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THEY CAN’T BUY FROM YOU IF THEY DON’T KNOW YOU EXIST By Troy Harrison, author and sales navigator
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et’s get real about prospecting. Prospecting has changed – right along with everything else in selling. As salespeople and managers, we have to adapt and overcome those challenges, but certain things remain true. As the title says, they can’t buy from us if they don’t know that we exist. If you view prospecting as the most direct way to make sure that potential customers know that we exist, you understand how it fits into our sales matrix. In our B2B world of selling, we have one great advantage – we know (or should know) who potential customers are. We don’t have to broadcast messages and hope that potential customers reach out – and yet that’s what entirely too many salespeople still do. I’m not big on a “crank it and hope” philosophy, so let’s dig into the realities of prospecting today. Even the best associations rarely have 100% membership penetration into their markets. In fact, for most associations, 50% is a great number. All too often, this is because potential members don’t even know about the association and the benefits that membership can bring. Many trade associations – including some of my clients – have had great success with active prospecting efforts like the ones I describe in this article. If you’re looking to grow, maybe it’s time to get back to fundamentals. Make sure that every potential member knows about you and about what you can do for them.
Telephone prospecting When thinking of “prospecting,” this is what we think of. Smiling and dialing, cold calling prospects in an attempt to get appointments. There are a number of sales “experts” out there who will say that this approach doesn’t work anymore. I will say, telephone prospecting doesn’t work – unless you do it. Yes, I said it; telephone prospecting from a quality database is still the best, most controllable way of gaining an audience with targeted decision makers, WITH the following caveats: 1. Working from a quality database and asking for a specific person, by name, rather than doing the “person who” call. The “person who” call is when
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you call the receptionist (if they even have one nowadays) and ask for “the person who handles….” etc. If you do this, you’re dead in the water. Data is too easy to obtain nowadays; databases like Data Axle (formerly ReferenceUSA) are free through most public library systems in the United States and have complete data including contact names and titles – check and see if they have it. If not, one nearby will – there is no excuse for not starting from good data. 2. Contact-to-dial ratios are lower than they used to be. Twenty years ago, you would get a contact (a voiceto-voice conversation with your targeted decision maker) on every second or third dial. Now it’s more like every fifth. There’s no good way around this, and all the internet research in the world won’t help you increase that ratio. www.ksaenet.org
