It can be extremely frustrating when you see other business owners doing the same things you are getting clients when you aren’t.  It can be downright maddening, in fact.  You begin to wonder if the problem is you?

Well, if you have a pleasant personality and you sell a service that produces outcomes people are willing to pay for it isn’t just YOU.

It isn’t so much what the people who excel at sales prospecting do that empowers them to get clients.  It’s in the way they approach it including the order they do things.

Lots of service professionals offer a free coaching session or consultation as a first step in their sales prospecting process.  Once upon a time when no one else did this it was a successful prospecting tool.  That is, as long as you understood how to handle that free session and didn’t make the mistake of just giving away an hour of work getting nothing in return.  Ian Brodie shares my sentiments that giving away free coaching sessions or consultations no longer works.

Here’s why those “free” sessions aren’t working.

First, those free sessions have become so common prospects immediately recognize them for what they are… sales appointments.  It’s no different than your insurance agent offering you a “free” insurance review.

So, that free session does one thing.  It triggers your prospects defenses.

Once you trigger a prospects defenses it’s very difficult to overcome that defensiveness and gain their trust.

The second reason those sessions aren’t working is they are used in the wrong order.  Just think about it.  If you use a free session as the first step in your sales prospecting process you are making this offer to a complete stranger at the point they are most skeptical.  A “free” consultation or coaching session should only be offered after you’ve established a certain level of trust with the sales prospect.

Those who excel at sales prospecting develop these skills:

1. Research - They do their homework on their sales prospects
2. Science - They develop a sales prospecting process that respects the natural science of the relationship building process
3. Processes - They develop and automate the relationship building process
4. Listening - They listen and respond accordingly
5. Attraction - They pull their sales prospects toward what they are already looking to buy rather than trying to push them in a direction they don’t want to go

Increase your sales prospecting effectiveness by improving your skills.  Then if you want include a “free” session in your sales prospecting process rethink where you put it in the sales prospecting process and how you use it.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

If my clients in the insurance and financial services industries are any indicator then I would have to say every sales manager in the insurance industry must tell every rookie that sales prospecting is something you have to hit hard when you are getting started.  However, they also tell those insurance rookies that once you have a client base you won’t have to prospect hardly ever.

REALLY???

If that makes sense then I suppose you believe that if you eat a really great meal on Thanksgiving you won’t have to eat again until the next big holiday meal…

If that were true I wouldn’t have people 15-18 years in the industry begging me to help them get sales prospects because they’ve found buying leads, sending out pre-approach letters, begging for referrals, cold calling, etc. just isn’t cutting the muster and paying the bills.  Here they are at a point in their business when they should have financial security with an eye on retirement.  Instead they see their revenues falling with little hope for increasing their sales.

Sales prospecting is a necessary process in EVERY business just like the other processes required to operate your business.  You either develop an effective process that produces the results you want, or continue to deal with sales prospecting problems.  You wouldn’t keep patching the tire on your delivery van if you ran a distribution business hoping it won’t go flat.  So, why would you accept an ineffective sales prospecting process?

Sales Prospecting Problems Don’t Go Away Unless You Make Them Go Away

Even if you work REALLY hard in the beginning.  You gut it out playing the insane numbers game.  Somehow you manage to build a business yet you will always need a sales prospecting process that produces new highly qualified prospects for you without having to work that hard to get them.  Once you have a client base you simply won’t be able to work harder at sales prospecting because there won’t be enough hours in the day.

Facts are Facts

Even if you have a huge client base now you will always lose clients through natural attrition:

• Some will move away
• Some businesses will close, some clients will even die
• Plus the needs of others will change

That means if you struggle to attract sales prospects now… the problem won’t go away.

Rather than having good prospects coming to you, you will have to go out and hunt those prospects down.

So, if you think sales prospecting is time consuming when you are starting out and only have a few clients, how will you feel when you have enough clients to keep you busy?

My clients tell me they feel like they are at the end of their rope.  They already have a lot of work to do: managing employees, taking care of clients, keeping up with their training and certification, etc.  Plus it’s been so long the thought of getting out there again and sales prospecting literally makes their stomachs churn.  They don’t want to do what they did to get where they are now the way they did it in the beginning.

Sales prospects don’t magically appear the only way to make them appear is to develop processes and systems that make them appear.  And does it in a way that doesn’t require you doing all the work.

I talk about this in “The Blueprint for Increased Sales” and go into the exact details for how to make it happen with my clients.

If getting sales prospects is a challenge then make the commitment to do what you need to do to develop an effective sales prospecting system as soon as possible.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

If you absolutely dread prospecting you aren’t alone.  You don’t like doing it because of the way it makes you feel and the way your prospects react to your prospecting efforts.  No one wants to do something they already know will produce a negative result.

Yet, you have to have people to sell to so even though you don’t like prospecting you have to do it.

Is there a way to get prospects and actually enjoy the process?

YES

Let’s think about why you don’t like prospecting now and what you could do to get real prospects interested in what you sell.  After all if the people most likely to buy your stuff aren’t interested in what you sell you can’t expect a lot of sales.

Take networking, for example.  Right now when you prospect you approach a complete stranger.  After introducing yourself you probably do one of these things.

• You make small talk and walk away having made a connection but not a connection likely to go anywhere.
• You tell them what business you’re in and the conversation doesn’t go anywhere from there.
• You give them your elevator pitch and the conversation comes to another dead end.
• You tell them about your business and what you sell, and they excuse themselves as soon as possible.
• You ask them lots of questions about themselves then leave without telling the other person anything about yourself.

Or some similarly unproductive connection.  It’s frustrating, uncomfortable, and time consuming to make all these connections and have nothing to show for your efforts.

You’ve probably witnessed those bells of the ball that come breezing in.  They initiate a riveting conversation.  And before they quickly move on they have everyone within ear shot handing them their business card and asking them to give them a call.  While you stand there like chopped liver.

photo credit: Fernando Sacasa SerieB

How Do They Do That?

The good news is it’s a lot easier than you think.  Right now your prospecting efforts aren’t working because…

• You don’t have anything of value to say
• You don’t ask the right questions
• You don’t have an offer they can’t refuse

Prospecting IS NOT Selling

Never forget that.  Prospecting is about opening a connection so you get the opportunity to continue that connection.  Prospecting is about making an acquaintance that you take actions to transform into a relationship.

That means when you prospect your goal is to:

1. Engage
2. Interest
3. Extend

Prospecting is about starting a conversation that engages the other person.  The quickest and easiest way to engage another person is to talk about them.  If you want to get their interest you’ll want to talk about what they are already talking about and looking for.

In your case you want to talk about what they are already looking for in relation to what you sell.  That automatically gives them a reason to be interested in what you sell… a reason to want to talk to you.

When talking to your potential prospects don’t ask a potential prospect for the wrong things.  You’ve just met.  In most cases they aren’t ready to meet you for an appointment.  Only ask for the things they are ready to give you.

Finally, don’t make the wrong offer.  Focus on offering something with immediate perceived value that they can get without risking calling you or meeting you for an appointment.

Most importantly be yourself and focus on the other person first and foremost.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance