Prospecting…for Profit

Prospecting is one of the least understood selling disciplines. It is a task that is most often neglected because prospecting takes place at the beginning of the selling cycle with the payoff lying far down the road. Many times, the salesperson’s prospecting efforts result in little or no gain. In spite of these roadblocks, Prospecting remains the life blood of every salesperson.

Paul Meyer, president of Success Motivation Institute, once said, “I would rather be a master prospector than be a wizard of speech and have no one to tell my story to.” Let’s look at how you can become a master prospector.

An ancient Chinese proverb says that a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. In beginning any worthwhile venture, preparation must be handled with great care. If you own a computer, it is best to purchase a good contact management software program to keep track of your prospects. If you are not computerized, buy 500 or more 3 by 5 cards, a 3 by 5 cardholder, and a set of color coded dividers that include monthly, weekly and blank tabs. To set up your box, place the present month in front. Insert a set of weekly dividers behind each month. Write on each 3 x 5 card as much information as you have about your prospect. As you begin setting appointments, place these cards behind the month and week when you will be calling on your prospect.

You have now initiated a “tickler” file. As the weeks of the month go by, the dividers and the prospect cards will be moving towards the front of your box. The present week and month will always be facing you. Prospects that have not been contacted as yet will go in a section of their own – in the rear – waiting for you to schedule an appointment to see them.

The way you approach setting up your prospect box will give you some advance indication about your attitude toward your prospecting program. Therefore, organize prospects on your own time.

Many salespeople spend productive selling time organizing their prospect files. This “house-cleaning” activity is nothing more than a “cop-out” to keep from making calls. It beats working! (Or so they think.) It just doesn’t put any money in the bank. It is important to rate your prospects based on their degree of saleability. At the back of your prospect box insert four dividers labeled: Hot, Warm, Cool and Cold, in that order. Now, using the criteria given below, place your prospect cards behind the appropriate divider.

Hot Prospects

A present customer who is buying your product or service will be rated hot. Some of you may be thinking, “Hold it! What’s my present customer doing in my prospect box? He’s mine already.” He’s in there because you should be working as hard to keep your present customer as you did to get him. Right now – today – your customer is someone else’s prospect!

Warm Prospects

A prospect you have not yet called on, but who has been referred to you by a present customer, will be classified warm. Having someone who respects you and your product or service recommend you to a friend is a strong lead.

Cool Prospects

A cool prospect is someone whose name and address you have – plus you also have some additional information about him or her.

A prospect whom you know nothing about other than his name should be labeled cool.

Cold Prospects

Calling on Cold Prospects

The cold call is probably the most difficult call you will ever have to make. There are valid psychological reasons why some salespeople suffer from cold call reluctance. How many of us can recall Mother saying during our early development, “Never talk to strangers!” “Never talk to strangers” may have been appropriate back then, but now it is counter-productive and inappropriate. Today, we need to seek out “strangers” because they hold the keys to our sales success.

As a salesperson, you no doubt have found yourself making a cold call on an individual you have never met. Also, your prospect has no idea who you are. It’s 9 a.m. and you enter your prospect’s office, get past the secretary and find yourself face-to-face with your “cold call.” At 9:10 a.m. you’re back on the street. There was no interest, no money, no decision, nothing! Many salespeople, after several attempts at cold calling, wind up at the nearest coffee shop with a “Why me?” attitude. They mistake the prospect’s “No” as a personal rejection.

A cold call that does not result in a successful outcome should be just that, a cold call. It was nothing more than a ten minute exercise in attempting to get a cold prospect upgraded in your prospecting system. No more, no less! It should have ended there – why then all the other pain? Unfortunately, salespeople experience what is known as “reach-back” and/or “after-burn.”

The “Reach-Back” Syndrome

Reach-back is defined as that period of time during which an upcoming event begins to have a negative influence on your behavior. It is most dramatically seen in the salesperson whose entire attitude may be disturbed for days before getting into a fearful situation, i.e., cold-calling. Some salespeople spend several hours (if not days) “mentally living” through imagined cold-call scenarios, worrying about the hundred different ways they might get rejected. Worry is nothing but interest paid in advance on borrowed trouble.

The best remedy for reach-back is intelligent organization. Arrange your time so that planning and preparation can be carried on without disturbing your regular behavior patterns. Once you’ve decided on your plan, put the subject aside until the times comes to work your plan.

The “After-Burn” Syndrome

After-burn is defined as the period of time during which a past event continues to have a negative influence on your behavior. After-burn refers to those occasions when your normal behavior patterns are disturbed by a past event. For example, a salesperson may agonize after a cold call: “I shouldn’t have made this call in the first place!” (self-blaming) “I wonder what will happen the next time.” (worry) “I am not good at this.” (put-down)

The remedy for after-burn is to prepare yourself in advance to tolerate the frustrations that are likely to occur, and then forget them. Keep in mind that after-burn tends to consume much more time than proper preparation.

Cold Calls Are Not Forever

Some salespeople, beginning their careers and confronted with cold calling as a means of prospecting, sit back and say, “If this is what I have to do to make sales, forget it!” Understanding how to prospect will eventually lead to your being able to obtain customers through other, less threatening, methods. To say cold calls are not forever doesn’t mean to imply you will never again make them. It does mean that they will have their proper place in your ongoing sales development plan. New salespeople tend to lose sight of this fact and often quit the profession because they cannot see the full sales cycle from a balanced perspective.

You Don’t Have To Like It

The salesperson who says he “likes” cold calls hasn’t made any. How can anyone say they “like” a situation that produces such a high frequency of rejection? Perhaps what they mean to say is “I don’t mind paying the price of cold calling, because it helps me reach my goals.” If you are still at the stage where cold calling represents sitting in your car (or behind your telephone), suffering from “reach-back” or “after-burn,” you are OK. It’s OK to think that the prospect’s door is welded shut. It’s OK to ride around the block to build up your nerve, or make phone calls hoping the line is busy. You just haven’t learned to focus on the end result and not on what you have to do to get the end result.

Remember, you don’t have to like cold calls, you just have to make them.

Copyright 1990 by Sandler Systems, Inc.