SALES SUCCESS DEPENDS ON THE QUALITY OF YOUR CONTACT
by Emily Huling
You've been told that sales is a game of numbers. Through tireless effort, you've established a prospect list of 700 names. All these names and contact information are loaded in your automated contact-management system. You're diligent about entering the pertinent information you've gathered on each prospect. You know how to use the software's sorting capabilities and pull up prospects by city, number of employees, and revenue figures.
But it's getting to be overwhelming. You're having trouble organizing your time and prioritizing your opportunities. Don't feel bad--you're not alone.
In addition to sales being a numbers game, it's also a visibility and relationship game. The purpose of an automated contact-management system is to be able to identify prospects, offering them appropriate, timely, visible contacts that build relationships and demonstrate the value that you and your product or service offers.
Three questions should be surfacing in your mind:
1. How do I determine who gets what type of contact?
2. What's considered timely, visible contact?
3. What are examples of meaningful contact?
HOW DO I DETERMINE WHO GETS TYPE OF CONTACT?
Consider the selling cycle of your product or service. How long does it take for a prospect who learns about you and what you offer to buy from you? Each industry is different. In financial services (insurance, stock-brokering, and banking), prospect development might take as long as two years. These relationships are based on trust and need time to grow. Selling office products and services (such as computers, copiers, and printing services) is much shorter because of the buyer's immediate need.
Regardless of your specific type of selling cycle, remember that every sale has three stages:
(A) The diagnostic visit, during which you find facts, built rapport, and analyze needs
(B) Cultivation of the relationship, which requires you to build trust and demonstrate that you and your company can add value
(C) The proposal, the last stage before buying, which brings the first two stages to a successful close-and the sale
No matter what your selling cycle, prospects need to move through all three stages before buying. Now refer back to your 700 prospects. What stage are they in? Ideally, you have a good mix of A, B, and C contacts. Your sales objective is to move the prospects up the stages from diagnostic to cultivation to proposal and sale.
WHAT'S CONSIDERED TIMELY, VISIBLE CONTACT?
This depends on the category of prospect. Because C prospects aren't familiar with you or your firm, the purpose of the initial contact is to build your image and establish a marketing position. Prospects need to know who you are and what you offer. Once that's established, you're in the B category, where you build value and trust more frequent, specialized contact. The A stage, at which you present the proposal, requires more personalized contact and builds on the first two stages.
WHAT ARE EXAMPLES OF MEANINGFUL CONTACT?
C-stage contact includes seeing prospects at business and community events, sending out newsletters quarterly (or more frequently, if you have shorter selling cycles), and providing prospects information about what you offer.
B-stage contact includes the C-stage items, as well as mailings of industry-specific items of interest. You can also send out articles and notes of a more personal nature, and invite prospects to educational seminars that you host or attend.
A-stage contact includes all of the above, along with more personal visits and shared activities.
This A, B, C prospecting method helps you turn prospects into clients. It offers two advantages:
- More effective sales management through the ability to set priorities for contacts
- Improved client retention and loyalty by establishing your credibility and value.
Try this system, and you'll find your As, Bs, Cs turning into $$$.
Emily Huling, CIC, CMC, is president of Selling Strategies, Inc. and consults and teaches sales and customer techniques. She can be reached at P.O. Box 200, Terrell, NC 28682, (704) 478-5929, (888) 309-8802, fax (888) 398-7355, E-mail [email protected], Web site sellingstrategies.com.