, Just Do It! Some will argue that if you’ve done a stellar presentation, met all the needs of the customer, then they will be clamoring to ask you if they can buy. That is great in a perfect world and that may happen at times. In preparation for those times where that doesn’t happen you should be asking for the sale. If you are ever wondering where you stand with a potential customer it never hurts to just ask: “Would you like to get this ordered?”. It’s a simple question, but if there are any objections you can flesh them out by asking. This should create a sense of direction for the rest of your conversation. It doesn’t have to be pushy, or obnoxious, but if you’re at a point where the potential customer doesn’t have questions or many not know what to ask, it would be time to beat them to the sale. They may just be ready to buy, but if they’re not, you’ll know why.
These are just a few ways to beat your customer. This is a mindset of positioning yourself and your customer to win the best outcome and always providing value first.
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