Improve the Quality of Your Prospects and Increase Your Income Now!

When we talk about prospects we usually concentrate on increasing the quantity of prospects.  However, if you look at the Sales Success Formula I introduced on this blog a short time ago, you will see that most of the time spent by a salesperson is on the attempts made to contact a prospect.  If you increased the QUALITY of your prospect, meaning one that was interested in taking your call or meeting you, your time efficiency would increase immediately.  Again, when you look at the formula for sales success, the number of attempts you make (#A) in order to contact a prospect (#C) so that you can then make a presentation (#P) with the plan to close a sale (#S), takes a huge time investment.  So, if we decrease the number of attempts you have to make in order to contact a prospect the process becomes more profitable quickly.  I have witnessed many people leave the profession of selling because they spent all of their time concentrating on increasing the QUANTITY  of their prospects and improving their closing technique and no time on improving the QUALITY of their prospects and becoming a pro at making a presentation of their product to a customer.  

The highest QUALITY prospect is a referral.  This is a prospect that a current or former customer has referred to you.  The person who referred them to you, knows you and respects you and holds you in high regard or they wouldn't be sending them to you.  A referral business doesn't just happen.  It takes a strategy to accomplish.  

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.  

These 3 steps are vital to starting and sustaining a referral business.  In order to find out where you are in relation to these 3 very important steps, you need to take some time and be very honest with yourself. If you aren't going to answer the following questions honestly then you are wasting your time.  For you own success' sake be honest as you answer these questions about your business:

1)  How much time do you spend daily studying the product or service your provide? This time includes study of the industry and your competition.  You must have a deep understanding of what you do and if you are not spending time daily growing your competence then you are not serious about a long term career in the profession of selling.

2)  How much time do you spend daily talking, thinking and studying about how your product or service specifically benefits your customer? Are you practicing your presentation so that you talk directly to these benefits with your prospect?  Do  you know so much in this area that your empathy with the customer is impactful to them?  Again, if you are not spending time daily working on this you are not really serious about a long term career in the profession of selling.

3)  Do you spend time daily or at least weekly calling on your current customers? The purpose is to check on how they are and how your product or service is or has performed for them.  This is vital to your business.

4)  Do you always follow through and deliver on everything you have promised a customer?  You should be able to state that beyond a shadow of a doubt you deliver for your customer.  You should be able to say the you go above and beyond expectations 100% of the time.  If you don't follow through on your promises and commitments then you need to change that immediately, or get out of the professional of selling.  You are ruining the reputation we professionals are trying so hard to build and protect.

Spend whatever time is needed to honestly evaluate your business using these 3 questions.  If you can honestly answer these questions correctly then you have earned the right to ask for and expect your customers and people you know to send you prospects.  If you can't answer these correctly then your business is failing whether you know it or not and you will never be able to build a referral business.

If you seriously take this strategy on, your income will improve immediately.  

Expect to Win!

--Jim