{"id":2740,"date":"2014-05-20T14:10:25","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T12:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/?p=2740"},"modified":"2016-02-18T13:54:22","modified_gmt":"2016-02-18T11:54:22","slug":"episode-3-suspects-prospects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/episode-3-suspects-prospects\/","title":{"rendered":"Episode 3 &#8211; Suspects &#038; Prospects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>If you treat them the same, you\u2019re fighting a losing battle\u2026<\/h2>\n<p>If you want to fill your sales pipeline with \u201cprospects\u201d who are ripe to buy, you need to be ruthless when it comes to \u201csuspects\u201d, because all they do is take up your most valuable resource\u2013 your time.<\/p>\n<p>But can you tell the two apart? When it comes to separating the one from the other, there are a number of questions you should ask upfront to ensure you target qualified prospects, not \u201ciffy\u201d suspects.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>1. Who?<\/h2>\n<p>Describe your ideal prospect in detail. Don\u2019t just think about current customers, think outside of the box. Once you have committed this profile to paper, it\u2019s time to separate the hot leads from the suspects by asking the following questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Who has the most urgent need for your products or services?<\/li>\n<li>Who has the resources to buy your products or services now?<\/li>\n<li>Who carries clout or has influence over your prospects?<\/li>\n<li>Who is the MAN (M = Money; A = Authority; N = Now &#8211; needs it now)?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>2. Where?<\/h2>\n<p>Now identify leads you may have missed at first by asking the following questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Where do your ideal prospects live, work, socialise or play?<\/li>\n<li>Where can you find useful databases or email lists of people and companies who fit your ideal prospect profile?<\/li>\n<li>Where can you buy relevant databases that contain vital information like MD and contact details?<\/li>\n<li>Where are the local business chambers, networking groups and other associations?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>3. Why?<\/h2>\n<p>Now you need to establish if your potential customer is actually ready to buy:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Why would the prospect be in the market for your product or service right now?<\/li>\n<li>Why has the prospect not already gone ahead with a solution?<\/li>\n<li>Why might the prospect resist buying your product or service?<\/li>\n<li>Why would this person want to set up an appointment with you?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>4. What?<\/h2>\n<p>These questions, if properly used, can boost the quality of your prospects:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What will the prospect find most beneficial about your product or service?<\/li>\n<li>What intelligent questions could you ask the prospect to get him\/her to open up about their problem areas?<\/li>\n<li>What information should you gather about the prospect before you meet with her\/him?<\/li>\n<li>What keeps your prospect awake at night?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>5. When?<\/h2>\n<p>This question is all about timing: When is the best time to contact a prospect? If your prospect is a busy executive, don\u2019t call first thing Monday morning. Try an unusual time like before 8:00, after 17:00 or during lunchtimes when the gatekeeper is out.<\/p>\n<h2>6. How?<\/h2>\n<p>Once you have asked all the \u201cw\u201d questions, it\u2019s time to ask a few \u201chow\u201d questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How can you be sure that you are doing a thorough job on follow-up prospecting? Action tip: Review the answers to your \u201cwho\u201d questions.<\/li>\n<li>How can you use your prospecting time more efficiently? Action tip: Review the answers to your \u201cwhere\u201d questions.<\/li>\n<li>How can you improve and sharpen your prospecting skills? TIP: Search for creative reasons why the buyer should buy. Action tip: Review your answers to the \u201cwhy\u201d questions.<\/li>\n<li>How do you decide on an appropriate approach for your prospects? Action tip: Review the answers to your \u201cwhat\u201d questions.<\/li>\n<li>How can you prioritise your prospects from a time management perspective? Action tip: Review your answers to the \u201cwhen\u201d questions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"su-note\"  style=\"border-color:#9d2f16;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#B74930;border-color:#fffffc;color:#ffffff;\">Top sales professionals take time out to do all the prep required to find first-class prospects and then prepare a custom-designed opener. They have the discipline to make this a habit and the pay-offs are huge. <\/div><\/div>\n<div style=\"border: 2px dashed #B74930; padding: 10px; font-size: 12px; margin: 10px 0;\"><strong>NARROW IT DOWN EVEN MORE<\/strong><br \/>\nAnswer each question below with a number from 0 to 10, with 10 being the best and 0 the worst:<\/p>\n<ol id=\"blogo\">\n<li>Volume: How big is this client\u2019s business in size compared to the total potential market?<\/li>\n<li>Growth: How high is this client\u2019s potential in revenue growth over the next 12 months in terms of what you can offer to him?<\/li>\n<li>Bias: To what extent is this client biased towards you?<\/li>\n<li>Product and service fit: To what extent do your products and services fit the specific needs and way of thinking of the client\u2019s business?<\/li>\n<li>Profitability: What is the potential profitability of the business you do with this vendor?<\/li>\n<li>Speed: How soon can you obtain this client\u2019s business?<\/li>\n<li>Value: How valuable is this client in terms of the long term business and influence in the market?<\/li>\n<li>Sustainability: How sustainable is this client in terms of market, economic and competitive forces?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong><em style=\"color: red;\">If your overall score (out of 80) is less than 50, this company is not a prospect, so take them off your list.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<div class=\"su-row\">\n  <div class=\"su-column su-column-size-1-5\"><div class=\"su-column-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\">&nbsp;<\/div><\/div>\n  <div class=\"su-column su-column-size-3-5\"><div class=\"su-column-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/sales-training\" target=\"_self\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"page-cta\">\n\t\t\t  <div class=\"cta-text\" style=\"line-height: 3em; background: #0b8bba; color: #fff;\">\n\t\t\t    View our Sales Training Courses\n\t\t\t  <\/div>\n\t\t\t  <div class=\"cta-icon\" style=\"font-size: 3em;  background: #F2B556; color: #ffffff;\">\n\t\t\t  \t<i class=\"fa fa-paper-plane\"><\/i>\n\t\t\t  <\/div>\n\t\t\t  \t<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t  <\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n  <div class=\"su-column su-column-size-1-5\"><div class=\"su-column-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\">&nbsp;<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; If you treat them the same, you\u2019re fighting a losing battle\u2026 If you want to fill your sales pipeline with \u201cprospects\u201d who are ripe to buy, you need to be ruthless when it comes to \u201csuspects\u201d, because all they do is take up your most valuable resource\u2013 your time. But can you tell the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[379],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sales-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2740"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4623,"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2740\/revisions\/4623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}