{"id":90,"date":"2015-07-29T21:55:30","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T21:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/salesx17xmaster\/?post_type=chapter&p=90"},"modified":"2015-07-29T21:55:30","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T21:55:30","slug":"prospecting-a-vital-role-in-the-selling-process","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/cerritos-sales-1\/chapter\/prospecting-a-vital-role-in-the-selling-process\/","title":{"raw":"Prospecting: A Vital Role in the Selling Process","rendered":"Prospecting: A Vital Role in the Selling Process"},"content":{"raw":"
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Learning Objective<\/h3>\r\n
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  1. Understand the role prospecting plays in the selling process.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\nImagine you decide to build a house from the ground up. After designing your ideal house, of course it would be nice if you could snap your fingers and get to the fun part: watching the finishing touches come together. But before the walls go up you have to make detailed plans and measurements, find your materials and negotiate with contractors, and lay the foundation. All these things require patience, time, and effort, but these steps are absolutely necessary for the project to move forward.\r\n\r\nPlanning and laying a foundation is a little like prospecting and qualifying. Finding leads (or people who might<\/em> be prospects) is the most vital part of the selling process\u2014you can\u2019t make a sale without identifying the people to whom you\u2019ll be selling.[footnote]Charles M. Futrell, The ABC\u2019s of Relationship Selling<\/em>, 9th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2005).[\/footnote]<\/span> In other words, without prospecting, nothing else can happen. Yet, unlike laying a foundation, prospecting doesn\u2019t happen just once; it\u2019s a constant process. Businesses lose some customers every year for a variety of reasons: customers may no longer need the product or service, have the financial means to purchase the product or service, or live or do business in the area, or the business may no longer be open. So if you haven\u2019t been building your prospect list, you won\u2019t have new customers to replace the ones you lose. More than this, finding new prospects is the only way you can increase your sales and expand your business.\r\n
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    The Value of a Lead<\/h2>\r\nThink of the last time you went to the store to make a major purchase and you started by browsing the products. A salesperson probably approached you with the standard \u201cCan I help you?\u201d and you may have responded with the equally standard \u201cNo, thanks. I\u2019m just looking.\u201d Chances are good that the salesperson left you alone after that, very likely assuming you weren\u2019t genuinely interested in making a purchase. Most people\u2014salespeople and customers alike\u2014are surprised to learn that over two-thirds of shoppers who give the \u201cjust looking\u201d response end up purchasing the product within a week.[footnote]Channel Intelligence, \u201c2004 Channel Intelligence Consumer Buying Intent Survey Reveals Online Shopping Trends,\u201d http:\/\/channelintelligence.vnewscenter.com\/press.do?step=pkview&contentId=1184050872399&companyId=1123580114932<\/a> (accessed June 10, 2009).[\/footnote]<\/span> In other words, these customers are valuable leads, and all too often their business goes to a competitor.\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s say you are planning to buy a new refrigerator. That\u2019s generally not the kind of purchase you make on the spot; you will probably go to a number of stores to compare products and prices first. If you tell the salesperson at the second store that you\u2019re just looking, you may then go to a third store and decide you\u2019re ready to buy. As a customer, if the vendors seem more or less equal, you will base your purchasing decision on price, product features, convenience, or a combination of these things. But imagine the salesperson at the second store who took the time to determine your specific needs, wrote down your contact information, and followed up with you. It\u2019s very likely she would make a sale. Her products might be quite similar to her competitors\u2019, but if she goes out of her way to provide you with a solution, you have a reason to buy from her over someone else.\r\n\r\nNow let\u2019s change hats. What does knowing this information mean for you as a salesperson? Most importantly, it means that you should never write off a lead until you are certain<\/em> he can\u2019t be qualified as a prospect. If you work in a showroom that sells only high-end cars like Lexus or BMW and a potential customer walks in wearing torn jeans and a T-shirt, you might be tempted to mentally disqualify him, assuming he won\u2019t have the money to buy such expensive cars. But appearances are often misleading, and you won\u2019t know whether or not your lead is actually<\/em> qualified until you ask some specific, qualifying questions. When you realize that a lead is the only thing you can turn into a sale, you also realize just how valuable every lead is.\r\n\r\nThis is true for both B2C and<\/em> B2B sales, wherein 30 percent to 50 percent of companies that see and respond to business-specific ads end up purchasing the product or service about which they\u2019ve inquired within one or two years. This percentage is nothing to sneeze at. Yet, according to businesses, only about 1 percent to 5 percent of the ad-related inquiries they get from businesses translate into sales.[footnote]John Coe, The Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Sales<\/em> (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003), 125.[\/footnote]<\/span> That\u2019s a big gap. In other words, a lot of valuable leads can slip through your fingers if you don\u2019t follow up and qualify them.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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    The Sales Funnel<\/h2>\r\nIf you talked to a guidance counselor when you were applying to colleges, he probably told you to consider several and then apply to a number of schools (more than just two or three) even though you would only end up choosing one school in the end. This is because not all the schools that you apply to end up being a good fit. Sometimes you aren\u2019t accepted, sometimes you are accepted but don\u2019t get an ideal financial package, and sometimes as you learn more about a school you decide it isn\u2019t the right one for you. Whatever the reason, you start out by considering many schools and generally end up deciding between a few.\r\n\r\nThe same can be said of the selling process. In fact, the process is often compared to a funnel. You start out with many leads, and after gathering more information, you come up with a smaller list of qualified prospects. As you communicate with these potential customers and work toward a solution, some will turn out to be more likely to buy than others. It\u2019s common sense to assume that you will have more leads than you have buyers since not all leads turn into customers. The concept of the sales funnel<\/span><\/span> is a helpful way to visualize the process of finding and qualifying your customers and effectively illustrates the value of identifying a large pool of potential prospects. If you don\u2019t bother to find more than a handful of leads, you limit your chances of ever closing a sale no matter how much effort you put into your sales presentation. It\u2019s a common temptation that most people want the results without having to put in the foundational work of finding and contacting prospects.\r\n
    \r\n\r\nFigure 7.4<\/span> Traditional Sales Funnel\r\n\r\n\"image\"<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nBut wait a minute, you might think, \u201cIsn\u2019t it hugely inefficient to spend time and effort communicating with so many prospects with the expectation that only a handful of those will turn out to be buyers?\u201d This is also true, which is why qualifying and prioritizing your prospects is such an important part of the sales process. Technological tools like collaborative communities and other online resources can help you identify, qualify, and prioritize prospects. But you might wonder how do you decide which prospects you should invest your time in pursuing. To begin with, you should create a profile of your ideal buyer.[footnote]Ron Hubsher, interview by Gerhard Gschwandtner, Daily Report<\/em>, Sales Optimization Group, Selling Power<\/em>, http:\/\/www.salesog.com\/index.html<\/a> (accessed June 9, 2009).[\/footnote]<\/span>\r\n
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    Create a Profile of Your Ideal Buyer<\/h3>\r\n