Can You Improve Your Prospect Quality?

When a sales professional considers how to become more efficient with their time, the first area that they must look at is their mix of prospects.  If you are only cold calling and randomly choosing who you call on, then you are selecting the most inefficient prospecting strategy available.  You are not only having to introduce yourself, your company and your product, but you may be having to develop the need for your product or service as well.  This process is very time consuming.

The most efficient prospect is a referral.  This is a person or company that a current or former customer has referred to you.  In most cases this serves as a partial introduction to you and your company as well as your product.  The need for your product or service is normally addressed as well. This makes for a very efficient use of your time.  These prospects sometimes come from people that you know and that know what you do and may not do business with you.  The key is the introduction.

How do you build a referral business? 

(1) You start with knowing your product at a very high level. 

(2) You must understand exactly how, with specificity, it benefits a customer. 

(3) Then you must provide a tremendously high level of customer service.  

Once  you master these 3 key areas of professionalism, then you can ask for referrals and expect your customers to send people to you.  It takes a concerted effort to master these 3 areas.  Some salespeople ask for referrals without earning the right to ask someone to send the people they know to do business with them..  You got to earn the right to ask.  If you master these 3 areas, people want to send people to you.  They will feel like they are benefiting their family or friend more than they do you.  When that happens you will definetly have success with referrals.

Expect to Win!

--Jim