HOW YOUR PROSPECTING METHODS CAN INCREASE THE SIZE OF YOUR AVERAGE SALE
A client called me recently with this question. “My average sale is $1,000.00. My best, most profitable, most desired sales are $5,000.00+. How do I get more $5,000.00 projects in my sales mix?”
To accomplish this, two things needed to be done.
1. Refocus targets selected and the list used.
As a generalization, prospects that tend to buy more, often have common characteristics. Typically, they may be in specific industries, and have a certain range of sales volume or number of employees, that make them more likely as a class to buy more. So he had to prospect only those companies that he knew were in the industries, and within the sales and employee ranges that tended to buy more.
My advice. Only invest in a quality up to date list that you will have unlimited use of, be able to download right into your database, and would include only records that meet all your select criteria. No spending time or resources on low probability prospects. TIP: Don’t try to save money on your list by buying bulk. You always lose this way. Your list cost pales compared the labor and expense to call it. That great deal will cost you productivity and lost opportunities very shortly.
Tip. Make sure those segmentation criteria are properly coded in your database so that you can slice and dice your list to maximum advantage.
2. Alter the scripting used to set appointments and “qualify”.
Keep this in mind. Some people lie. Some people don’t know. Some people won’t tell you. So if you are going to ask questions over the phone and expect to get straight answers you are naive. But, we do know this. As a class, people who tell you they have a need and would be comfortable spending $5,000.00 plus on a project are better prospects than those who don’t.
So after you have used your winning set the appointment script (modeled of course on previous lessons) you would ask two additional questions that qualify for money and timing.
A.” Mr. Prospect, our average project is in the $5,000.00 to $7,500.00 range, is this the range you have budgeted for this project.”
Since our goal is to weed out the smaller projects, this question is non-threatening and provides insight into the odds of investing $5,000.00 or more.
B. “Mr. Prospect, if the price was right and you felt comfortable with everything, what would you do?”
If they say “hire you to start in one month”, that’s a great appointment. If they start talking about talking to someone else, convening a committee, checking with the finance guy for budget authorization, etc., then bells and whistles should start to go off and you should probe deeper before deciding where to invest your time.
Best wishes for prospecting success,
Scott Channell
