Make an action plan your priority

prospectingactionplan

Most sales professionals are pumped to start the day when they have a deal to close. The idea of spending the day prospecting isn’t as exciting. That’s why prospecting often gets put off until a later day … when everything else has dried up.

However, if it’s a priority all the time, the pipeline will never dry up. Prospect-driven sales professionals with a clear action plan give prospecting the time and discipline it requires to be done well.

An active prospecting plan includes time to identify potential customers, ways to initiate action and strategies to cultivate relationships and grow business. You plan to stay effectively busy.

Make these steps part of your action plan, recognizing that the most successful salespeople include prospecting in their weekly (sometimes daily) routine.

  1. Create your ideal prospect list. Answer these questions:
  • Who are my best customers (not necessarily the biggest, just the best)?
  • Where did I find them?
  • What industry is my best target based on my experience?
  • What is my ideal customer’s company size?
  • Who is the decision maker for what I sell?

        2. Identify how you can interact with them. Answer these questions:

  • Who are my prospects’ customers?
  • What industry and community events do they attend?
  • What social events and organizations are they most active in?
  • What blogs, newsfeeds, social media and print publications do they read and trust?
  1. Divide your prospects into 2 lists. Now that you can pinpoint your ideal prospects, create two lists – Need and Want. For example, the Needs may need to grow or shift or change to meet new industry specs. And the Wants may want to replace a competitor’s product (see video), upgrade technology or try a new process. Then you can tailor your approach to each. And don’t worry about segmenting at this early point: It will only increase success later in the sales process.
  2. Develop 10 questions for each type of prospect. You want questions to create a dialogue that uncovers unfulfilled needs and how you can help. Customers can learn anything they need online. You want them to talk so you can qualify the best prospects as customers.
  3. Set specific goals and expectations. You want to set about 10 specific meaningful and manageable goals for the week or month. Include target number of meetings, phone calls, referrals, social media activity and networking events. And remember: You’re often contacting people who don’t expect you. You can’t expect them to buy. You can only expect to learn something that will help you start a more in-depth conversation later.
  4. Create a calendar and schedule prospecting time. Don’t leave prospecting to chance. Schedule the time you need to focus on each type of prospect and each goal. One strategy that works: Schedule prospecting time for similar situations together – for instance, all your Needs at the beginning of the week and all your Wants later in the week, or different industries each week of a month. That way, you get in the right flow and use information learned in one situation to help in another.
  5. Take action. A solid plan includes whom you want to contact, what you want to ask and hear and how you’ll do it. As you develop your pipeline, “allocate your time to ensure you can spend time both on prospects that might be smaller in size, but you can close quickly,” suggests Mark Hunter, author of High-Profit Prospecting. “as well as the large opportunities that will take months to close.”

The ideal calendar has sales pros spending 40% of their time developing and executing their prospecting plan and 60% of their time on activities with existing customers.

Resource: Adapted from Internet


Post time: Mar-10-2023

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