A to Z Prospecting Ideas

Assess your current prospecting process.  Evaluate your current prospecting efforts. Quantify your results from direct mail, telemarketing, face-to-face calls, referrals and networking.  Decide which methods you want to pursue and improve.  Be sure to put your prospecting objectives in writing.  Remember to review, evaluate and improve.

Bulk-rate metered mail pulls as well as first class mail.  Why not save money without sacrificing results?  Use a mailing house, unless you have a special in-house mailing department.  If you try to do bulk mail yourself, chances are, you will not mail again soon.

Client analysis helps create a road map for the future.  Use demographic and psychographic information to identify prospects with similar profiles to your clients.  Do not overlook this critical step even if you sell to "everyone."  Ask Business Wise to create your "Custom Client Analysis" with market penetration by zip, size, SIC code etc.

Direct marketing yields results.  Let your accountant tell you when to stop direct marketing.  There is no known limit to the number of times you should contact your target market.  Continue to reach your prospects by mail or phone until your dollar return vs. dollar invested no longer shows a profit.

Eliminate wasted time on unqualified prospects.  In Metro Atlanta, about 80% of all business locations employ less than 10 employees.  About 23% of business locations are "owned" rather than "leased."  Over 10,000 businesses operate from a residence.   Locations with over 250 employees make up less than 1% of the total.  "But ya gotta know the territory" echoes the wise refrain.  Business Wise helps you find the facts on who's qualified fast.

Free information encourages business to business response.  Websites, catalogs, audio tapes, seminars, consultations, demonstrations, videos, newsletters, etc. generate results.  Or consider: special pricing, free trials, volume discounts, buy one-get one free, free gifts, etc.  Know what to focus on during the prospecting process.  Sell the benefits of your offer, rather than the benefits of your products or services.

Goals not set are never achieved.  Set and reset your objectives to advance the sales process.  Decide what action you want your prospect to take.  Do you expect a visit to your show room, a faxed-back reply form, or a completed survey?  If you do not ask your prospect to do something, they won't.

Help yourself to free marketing advice.  Authors Jay Conrad Levinson and Bob Stone each wrote several outstanding books.  Read them.  Use your Business Wise representative to be your "Facts and Ideas Prospecting Expert."  Get first hand advice on how to improve your prospecting to increase sales.

Include response devices to induce your prospects to take action.  Make sure the response device tells its own story.  Include all vital information: your firm name, address, phone, fax, offer, and benefits.  Busy reply forms outpull simple ones.  Remember to pre-print the prospect's name and address on the reply form.  Make it easy for your prospect to respond, and easy for you to read.

Jump-start your marketing plan using pro-active referrals.  When you ask for specific referrals, you control your prospecting success. Prepare a list of prospects in your target market that your clients may know.  Tell your clients that you plan to call these prospects.  See who they know and to whom they will refer you.

K.I.S.S.  Keep it simple stupid.  Use simple language when talking or writing to your prospects.  This is not the time to impress with professional erudition.  Write it like you'd say it.  Say it like you'd say it to a friend.

Letters work.  A letter-only, or a letter with a separate brochure, will outpull a self mailer or brochure-only format.  Window envelopes, standard #10s, generally outpull the plain variety.  Handwritten addressing usually creates an adverse effect upon response. Include a signature from the person with the most meaningful title to the target audience.  Add the name and title typed under the signature.  Use blue ink on the signature if possible. There are hundreds of format "DOs and DON'Ts."  But remember, here's what affects the success of your mailing: 40% is the list, 40% is the offer, 20% is everything else.

Marketing myths abound.  Make sure you get the facts.  Then enjoy the good news that many of your competitors still believe the myths: "Direct mail letters don't work, use glossy self mailers.  Don't mail the same offer to the same list.  Telemarketing costs too much.  Let the sales force update your list" etc.

Now is the right time to prospect for new business.  The business world never stops; at most, it slows down.  Are you too busy to prospect, but not too busy for growth and success?  Make sales prospecting a top priority.  Whether you outsource the process or handle it yourself, make certain it gets done.  Successful prospecting insures a healthy future for you and your firm.  Consistent, mediocre marketing outperforms a brilliant 1-shot approach.

Originality is suspect in direct marketing.  If additional appointments, increased sales or more referrals are your objectives, skip originality.  Forego the creative in favor of the familiar.  You will tire of your marketing long before your prospects do.  Continue what works until it stops working.

Permission method used in teleprospecting shows respect and builds rapport. Sometimes, the bulldozer approach works, but you risk losing the opportunity to build relationships.  Ask your Business Wise representative to explain the "double handshake" or permission method that gets your prospect's complete attention.  It works.

Questioners control the conversation.  Knowing how to ask questions will get you past the "gatekeeper."  Give your first and last name, ask for your prospects by their first and last names, and finish with a question.  Improve your skills concerning the questioning process, and you will improve your prospecting skills.  Part of the questioning process includes listening skills as well.  We have "two" ears because it is twice as important to listen.

Repetition works.  Repetition works.  Repetition works.  On average it takes 9 conscious exposures of your marketing message before your prospect acts.  Unless you commit to the process, do not begin it.  Many sales prospectors give up before they let the process work.  They leave their prospects ripe for the competition to pick.  Develop patience if you want to develop new business.

Solve problems for clients and prospects.  Even problems you or your firm cannot solve should be important to you.  That's when the power of networking kicks in. Prospects care little about your company, but care tremendously about solving their own problems.  If you solve problems, prospects will call you.

Telemarketing increases direct mail response rate between 2 and 10 times.  Test telemarketing by itself.  Use written phone scripts because it forces you to define goals, contingency plans, and appropriate strategies.  Once you learn your script, concentrate on the more important elements: listening to the prospect, building rapport and advancing the sales process.  Keep your script in front of you to make sure you stay on track.

Use testimonials to improve prospecting results.  Your readers give more credit to what others say about you.  Testimonials work for direct mail, telemarketing and face-to-face sales calls.  Authentic testimonials build trust, and trust builds business.

Value your customer list.  Capture "untapped referrals" from your customers.  Use your clients to profile your target market.  Tap clients as a resource for testimonials. Find out what they read, to what groups they belong, why they buy and what their problems are.

Words may be magic or miserable.  Try "you, free, new, save, money, easy and results" to mix a little magic.  Make the copy move with action verbs.  Write the way you talk to a friend.  Keep sentences and paragraphs short.  If your sentences contain more than 15 words, rework it, or break it in two.  Vary sentence length, and do not exceed 5 line paragraphs.  Answer the, "So what?" question in your prospect's mind.

You communicate from the "you" point of view.  Motivate your prospects to act now.  One thing that interests all of your prospects is "themselves."  What the prospect wants should outweigh any other agenda.  Restructure the "I/we offer" to what "you," the prospect, will receive.

Zoom in to target your best prospects.  No other element outranks the list with regard to its effect on prospecting success.  Your best prospects include the following:

1. your current customers

2. your past customers

3. your competitor's customers

4. "look-alikes" of your current customers

5. buyers of products and services in similarly categories to yours.

P.S.  The P.S. often determines whether or not the entire piece will be read!  Also, ask us why the "X" is missing.

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