Logic suggests that “more prospects” will lead to more sales. While that may be true for some salespeople, for many others, “more prospects” actually leads to fewer sales.

“Prospects” is undeniably the essential element in the sales process. However, the quality of the prospects and the pattern of interaction with them after the initial contact will determine if the sales process leads to closed sales…or closed files (and fewer sales).

What accounts for the difference?

It starts with the salesperson’s mindset. Some salespeople are of the mindset that “everybody’s a prospect.” These salespeople jump at the chance to tell their stories to anyone who will listen—voluntarily or otherwise…whether they’re truly interested or not. And, that mindset gives rise to two problems.

First, the salespeople spend an inordinate amount of time chasing prospects of questionable quality. Their quest being to convince those prospects that the product or service they have to offer deserves consideration. The more time they are in “chase” mode, the less time they have to develop and close sales.

Second, during the appointments they eventually schedule, they waste additional time attempting to “convince” prospects of the merits of their product or service. Their “convincing” approach (along with their “everybody’s a prospect” philosophy) fails to recognize the difference between a suspect (someone who may be curious about or have a casual interest in the product or service) and a prospect (someone who has a recognized need or acknowledged desire for the product or service).

Another element that accounts for the difference between “more prospects” leading to either more closed sales or more closed files is the process used to qualify and develop opportunities. The more structured (and perhaps stringent) the process of qualifying an opportunity, the more quickly suspects can be weeded out (wasting little time with them) and the more quickly opportunities can be developed and sales closed with qualified prospects. Salespeople with the “everybody’s a prospect” mindset, however, are likely to have an extremely flexible selling process (which in some cases means no defined process at all).

If you want “more prospects” to lead to “more sales,” first, be more selective about the people you target as prospects and with whom you invest your time. Develop a profile of the “ideal” prospect derived from the characteristics of your most consistent and/or profitable customers and then target prospects that most closely fit the profile. Even then, when a potential prospect expresses an interest in your product or service, quickly determine if that interest is driven merely by curiosity…or an actual need or desire for the outcome your product or service delivers. Sometimes, it takes nothing more than a direct question like, “What specifically sparked you interest in…?” or “What are you hoping to accomplish by investing in…?”

Next, be more stringent in qualifying the various aspects of the opportunity. Prospects must not only have a legitimate need or desire for your product or service, but they must also have the wherewithal to obtain it. And, they must be in a position to make a decision in a reasonable manner and within a reasonable time frame—reasonable for you, that is.

When you focus your efforts on quickly identifying and weeding out suspects, and then use a selling process to methodically qualify the remaining prospects, “more prospects” will lead to more sales.

Copyright 2012 Sandler Training and Insight Sales Consulting Inc. All rights reserved.

John Glennon is the owner of Insight Sales Consulting Inc, the authorized Sandler Training Licensee for the Interior of British Columbia. He can be reached at jglennon@sandler.com or toll free at 1-866-645-2047.

It’s time to take stock of where you are. 2011 was an exciting year for British Columbia and many of us in the Thompson Okanagan. Where other parts of the world are struggling, the news has been fairly optimistic here. Some businesses are thriving; others are hoping to thrive in the coming months and years with the rising tide of optimism. 

Hoping will not help you to meet your goals in 2012.  Only targeted goals with the accompanying behaviours will ensure you meet your objectives.  If you choose to set these goals, here are five things you can do to bolster your success.

1.  Think Big.  There are many business opportunities, and people need what you (and your competitors) have to sell. The question is, “Who is going to get to them first?” Will it be you … or your competitor? Don’t limit your planning to what you believe the market can support. Develop big goals and a big plan. The ‘pie’ may be larger, but so is the competition. Even if you aim high and miss the mark, you’re still better off than if you aim low and hit it.

2. Plan Your Attack.  Who will you pursue? What are the characteristics of your ideal prospects? Do they look like your existing clients? Or, do changing market conditions and demands require you to paint a new picture? Anticipate changing needs and ‘test the waters’ with your clients now. It’s better to be a little early, than to be too late.

3. Develop a Compelling Message. When you implement your big plan, you’ll be interacting with people who may not be familiar with your company. To get their interest, you’ll need a compelling ‘marketing’ message to focus on the challenges of your prospect, not on your products or services.

4. Increase Your Visibility. Prospects can’t do business with you if they don’t know who you are or where to find you. You need to ‘get in front of them’ in person or by phone, then follow up on a regular basis with mail or email. You must buy their ‘top of mind’ awareness with your presence.

5. Refine Your Skills.  Getting a bigger slice of the pie requires that you identify, qualify, and develop opportunities in the shortest time possible. Be more discerning about where you invest your time. Use specific criteria to judge the value of an opportunity, and invest your time in high-value prospects. A formalized selling approach in a step-by-step process helps you become more selective. The objective is to weed out, asap, those opportunities that can’t ‘take you to the bank’.

You can’t control the business landscape in 2012, but you can control the manner by which you navigate it.

Copyright 2011 Sandler Training and Insight Sales Consulting Inc. All rights reserved.

John Glennon is the owner of Insight Sales Consulting Inc, the authorized Sandler Training Licensee for the Interior of British Columbia. He can be reached at jglennon@sandler.com or toll free at 1-866-645-2047

With the new year upon us, it’s time to focus on the future and ask yourself three questions:

1. What specifically do I want to accomplish in 2012?
2. How will I do it?
3. How will I know that I’m on the correct path for accomplishment?

Do you want to grow your business revenues and profits? Do you want to increase your income? Perhaps you want to expand your territory, develop key accounts, or grow your customer base. Maybe you want to be able to accomplish more…in less time so you’ll have more time for hobbies or to be with your family.

Whatever your goals, they must be specific. You can’t formulate plans for accomplishment if you don’t know exactly what it is you want to accomplish. More importantly, you must be clear about why those accomplishments are important to you. And the “why” must be significant. The motivation to pursue goals that have superficial meanings or only provide short-term gratification fades quickly. Additionally, your various goals must be compatible with one another. When two goals are competing for the same resources, especially your time and energy, one or both will suffer. For example, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to accomplish the goal of “having more time with your family” if you’re staying late at the office and working weekends to accomplish the goal of “furthering your career.”

Once you’ve decided exactly what you want to accomplish, you must determine how you’re going to do it. And the plans for accomplishment must be no less detailed than the goals themselves. For each goal, start with the end results—the accomplishment of the goal—and work backwards, identifying the sequence of steps that will lead up to that accomplishment. Some steps will overlap and others will occur concurrently. Nevertheless, you’ll need a sense of flow in order to map out your plan so you’re not working haphazardly or franticly.

You should also be brutally honest with yourself about your ability and willingness to perform each step. Even the most well-thought-out plan will fail if you lack the skills to perform any of the steps or you’re unwilling to do what needs to be done…when it needs to be done. If there’s some aspect of your plan with which you’re uncomfortable or unsure, decide up front how you’re going to handle it. If you’ll need additional resources, for instance, make arrangements well in advance so you don’t slow down your progress…or worse, bring it to a grinding halt.

In order to determine if you’re on track and on schedule in accomplishing your goals, include in your plans benchmarks to hit (and thereby measure your progress) at set points along the path. If you’re off track, you can make adjustments to get back on track and back on schedule. If you wait until the end of the goal period to measure results, and they’re lacking, it will be too late to do anything about it.

The year will be exactly what you make of it…nothing more and nothing less. You have a choice: you can develop lofty goals; you can develop play-it-safe goals; or you can simply let things happen as they may (which means you’ll likely find yourself playing a part in the accomplishment of someone else’s goal). Your ability to see today a picture of what you want in the future, and your willingness to develop and implement a plan for accomplishment, will determine whether today’s picture becomes tomorrow’s reality.

Reprinted from The President’s Club Report, © Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2012 Sandler Training and Insight Sales Consulting Inc. All rights reserved.

John Glennon is the owner of Insight Sales Consulting Inc, the authorized Sandler Training Licensee for the Interior of British Columbia. He can be reached at jglennon@sandler.com or toll free at 1-866-645-2047

An experience I had the other day, started me thinking about how we can chase prospects away who actually want to do business with us. I entered a store to purchase a small gift. The salesperson asked me the typical question: Can I help you with something today? And, typically, I answered: No thanks, just looking. Now this was not true, but salespeople bring out the defensive mode in buyers and the ‘No thanks, just looking’ response is a buyer saying, ‘I don’t trust you; you’ll likely try to sell me something I don’t need or want’. 

The salesperson then began to take me on a tour of the store, pointing out new items, sale items, things she had purchased herself and she ‘knew I’d love’, and various other stops, none of which had any interest to me. In the end, I told her ‘Let me think about it and I’ll drop back in later’ – another lie. I practically ran out of the store, thanking my lucky stars that I had escaped that salesperson.

Why do salespeople chase away perfectly good prospects? They not only do that, they believe they are delivering good customer service while they’re doing it. She likely said to her manager, ‘She’ll be dropping back in to purchase later’. Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that the salesperson failed to do three things: she failed to connect with me, she failed to engage me, and she failed to uncover my needs. In short, she talked at me about the things she was interested in selling, and not once focused on me and what I wanted to purchase.

In retail, there are sometimes different expectations of their staff versus outside salespeople.  There’s a belief that they don’t need specific skills or behavior training. There’s a belief that they just need to be friendly and helpful; because it’s a transactional sale, they don’t need to be as involved in the sale as much as an outside sales professional; they just need to greet, use the credit card machine, and say ‘thank you’. Nothing could be further from the truth. Retail salespeople can not only affect the first purchase, they can affect whether or not a buyer enters your store in the future for the 5th, 10th or 20th time. And they can spread word of mouth about you to, not just their friends and family, but via the Internet to thousands of other buyers. There is an art and a science to retail sales. An investment in people will stop the buyers rush out the door.

Reprinted from The President’s Club Report, © Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2011 Sandler Training and Insight Sales Consulting Inc. All rights reserved.

John Glennon is the owner of Insight Sales Consulting Inc, the authorized Sandler Training Licensee for the Interior of British Columbia. He can be reached at jglennon@sandler.com or toll free at 1-866-645-2047