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Prospecting - Are you talking to the right person in the right language?© |
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It is simple to talk the right language to your Prospects. Simply know the how the person you are talking to is rewarded. The PA and the President are not rewarded for the same thing. The PA is rewarded for getting the lowest price, the President for overall corporate results. |
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| Author: Bill Truax |
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(Ironically, Sales Skills are taught all the time, but Prospecting skills are virtually never taught. However, Prospecting is the only skill we have to get into a position where we can actually use the Sales Skills!)
Prospect Regularly
When I talk about Prospecting, most of the time I am referring to all the things we need to do as sales professionals to develop and maintain a continuing flow of new customers. This requires that we actually Prospect on a regular basis, work the numbers, as I have mentioned so many times recently.
Today, I want to look at Prospecting from a slightly different angle - who you are calling on when you Prospect and some new skills you may need to be successful in this arena.
All of us want to get that sale as quickly as possible. For those of us in commercial/industrial sales, the statistics say that we must make at least 3 calls on a prospect before we can expect to sell them. That is, of course, if everything works out perfectly. For many of us, due to our product line or other factors, we must make lots of calls before the sale.
The Right Prospect
One way to speed up the selling process is to be sure that you are calling on and talking to the right person. In my case, this is not always the person who actually signs the agreement and handles my billings. However, this is the person who has the ability to say, “let’s go with this program.”
In my case, depending on the size of the company and their organizational structure, I will call on the VP of Sales, VP of HR, or the President. When it comes to the details workshops, training, field work, etc. I may work with the Sales Manager, Training Manager or someone in HR.
There can be a great tendency to want to start with the Sales Manager or Training Manager and “cut to the chase” so to speak. But we all know that the decisions are made higher up the food chain and it is much easier to work down than up.
The Language
The biggest problem we all face when going to a higher level is that these folks don’t have the same interests and concerns – speak the same language - as the people we will eventually work with, so we must adjust our approach to their special interests.
In order to Prospect at higher levels in any organization you will need to adjust your wording - “language” to the interests of that level. In my case, the President of a company is not interested in Prospecting training as much as the end results of Prospecting, increased market share, increased sales, ROI, higher net income. This is a simple skill that anyone can learn with just a small effort. But you must learn this new language to be successful, so take the time.
The Sales Manager, Training Manager or HR people have a whole different set of interests. They are concerned with their budgets, training time, locations, etc.
So our job is to be sure we know who makes the decisions, how to approach them, learn the language and practice it. Then make sure we are talking to the right person in the right language
Sell Well and Often,
Bill Truax
© Copyright 2007 WJ Truax
About Author
Bill is a sales training consultant from Cleveland, OH. He has 3 books, 2 CD's, seminars, and workshops on Prospecting and Making Cold Calls. Visit http://www.BlitzCall.com for product and contact information.
Article Source:
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