If you want to connect with high value prospects that will convert fairly quickly to a closed account… you better be doing these 5 things or you can kiss it goodbye.
1. Stop thinking you can’t.
This still puzzles and saddens me. Hard working people with great products and services keep banging their heads against the wall in low probability land to meet qualified prospects, when with literally a few hours of effort they can set up an efficient total system, be targeting the best people, have scripts that communicate their value instantly and be able to follow-up automatically.
Many tell me they can’t because they don’t have enough time or enough money to do it right. Really ridiculous when you think about it. They have the time and money… weeks and months and sometime years of effort… to pay salaries and overhead and keep doing something that is very hard and delivers inadequate results sporadically… but they don’t have the 5 – 10 hours or hundreds of dollars it takes turn it around.
The business is out there. Desired accounts are meeting and buying from competitors. Stop thinking you can’t get that business.
2. Invest more effort into fewer targets.
It happened again. A now in-recovery former time-wasting new coaching client uttered the words that reveal someone doomed to prospecting disaster. “I don’t want to miss anybody.” Sorry, but that should never be your goal. Your goal is always to allocate your time and resources where you will get the greatest return. Those that refuse to prioritize spend 60%, 70%, 80% or more of their time in low-probability land when they could just as easily be spending 100% of their time in high-probability land.
Why would you call a low-probability target when you could call a high-probability target? Plus, remember that it takes an average of 7 dials to speak to a high-level decision-maker. Call too many people too few times and you can’t win at this game.
3. Use the right tools to maximize effectiveness.
Throw away your paper and stop using your spreadsheets. You won’t win a race carrying a bowling bowl and these methods are holding you back from reaching enough high-value prospects to meet your sales goals. If you don’t already have one, for less than $175 you have at least three options to work with a tool that will maximize your effectiveness and eliminate most of the drudgery from your prospecting. It can’t be money keeping you from using these tools… the value of opportunities you are losing weekly due to working ineffeciently far exceeds the one-time cost. It can’t be time either… done right, it takes just a few hours to start cranking. Drop your bowling ball and start running faster.
4. Get to the point.
Was talking to a hard working capable person frustrated by lack of prospecting results a few days ago. Every time I asked a question the response took two minutes and didn’t include an answer. When she tried to tell me something it took 50 words to say something that could have been stated in 10. Any guesses as to why she is banging her head against the wall?
You need to be able to communicate value very quickly, respond succinctly and ruthlessly rip out unnecessary words from your standard rap. Preparation, writing down and at times revising the words you use in common scenarios… will make sure that you get to the point.
5. Set-up a multi-touch system.
Coaching client calls me last week amazed at the following. Targets they never speak to are opting into their automatic multi-touch system and then calling them ready to do business.
Should this really be a surprise? Communicate with the right targets, communicate a concise benefit rich message, make an offer that is genuinely valuable to them, make it easy for them to accept, touch them multiple times automatically and let them know how to contact you when they are ready.
It took about two weeks of back and forth to write, re-write and then revise again the “touches” and plug them into the system, but now a powerful system is working that is being used over and over again.
This is within everyone’s grasp.
copyright 2007-2012 Scott Channell
