PRDV217: Introduction to Sales

Power Prospecting Source #2: Referrals

There's nothing more powerful than getting information about a product or service from a friend or people you trust before you buy. Think about the last time you bought a printer. You probably checked out the customer reviews on Amazon, asked your friends, checked out some blogs, and maybe even got some insights on Twitter (in 140 characters or less). Before you bought the Hewlett-Packard (HP) OfficeJet 6310, you knew exactly what to expect from people who have bought and used the product, and you learned that if you buy it at Office Depot, you get free shipping and two free ink cartridges. Although you had never shopped at Office Depot before, you were sold before you even clicked "buy now" on Office Depot's Web site. Imagine that you did not even come in contact with HP or Office Depot. You made your purchase based solely on the information from others. The power of the referral cannot be underestimated.

Referrals and word-of-mouth advertising have always been among the most effective – and cost-efficient – ways to get new customers. It used to be that the circle of referrals was limited to people who used your product or service in a given geographic area. The Internet has amplified that network, especially with user-generated content such as communities, blogs, customer ratings and reviews, and social networking sites. So as a salesperson, you have to think creatively about all of the resources you have to generate referrals.

Seth Godin, best-selling author, and entrepreneur, talks about "flipping the funnel." He challenges salespeople to think about turning the sales funnel on its side, thinking of it as a megaphone, and then handing it to those who already love you. He suggests that when many of your customers enter into the conversation on Web sites such as Digg, Flickr, and Delicious, the power of your message gets even stronger, and new referrals find you. Listen to Seth describe how your customers can be your best salespeople.

Want to see how it works? When Naked Pizza, a small takeout and delivery operation in New Orleans, decided it wanted to compete with the city's chain pizza places, it turned to its existing customer base for sales prospects by putting its Twitter address on every pizza box that went out the door. As Jeff, Randy, and Brock, the company's founders, put it, "Even your most core customers must be continually and softly nudged." The prospecting effort has been a huge success, with their existing customers posting tweets introducing the brand to new customers. The Twitter-enabled follow-ups allowed Naked Pizza to continue the conversation and ensure that a greater number of first-time buyers become repeat customers – and that they spread the word to more new customers. Talk about a megaphone!

Whether you sell pizza or insurance, if your existing customers are happy, they usually refer you to their friends, online or offline. Consider Flycaster & Company, a Florida-based branding and advertising agency for businesses. For several years now, almost 100 percent of the firm's new customers have been referred to them by friends and colleagues. According to John Spence, one of the company's managers, referrals are the "best possible" source of prospects for any B2B business.

So let your customers speak for you. Their voices will be heard by people you could never reach.

Power Prospecting Source #3: Networking and Social Networking

Networking works.

The art of networking, developing mutually beneficial relationships, can be a valuable prospecting tool, not only for retaining old prospects but also for connecting with new ones. The larger and more diverse your network becomes, the bigger your pool of potential prospects. Your networking connections often become sources of referrals for your business, just as you will become a referral source for theirs.

If you are a member of the American Chemical Society and you work for a chemical supply company, you might use your membership to get acquainted with chemists who work at a variety of labs. You could offer them your card and let them know you provide discounts for fellow Chemical Society members. Now, these prospects will be more likely to buy their chemical supplies from you than from a company or individual with whom they have no personal connection. If one of your customers needs a chemist with a particular specialty, you, in turn, can refer him to someone in your network. Joining a professional trade association is a straightforward way to network with others in your field or with prospects in your target industry.

If your business is location-specific, joining community organizations can also be a valuable tool for connecting with local business leaders and prospects. Consider service organizations (like the Rotary Club), fraternity organizations, and other affinity groups that will allow you to build relationships with community members.

What about social networking? You are probably well acquainted with online social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace, but you may be less familiar with the ways people leverage these tools in a professional capacity. According to professional networking expert Clara Shih, online social networks can be an effective means of prospecting for sales with organizations. After all, the decision-makers at any organization are individuals with whom you can build relationships (remember, you learned in Chapter 3 "The Power of Building Relationships: Putting Adaptive Selling to Work" that even though it is called business-to-business, buying decisions are made person-to-person, so relationships matter). By connecting socially with key individuals, not only can you open lines of communications with potential customers, but you can also build your knowledge of your prospect base.

Professional networking sites like LinkedIn are increasingly important as well. (In fact, the Selling Yourself section of this chapter includes information about how you can use professional social networking sites to help you network to find a job.) And there are many industry-specific networking sites you can join, like Sermo for doctors or INmobile.org for people in the wireless industry. Your profile on professional networking sites becomes a tool for selling yourself as a brand. These sites allow you to list your education, professional experience, and testimonials from satisfied customers. As you add contacts, you become connected to their contacts, allowing your network to grow.

Power Prospecting Source #4: Business Directories in Print

Forget Google for a minute. It might surprise you to know that your local library can actually be a potential goldmine for finding prospects in B2B sales. If you spend even twenty minutes with a knowledgeable librarian, he can point you to business lists, journals, and business directories that will help you generate a pool of leads to contact. Your ideal customer profile is an important guiding tool here.

If you want customer information that is location specific, check out your local chamber of commerce listing. It is one of the best sources for finding local businesses. If the listing is not at the local library, chances are the librarian will have the contact information for the chamber office.

You can also review business lists and directories published by local newspapers and regional business journals. Local newspapers and their Web sites often provide listings of local businesses along with key information about the company. Also, the Book of Lists is published locally by the American City Business Journals in several cities – for example, the Philadelphia Business Journal publishes the Book of Lists for the Philadelphia, South Jersey, and Delaware area. It is a book that includes lists of companies organized by groupings. 

For instance, the fastest-growing companies, minority-owned businesses, and lists of companies by industry, such as video production companies, health care companies, public relations agencies, law firms, and more, are included with the contact information, profiles, and key facts for specific businesses in your state or city. You can generally find these books at your local library, and they're an excellent source for digging up prospects that most closely match your ideal profile. Business lists are also published by other business journals, such as Crain's in some key cities or are available online (also see Power Prospecting Source #6: Trade Journals and Business Journals below).

If you want to search businesses by industry, ask a reference librarian to help you look up the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code that most closely matches your ideal prospect's business – or access the indexes online, and bring the codes with you to the library. NAICS and SIC codes are numbering systems that classify businesses by their particular industry, so they can be valuable search criteria to mine general business directories (e.g., Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies) for specific kinds of companies.

For example, you could use the SIC code 6371 to find all businesses that deal with pension, health, and welfare funds. You can also search through industry-specific directories like the Standard Directory of Advertisers, and you can check out professional trade associations related to your prospect profile. These organizations, whose members all operate in a particular industry, are especially good places to look if your ideal prospect is a smaller business because smaller businesses and individuals are the most likely to join. Ask your librarian if they can access a copy of Gale's Encyclopedia of Associations, which lists more than 160,000 trade organizations. Finding a relevant association should be no problem, as you can find a professional organization for virtually any industry you can think of. Even the pecan shellers of America have a professional association!

Power Prospecting Source #5: Online Databases and Directories

Going to the library can be hugely helpful because it gives you access to people who are pros at finding information. Also, the added perk is that your library will probably give you free access to several online business directories and databases. Of course, you can search these directories from the comfort of your home or office, but if you want the deluxe package – the most up-to-date directories that cover industries nationwide – you will have to pay a price. Online business directories, such as those listed in the table below, are searchable by industry and will give you access to company contact info, number of employees, financial standing, industry rankings, names of executives, and other company profile information. These directories allow you to search businesses by SIC or NAICS codes.

So, how do you know which business directory to use? For one thing, it helps to know whether your ideal prospect would be a private company or a public company or whether it could be either. Is your ideal prospect a large organization that attracts top executives? In this case, you will mostly be searching for public companies – companies that sell stocks and bonds to the general public. Public companies must file financial information and other company reports with the U.S. government. These organizations are easier to find in general business directories, and their directory listings usually provide more detailed company information. However, not all large companies are publicly owned. State Farm Insurance and Cargill Foods, for example, are both private companies. If you are only interested in smaller, local businesses, you will be dealing with private companies, or companies not owned by the public. In this case, some directories and databases will be more helpful to you than others.

Another thing to consider is whether you want the option to refine your search to include several criteria closely matching your ideal prospect profile. Several online databases allow you to input multiple search terms like location, company size, and minimum and maximum sales volumes.

Power Prospecting Source #6: Trade Publications and Business Journals

Where could you go to learn that three bottled beverage companies have recently lightened their package designs, that a new biodegradable shrink film is now on the market, and that the Pharmaceutical Packaging Forum has chosen a location for its next event? These are not top headlines on Yahoo! But to people in the packaging and packing materials industry, this is important news, and many of them use Web sites like Packworld.com to stay updated. Trade publications, journals geared toward people who work in a certain industry, and trade Web sites are good sources for netting prospects. For instance, if you work for a company that designs food and beverage packaging, and your department specializes in bottle design, you might read an article on Packworld.com and find out that Pepsi has released a new, eco-friendly bottle design for its Aquafina product that uses 50 percent less plastic than the 2002 version. You decide to call some managers at competing companies like Fiji. You tell these prospects that you have read about their competitor's new bottle design and ask if they are interested in some packaging updates as well, which will help save on shipping costs and provide some good PR.

Many industry trade journals offer free e-mail newsletters or even free magazine copies. If you do not know the best trade journals to read in the industry in which you are interested, ask a professor. Your professor will gladly show you copies of specific trade journals and the corresponding Web sites. It is a good idea to take the time to sign up for the free updates and check to see if the publication offers a free subscription to the magazine.

But what if your ideal prospects are not limited to a particular industry but are specific to a certain location? In this case, business journals, which are often regionally published and offer business news and industry information for particular cities or states, will be helpful. Your local library will undoubtedly have a subscription to one, or even several, business journals for your region. Additionally, Bizjournals.com links you to the Web sites for forty regional business journals.

Power Prospecting Source #7: Trade Shows and Events

If you have ever been to a trade show or expo, like a career fair or bridal show, you know they're a good place to find out about products and services about which you might not otherwise be aware (and to get some fun free giveaways while you are at it). While most people who stop by a given booth at an expo might not be seriously interested prospects, trade show displays and product demonstrations generate enough strong leads to make this activity a worthwhile prospecting endeavor. For one thing, trade shows are industry-specific events that have the advantage of bringing your target market to you.

If you are a horse breeder and you know that an estimated ten thousand visitors will attend the Horse World Expo in Syracuse, New York, you might decide it is worthwhile to go. You could look into giving a presentation about judging horse pedigrees, for instance, or maybe you will pay to set up a booth with videos and photos of the horses you breed and sell.

As a salesperson, you can use trade shows not only to present and demonstrate your products but also to identify and qualify prospects. Asking a few specific questions can help you assess a prospect's needs and determine whether he has a genuine interest – as well as the resources – for buying. Trade show booths usually have a place for leads to enter their contact information so you can follow up with your prospects and save leads in your customer database. If you are a sales representative for a textbook company and you attend a faculty book fair at a large university, when professors stop by your booth, you might ask them which texts they are currently using and what they like or dislike about these books. This is a quick way to identify a potential need. One professor might tell you they use such-and-such a textbook, which is thorough, but their students do not find it very engaging. Aha! You have identified a need, and you now have a prospect. You might tell the professor about a textbook that covers similar information but uses a more conversational style and ask if they would like you to send her a complimentary copy. If they say yes, you now have an opportunity to take their contact information, and you have permission to follow up.

Power Prospecting Source #8: Advertising and Direct Marketing

When you think of "junk mail," you probably think about something you would normally throw in the trash. But have you ever received a direct-mail advertisement that you have considered or even responded to? Maybe you are a member of the American Library Association, and someone has sent you an e-mail about an upcoming library conference in a nearby city because you opted in or gave permission to receive information from the company. Or maybe a local real estate agent has sent out fliers to the residential areas in your zip code, and you just happen to be thinking of selling your house.

As a sales professional, direct marketing, or communication in the form of direct mail or e-mail sent directly to your potential prospects, gives you the advantage of reaching a large pool of leads without having to invest the time to individually contact each one. Methods such as direct mail and e-mail allow your prospects to self-qualify since only the ones with genuine interest will follow up. On the flip side, direct mail yields a lower rate of return than most other methods: usually only about one to three percent. An email has similar response rates depending on the offer or communication. These methods can still be worth the investment, considering the relatively low inputs of time and money it takes to reach so many.

However, the time and money you do put into a direct mailing or email campaigns will be wasted if you send out your communications at random. There are three ways you can go about generating targeted mailing lists:

1. Every major city has organizations that specialize in mailing list research, allowing you to order up-to-date address lists organized by zip code, income, age, interests, or other characteristics that matter to you. For as little as $25, you can get lists of up to a thousand prospects.
2. Many of the business directories and databases you read about earlier in this section provide e-mail and postal mailing addresses for businesses and private households based on specific criteria.
3. Professional salespeople also develop personal directories for their mailing lists. When you meet prospects, trade business cards with them. If these prospects pass your initial stages of qualification, you can add them to your personal list of mail recipients.

Power Prospecting Source #9: Cold Calling

In the last ten years, Pat Cavanaugh, CEO of a Pittsburgh-based promotional products company, has grown his business 2,000 percent – and he has done almost all of it through cold calling. Cold calling, or making an unsolicited phone call or visit to a prospective customer, can be quite effective for the salespeople who know the right approach, but it is also most salespeople's least favorite prospecting activity. You never know whether the person on the other end of the line will be rude or hang up on you altogether. Additionally, most salespeople feel pressured to actually sell their product or make a pitch during a cold call, but according to Cavanaugh, cold calling isn't about making sales; it is about establishing a connection with the prospect.

According to Cavanaugh, it is essential to get the prospect to like you in the first thirty seconds. While this may sound like it is putting a lot of pressure on you as the caller, you can think of it as a way of taking the pressure off. Remember, you do not have to sell your product during the call; the goal is only to make a positive connection. You do not have to lay the schmooze on either. Instead, be direct and sincere, and be yourself. Your prospect, who is probably very busy, will appreciate directness and brevity.

Hanzo Ng, CEO of the Malaysian company Sales Ninja, agrees. Ng says the goal of the cold call should be to find out whether your prospective buyer's needs match your solutions. If you know you cannot help your lead solve her problems, you should not pursue the call further. A cold call is a perfect way to find out at what stage the lead is in of his buying process. They might still be a lead for future sales, but at this time they are not a qualified prospect. For that matter, if your lead seems unreceptive, you might also decide to end the call or to offer to try back at another time. Ultimately, it is important that your prospective buyer does not feel like they are being pressured in any way; people have come to expect pushy salesperson on the phone, and you want to set yourself apart from this perception.

If the lead does have a problem that you can address, you should go ahead and offer to make an appointment to meet in person. Again, there should be no pressure on either end; your prospect will accept an appointment if they are interested. If they do not agree to an appointment, do not try to press it. Sometimes, it may simply be a matter of timing: your prospect might ask you to call back in a few months. In this case, get your calendar out and set up a specific time when you can try to call back. For instance, "Three months from now will be early March. Is it all right for me to try calling again then?" If they agree, ask, "In the meantime, would it be OK if I sent you occasional updates by email to inform you about new developments and promotions with our product?" This enables you to periodically follow up to maintain a connection with your lead.

Finally, it is important to research your prospect before making a call. You should know the size and scope of the company, key people, company culture, and anything about the company that has recently come up in the news. Doing your research allows you to personalize your introduction. After explaining who you are, you might say, "I recently read in Crain's Chicago Business that your company's number one priority in the coming year is doubling revenues by increasing your sales force…". Doing your research and keeping a few simple tips in mind should take the pressure off in cold calling and give you the confidence to establish crucial prospect connections.

Power Prospecting Source #10: Be a Subject Matter Expert

Wouldn't it be great if, rather than going out to track down prospects, you could get your prospects to come to you? Presenting yourself as a subject matter expert, an authority in your field, is one secret for making this happen. CEO and consultant Keith Ferrazzi, started using this technique shortly after graduating from college. Even though he did not have much experience as a new graduate, he picked an area and began researching until others in his industry knew him as an expert and would go to him for consultation and advice. Set up a blog or write articles offering free advice. According to Ferrazzi, you should make a habit of writing and publishing articles in your industry.

If you include your contact information and a brief bio on the page, then qualified prospects will often find you on their own. For instance, maybe you work for a company that sells résumé and cover letter consulting services for job seekers. You decide to write an article explaining "10 Things to Avoid When Dressing for a Job Interview," and you post the article on your blog and submit it to CollegeGrad, a Web site that publishes helpful blog posts like yours. You allow CollegeGrad to use your article for free in exchange for posting a link to your Web site in the margins of the page. Now when people perform a Google search on "dressing for a job interview," your article may come up, ensuring that several people who match your ideal prospect profile see the information about you and your product.

When generating B2B leads, you can often find prospects by offering Web-based seminars, or Webinars, with helpful advice on some aspect of marketing, or by publishing informative reports (white papers) that people can download for free. For instance, a marketing consulting firm might offer a white paper on "Increasing Your Open Rate on E-mails" that businesses can download for free if they register their information on the firm's Web page. Requiring users to register allows the firm to track contact information for new leads with whom they can follow up by email, cold call, or mail. Even better, if a lead finds that the free advice they downloaded is useful, they will quite likely contact the firm voluntarily to find out about the marketing services they provide.

Organizing Your Prospect Information

If you have ever ordered shoes from Zappos, you might know that the company is known for its excellent customer service. But you might not know one of their secrets to achieving this: keeping detailed records of every interaction they have with a customer. These records are part of a customer relationship management (CRM) system, the tools a company uses to record and organize their contacts with current and prospective customers. If you ever shop at Amazon, you will notice the product suggestions on your screen when you log on. That is also an example of how CRM is used.

Qualifying Your Prospects

After you have identified your prospects, it is important to understand that all customers are not created equal. Some customers are willing to form business partnerships and grow with you over time, while others are just looking to do business with whoever offers the lowest price. Some prospects may never be able to help you or your company achieve your business goals, or their goals may not be strategically aligned with yours, even if you really like doing business with them. Choosing customers carefully will save you time and energy and help you meet you goals. You do not want to spend several hours writing up a proposal for one of your prospects only to find out they were never genuinely interested.

Think back to the sales funnel and the idea that you start out with a large pool of leads and end with a much smaller number of customers. While it is important to cast your nets broadly when rounding up leads, you will work most effectively if you weed out the likely from the unlikely early on. You can qualify your leads to determine whether they are legitimate prospects by discovering whether they have the willingness and the ability to make a purchase. Consider these five questions to help you meet your qualifying objectives:

• Does your prospect have a need? This is the most basic thing to figure out about your prospect. There is no use pursuing another individual in the company or delivering a persuasive presentation if there is nothing you can do for this person or organization. If you sell new cars, and your lead is satisfied with the car he bought three months ago, you have nothing to offer them.
  
  
• Does they have the authority to make the buying decision? You can try to sell candy to a five-year-old, and they will probably want to buy it, but unless you can convince his parents to make the purchase, you do not have a sale. Similarly, your lead at a company may love your product and tell you it is exactly what thir company needs. But if they are not the person with the power to buy, they are not qualified prospects. This does not mean you should write the company off, but you will have to figure out how to get in touch with the person who can make the buying decision.
  
  
• Do they have the resources to purchase the product or service? Sometimes knowing the answer to this question involves contacting the lead and asking some questions. Other times, you can figure this out by doing company research before ever getting in touch with the lead. You would not have tried to make a major sale to Circuit City just before they went out of business because they wouldn't have had the resources to buy.
  
  
• Are they willing to purchase the product? Even if your lead has the resources and authority to buy, they might not be interested in what you are selling. He might be dead set on a Caribbean cruise when you are selling packages to a ski resort.
  
  
• Do you have access to the influencer or decision makers? This is relatively straightforward in B2C sales, but in B2B, it can be hard. If you wanted to sell your clothing line to Macy's, you could not go downtown to your local branch and pitch your product. Large organizations have layers of personnel, and it is challenging to ferret out the people whose can influence the buying decision. Think about whether you can reasonably access these individuals.

Managing Your Prospect Base

So you have a qualified prospect with their information in your CRM system. It would be nice if that were all it took. But your CRM is only a way of tracking and organizing customer information; making an action plan, a specific approach, for each customer is up to you. And you will not make any sales if you do not act.

After qualifying, you might have some prospects with a clear need, buying authority, and a fairly high level of interest, while others seem uncertain. If you classify your prospects as "hot," "warm," and "cold," you can prioritize by devoting the most initial energy to your top potential customers. No two customers are alike. This means that even though you have qualified prospects A and B and determined that they do have needs you think you can meet, those needs will be different, possibly drastically so. It is a good idea to begin your action plan by conducting a careful needs analysis – that is, what specific problems is this prospect facing, and how can my product help solve those problems?

Finally, think about the next steps in the sales process. Based on this customer's specific needs, how will you design your preapproach? What details should be in your presentation, when should you make your presentation, and how and when will you try to close? Develop a timeline and plot out the steps. If you can envision the sale, you are already halfway there.

---

 This text was adapted by Saylor Academy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License without attribution as requested by the work's original creator or licensor.