Power Prospecting
Page 6
Ideal Customer Profiles
Good salespeople narrow their target market by identifying ideal customers. Information about existing clients is a literal gold mine of usable data.
Customer profiles typically include business size, number of employees, gross sales, business type, products or services purchased, location, and other account specific data.
To identify your ideal customers use the Ideal Customer Profile Chart.
Ideal Customer Profile Chart
Figure 4.2
In the first column (from left to right) list a minimum of five of your best customers. Your best customers are those clients who give you the maximum amount of profit with the fewest number of problems. Start with your favorite customers, the accounts that make you grin every time you hear their names, placing your absolute best customer as number one and listing your second best customer next and so on.
Next to the best customers bracket is a column called the characteristics column. This column helps you identify why the accounts you selected are ideal. To identify ideal customer characteristics ask yourself, “Why are they the best?” After completing your list of positive characteristics, analyze and then list what common attributes your best clients exemplify.
The next bracket is the worst customers column. You should follow the same pattern and identify your worst customers: those clients who give you the greatest number of problems with the least amount of profit, the customers who make you cringe every time you hear their names. Starting with your least favorite customer, put that customer as number one, and then list your second worst customer and so on.
Adjacent to the worst customers column is another characteristics column. This column helps identify consistent characteristics of problem accounts. In the same manner as the best customer characteristics, you must ask yourself, “Why are they the worst customers?” You should analyze and then list the negative characteristics of these customers. The data you gather from this process should be used to recognize consistent traits or patterns with problem accounts that can be used to avoid these types of accounts in the future.
Once you have identified your best and worst clients and their associated characteristics, you are able to determine who your ideal customer is, thereby narrowing your target market to match the characteristics of your ideal and most profitable customers.
Information Lists
In order to establish intelligent prospecting strategies, sellers need to use professional information lists that provide both demographic and geographic data, preferably in an electronic format. Electronic information lists can be rented, purchased, or even borrowed, and in most cases, they can be imported into contact management programs or into Excel spreadsheets for clarity, notes, and reporting purposes.
Three primary sources of information lists are available that are used to identify target markets:
1. Purchased information lists
2. Free information lists
3. Internet search directories
Purchased Information Lists
Reliable sources for purchased information lists include Dun & Bradstreet, Hoover’s, InfoUSA, Sales Genie, list brokers, and trade publications that sell customer subscription lists. If you need list brokers, you can find them in the Yellow Pages under “Mailing Lists,” “Direct Mail,” or “Mailing List Brokers.” Direct-marketing publications such as Direct Marketing or Target Marketing carry “Mailing List” ads that list catalogs available for rent or purchase. There is even a free catalog, put out by Edith Roman Associates in New York City, which you can use to identify an information list that meets your target market.
Information lists range in cost between 5 and 25 cents per name, depending on the amount of data you are seeking. Depending on the quality and specifications of the information list, contact names can cost as much as $10 a name.
I highly recommend that you purchase information lists. Purchased lists are usually more accurate, up-to-date, and are available in multiple electronic formats. Typically, the more expensive the list the more accurate the data.
When you purchase information lists, be sure to investigate the quality of the data prior to making the purchase by asking the list vendor the following questions:
How accurate is the list? (Accuracy is everything. Time, energy, and money will be wasted if the list contains inaccurate information).
When was the last time the list was updated?
How is the list organized?
What electronic formats are available?
Do you have references that I can contact to ask list quality related questions?
Purchasing your information lists from reputable sources will increase your ROI (return on investment) and ensure that you avoid wasting time on faulty or inaccurate data.
Note: You can significantly increase your cold call response rate if you start your calls at the end of the list and work backwards. Everyone calls AAA Widgets, but how often does Zygot International get called?
Free Information Lists
The second source for prospecting names are free lists that are available from organizations such as state and community government agencies, public libraries, some chambers of commerce, and various online lists found on the Internet. Some sellers don’t realize, however, that the best and most accurate free information list is a standard telephone directory.
Although these free lists are ideal for start up businesses that sell community oriented goods and services, they are not ideal for general prospecting purposes. Excluding telephone directories, their data is normally not as accurate, up-to-date, or complete as purchased information lists, which means your time will be wasted sifting through cluttered data, calling accounts with disconnected numbers, and spending time on calls that won’t purchase.
Internet Search Directories
The third source for prospecting lists is Internet search directories such as www.Switchboard.com, www.YellowPages.com, and other web sites that offer directory searches. Most major search engines, such as www.Google.com, have directory search capabilities where sellers are able to identify businesses by description and location. For example, if you are selling pharmaceutical drugs to pharmacies in Atlanta, type in “pharmacies” and list “Atlanta” as the point of inquiry for your search, and you will get a results page that lists pharmacy stores in Atlanta. You can then copy and paste or type the directory information into an Excel spreadsheet or contact management program.
The Point? Successful sellers focus on speaking to the right people. Increase “hit ratios” and maximize your return on investment by strategically narrowing and defining your target market.
In Summary
In order to maximize prospecting efforts, sellers must first identify their target market and then obtain organized and accurate lists to contact that market. Armed with a list of high probability buyers, sellers ensure their return on investment is high. Without quality information lists, sellers waste time finding names, locating numbers, looking up business addresses, and fumbling through data. Without organized lists of potential buyers, sellers stay busy, but they don’t set appointments or qualify accounts.
Chapter 5
Qualification vs. Appointment-based
Cold Calls
Marcius Porcius (Cato) was a Roman statesman born at Tuscalum in 234 B.C. Living up to his surname, which signified “the wise,” Cato became a distinguished leader in Roman politics, and was sent to Carthage in 175 B.C. to make a treaty between the Numidians and Carthaginians. It was during his time in Carthage that Cato became resolute in the goal of destroying the city because he knew it was the greatest rival of the Roman Empire. Focusing the rest of his life on destroying Carthage, Cato is remembered today for ending every speech he made before the Roman Senate with, “Carthago delenda est!” (“Carthage must be destr
oyed!”). The Carthaginians wreaked havoc in the Mediterranean world and posed a constant threat to the expansion of Pax Romana, Roman peace. The Romans battled the Carthaginians in three massive wars called the Punic Wars, which eventually ended in the capture and total destruction of Carthage in The Third Punic War (149-146 B.C). The Romans were so determined to defeat Carthage that they made sure nothing was left alive by spreading salt over its ruins.
Cato’s constant reminder of the threat from Carthage kept Rome focused on its ultimate purpose and led to Rome’s greatest triumph—the destruction of the Carthaginians.
Identifying the Purpose of Your Cold Call
Like Cato reminding the Romans to stay focused on Rome’s ultimate objective during the Punic Wars, sellers need to identify their primary objectives and stay focused on fulfilling those objectives. Before making cold calls, sellers need to ask themselves, “What is the purpose of my prospecting call? Is it to set up an appointment, or am I trying to discover whether or not there is a valid reason to set up an appointment in the first place?”
Why is the distinction between appointment-based cold calls and qualification-based cold calls important to understand? Because, without first identifying the objective of your call, it isn’t possible to create or utilize a consistent opening statement or cold call script. In addition, if you are a distance seller who uses “trains, planes, and automobiles” to travel through your territory, you will waste time and money attending appointments with prospects who are not qualified to purchase. The distinction is critical.
For example, if you are a local life insurance agent and the sole purpose for cold calling is to set up face-to-face appointments, then the more cold calls the better. If someone is willing to meet with you eye-ball-to-eye-ball, fantastic! On the other hand, if you are a distance seller located in San Francisco, California, selling software solutions across a northeastern territory that includes the states of Maine and Massachusetts, setting up face-to-face appointments without first qualifying prospects is sales suicide. Obviously, different prospecting objectives require different cold calling strategies; therefore, as the aim of each cold call varies, sellers must adapt their approaches accordingly. Cookie-cutter cold calling approaches simply won’t cut it.
The Point? Typically, the purpose of cold calling for local sales professionals is to set appointments. The opposite is normally true for distance sellers. The purpose of cold calling for distance sellers is to qualify accounts prior to appointments.
Two Types of Prospecting Calls
There are two types of prospecting calls:
1. Appointment-based calls
2. Qualification-based calls
I consulted with an executive who was setting up an internal call center, and when I asked him what kind of prospecting calls he was attempting to make, he gave me a blank stare. I then clarified my question, “Are you attempting to qualify accounts or set appointments?” While technically his answer of “both” was accurate, it failed to identify the purpose of the initial prospecting call. After a lengthy white board discussion, we determined that his objective was not to set appointments but to qualify accounts prior to passing them to his more senior salespeople. After a cold caller qualified a lead, an informational email would be sent to the buyer, and the account data would be transferred to the appropriate salesperson. Later in the sales cycle, the sales representative would set an appointment for a webex presentation, product demonstration, or sales meeting.
Appointment-based Cold Calls
If your cold call objective is to set an appointment, regardless of the qualifications of the account, then you are engaged in appointment-based cold calling. If a potential client agrees to meet with you face-to-face, at a specific time, you have succeeded. If, however, the potential client does not agree to meet with you face-to-face, at a specific time, you have not succeeded. Consequently, the success or failure of the call hinges strictly upon whether or not an appointment is set.
The appointment-based cold call is a simpler and faster sales call than a qualification-based cold call since appointment-based cold calls make no attempt to qualify the account over the phone. There are little-to-no qualifying questions asked, and once a potential client agrees to meet, the purpose of the call is completed. At that point, the seller says, “Thank you very much. I look forward to speaking with you on Tuesday at 9:00” and ends the call.
Note: Keep in mind that appointment-based sellers eventually qualify prospects but not until the sales meeting. The qualification process is not done on the cold call. It’s done at the appointment.
A sales training participant who sells high-end networking solutions once asked me, “Why on earth would a salesperson set up an appointment with an account that’s not qualified?” While this may seem like an obvious question, in many cases cold calling is counter intuitive because it’s really not as cut and dried as it first appears. For many sellers, it makes perfect sense to set up appointments with prospects who are not qualified prior to the appointment because the cost of the appointment is low, and the potential payoff is high. Sometimes qualifying an account during the sales appointment, increases the probability of the sale.
A close friend of mine sells mortuary services that give his clients a complete plan for death. He sets up a financial plan to pay for the casket, the mortuary costs, the funeral expenses, the plot, and everything needed in case of a death in order to prevent people from passing on financial burdens to their families when they die. It’s actually quite a responsible action for people to take. When my friend contacts people, his sole objective is to set up appointments. He does not bother attempting to qualify them prior to the presentation. Who could blame him? Can you imagine the questions he would need to ask in order to qualify an account prior to setting up an appointment? “Hi Ms. Jones, this is Bob from Fred’s Mortuary. We were wondering if anyone in your family is preparing to die? (Response)… And is Mr. Jones going to die soon as well? (Response)… Good. Were you planning on selecting caskets together or separately? (Response). And how do you normally fund purchasing things like caskets and burial graves?”
There are some sellers who should not qualify accounts during the initial cold call. For evident reasons, insurance agents, business consultants, and financial planners primarily engage in appointment-based cold calls.
Note: A face-to-face sales meeting is the most effective way to make a sale, bar none. The best and most efficient way to set up a face-to-face sales meeting is through teleprospecting.
Qualification-based Cold Calling
Qualification-based cold calls have an entirely different objective than appointment-based cold calls. (The qualification process is discussed in detail in Chapter 12). The purpose of the qualification-based cold call is not to set up an appointment, but to qualify the prospect prior to the appointment. Because of the opportunity costs involved in distance selling, distance sellers cannot afford to run across a territory and speak with anyone and everyone willing to meet with them. Neglecting to qualify an account will waste the most precious and irreplaceable commodity known to man: time. Sellers must determine certain qualifications about buyers prior to setting appointments:
1. Ultimate Decision-Maker(s) (UDM)
2. Available Funding
3. Appropriate Timeframe(s)
4. Matching Needs
One method of determining qualification after the initial opening statement is for the seller to focus on discovery-qualification questions. After the buyer explains a few account details, the seller asks qualifying questions such as:
• “Aside from yourself, who else will be involved in the decision making process?” (Ultimate Decision-makers).
• “How do you normally fund a project like this?” (Funding).
• “Mr. Prospect, assuming there’s a good fit, what sort of timeframe would you be looking at to implement a project l
ike this?” (Timeframe).
Note: Qualification-based cold calls typically deal with high value, business-to-business products and services that are not purchased in a single sales call or meeting.
For many sales organizations, it makes sense to have full time cold callers “bird dog” qualified leads for sales representatives. Many sales organizations hire cold callers to qualify accounts prior to passing them on to more seasoned or experienced sales professionals. In this manner, more skilled sales personnel remain engaged in the latter, sometimes more difficult, stages of the sales cycle. Seasoned sales professionals posses skills and expertise associated with making difficult presentations or in-depth product demonstrations, so filling their pipelines for them with qualified leads through teleprospecting employees is most profitable.
The primary difference between appointment and qualification-based cold calling is this—appointment-based cold calls advance the buyer from the prospecting stage of the sales cycle to the investigation stage of the sales cycle after the cold call while qualification-based cold calls advance the buyer from the prospecting stage of the sales cycle to the investigation stage of the sales cycle during the phone call.
In Summary
The objective of the appointment-based cold call is to set up introductory meetings with potential clients at specific times; whereas, the objective of the qualification-based cold call is to qualify accounts prior to investing significant amounts of time, money, and effort. Sellers must be sure to identify the primary purpose of their prospecting efforts before making cold calls.
Chapter 6
Sales Messaging