FNSSAM403 Prospecting For New Clients
Questions:
A prospect is a qualified person or organisation that has the potential to buy your good or service. Prospecting is the lifeblood of sales because it identifies potential customers. The salesperson must look constantly look for new prospects for two reasons To increase sales To replace customers that will be lost over time.
Prospects are often confused with leads. A lead is the name of the person or organisation that might be a prospect. A lead can be referred to as a person suspected of being a prospect. Before a lead can be identified as a prospect it needs to be qualified. A qualified prospect is:
A person with the money to buy
A person with the authority to buy
A person with the desire to buy.
A simple way to remember this qualifying process is to think of the word MAD. A true prospect must have the financial resources, money or credit to pay and the authority to make the buying decision. The prospect should also desire the product or service. Sometimes though, an individual may not recognise a need for the product or service.Locating leads and qualifying prospects are important activities for salespeople. According to Matt Suffoletto ‘Prospecting is the process of acquiring basic demographic knowledge of the potential customers for your product. Lists that are available from many vendor's breakdown businesses in a given geography by industry, revenue and number of employees. These tests can provide an approach to mass-marketing, via either mailings or telephone canvassing. This canvassing is either done by the salesperson or through an administrative sales support person. No matter who performs a canvas or how it is done it is an important element in increasing sales productivity. The next step of qualifying the potential customer is often included in the prospective process.
Qualification is a means of quickly determining to facts Firstly, is there a potential need for the product or service? Secondly, is the prospect capable of making a purchase decision and do they have the decision authority as well is the financial ability to acquire the product or service?
Obtaining new customers and selling more products to present customers are another way to increase sales. All people lose a percentage of sales or customers per year. Customers come in a out of the salesperson’s sales base.Sources of prospects can be made in varied or few and similar depending on the service or good at the salesperson sells. Naturally people selling different services and goods might not use the same source of prospects. For example the salesperson of plumbing supplies would make extensive use of various industry directories in search of the names of plumbing companies. On the other hand a life insurance salesperson would usepersonal acquaintances and current customers as a source of prospects.
A pharmaceutical salesperson might scan the local newspaper looking for announcements of new positions and hospital, medical office and clinical laboratory are links, whereas the representative for a fast consumer goods company might watch the announcements of construction of new grocery stores and shopping centres.Frequently sales people, particularly new ones have difficulty prospecting. Meeting strangers and asking them to buy something can be uncomfortable for some people. Many salespeople prefer to see others who have similar characteristics to themselves. To be successful prospecting requires a strategy and like other activities is a skill that can be constantly improved by a dedicated salesperson.
