Thougthful Thursdays – Getting in the door
A common obstacle faced by sales representatives is getting their foot in the door of a prospect. I encounter it myself, but far less frequently now then in the past.
To what do I attribute the higher level of success in gaining access to prospects? It is not a single behaviour or approach, but the utilization of a combination of tools available to develop an approach that increases the probability of success.
Here are a couple of habits I have found useful:
- Do the homework
- make sure that your prospect is in your target market
- are they direct competition with any of your other customers?
- research the prospects business
- get a contact name
- Check in with your network
- does anyone you know have contacts with the prospect?
- has anyone you know dealing/dealt with your prospect?
- Be prepared to leave voice messages and multiple follow up calls if contacting by telephone.
- Know what you are going to say before you say it.
If your prospect is in your target market, you have every reason to believe they will be interested in what you have to say. If you find a high percent of your target market is not interested, you may need to take a step back and examine your market research findings. That is a marketing discussion for another day.
Overall, be organized and persistent. Stay engaged and know that it may take several attempts before you get to talk to or see the person you want to. If you have a product or service that truly will help your prospects business, it will only be a matter of time before you are in the door and taking their order.
Good selling,
Richard
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