Customized Sales Approach

If you’re not getting the kinds of prospecting results you’re seeking today, maybe a more customized sales approach would help.

Remember, the #1 reason for prospecting is to get an appointment with a prospect.

Many successful salespeople I know oftentimes challenge the ideas and opinions of those that have succeeded before them, but they never challenge the notion of the importance of making prospecting a weekly priority. They know that no matter how successful they are today, if they don’t continue to add new relationships, eventually their business will decline.

Here are their top prospecting rules for setting more appointments.

1. Play in your sandbox. Make sure you have a profile of who you really want to prospect. Call on the people and businesses where you have expertise and can leverage your expertise. Find a niche and stick with it.
2. Make a commitment to get out of the cold calling business. Cold calling will never go away so if you’re inexperienced and new to an industry, it will take time to establish yourself, so pay your dues.Use this time as your motivation to making fewer cold calls by building great relationships with people who like you, trust you and find your products, services and expertise useful. New business acquisition cost per sale is much higher making cold calls than asking for referrals and introductions.
3. For those of you who have a solid portfolio of clients, look at your schedule each week and identify who you will ask for introductions and referrals. It could be face to face meetings, networking events, or a meeting with centers of influence. Have a process for asking that makes it easy for people to help you. Bring a list of your top 10 prospects to every meeting and ask them who they know on the list that would take a call from you.If you have clients who have been with you for a long time, you’ve earned the right to ask them for introductions…otherwise, they probably wouldn’t be your client, right? Ask them to help.
4. Build a success formula and track your progress. If you don’t track it, how will you evaluate your success?
5. Have a solid telephone process when calling for appointments. What is your value proposition? What problems do you fix and why do people want to meet with you? The reasons must be compelling.Be seen on LinkedIn and other social networks.
6. Do a pre-call plan for every call, on the phone or face to face, to help you stay on track. Know what questions you will ask, what questions you need answered and the tough questions they will ask.
7. Last, but not least, don’t ever quit! Rejection is part of the prospecting process.When you get rejected and fall down, get back up in a hurry and make that next call.

If you find yourself getting off track, always go back to a customized sales approach to prospecting. I promise, your results will improve.Go get ‘em!

From Sales Development Expert, Dan Fischer