A Simple & Effective Prospecting Program, Part 4

Let's step back just for a moment and look at our prospecting program so far.

First, we are going out to every business in our community that we can and we are going to go to an area, move through that area and then move to a new area adjacent to the one we just went through. This will save a good deal of time in not driving all over town. Second, our first goal is to learn about their business--to see their business, get a bit of an understanding what they do, how they do it and what kind of vehicles they have, their needs and problems. Third, we are going to be as observant as we can to see how we might be able to be of service to them now or in the future. Fourth, we are leaving some trinkets behind as a thank you gift for their time. Fifth, we are introducing ourselves and what we do and we may leave some materials behind or not as desired based on the response we get.

That is the overall view of the first part of the simple & effective prospecting plan. Now, we need to do something more, otherwise there will be a lot of making friends and no making sales. Here's what needs to happen next:

When we get back to the store, we debrief ourselves before we get busy with other things. It is important to take 15 to 30 minutes and get this done. If you are entering the information in the database program, you would enter it in there, if not, then you would make notes. We need to think of this as our daily contacts and who we met, how it went, who are the decision makers, what are their needs, what kind of vehicles do they use, are the vehicles working out well for them, how many employees do they have, how is their business doing? Record all that information and anything else that you can so that you develop a file on each contact from which you will be able to move forward intelligently. Record all the names of people in the company that you have, along with website information.

After all the debriefing is done, now we need to look at each of these prospects and see if we can answer the three questions we talked about before. They are, do we have anything that will help them to, 1. make more money, 2. save money, or 3. do their job better or more efficiently. If yes is answered to any of those, now we will determine what that is and when we can put together a proposal and make a follow up appointment. This will be the sales call, and we will be prepared to make it. Walking in the door unannounced and trying to sell is a tough way to go. With this system, you get to make friends, leave trinkets, gather information, leave product or sales materials, then determine how you can be of service and only then make an appointment to do some selling.

It is the goal of the program to make sales by finding prospects who have needs that we can fulfill and then make a presentation that will demonstrate this to the prospect. This is a simple and effective method of achieving that objective.