Which prospects are wasting your time?

Posted by Jeremy L. Knauff | October 12th, 2009

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Every single entrepreneur has found themselves in the position of sales person at some time during their career. Some of us relish the challenges that brings while others detest the very thought of having to face rejection and actually try to sell our product or service.

In my own unscientific opinion, I would be willing to bet that most people are nearly as adverse to making a sales call, whether in person or on the phone, as they are terrified of public speaking. But what are they really afraid of? Rejection? Failure? Wasting their time?

Well, let’s face the facts; you’re going to experience rejection. Not everyone needs, wants or can afford what you’re selling. Sales is partially a numbers game, so the more people you get in front of, the more opportunities you’ll have to sell your product or service. You’re also going to face failure, but failure is how you learn. Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you get good at it. So far, it sounds like you’ve got your work cut out for you; almost everything that you have been looking at as a negative actually creates a positive benefit for you.

Wasting your time, however, can cripple your sales efforts. You could spend countless days calling leads over and over and not receive a single call back. You could spend hours on the phone or sitting down with prospects to learn about their needs, and then find out they aren’t even authorized to make a decision. You could even prepare a detailed custom proposal for every potential client, learning later that they just took your information and cut you out of the equation. The common factor here is quickly learning what type of prospect you’re talking to, and then allocating the appropriate amount of time; nothing more and nothing less.

Everyone has different circumstances, but like Tyler Durden said in Fight Club, they are “not a unique snowflake.” In reality, you’ll find that 99% of your prospects fall into one of 4 groups.

Rubber-neckers

These prospects happened to drop by your trade show booth, visit your website or see one of your ads and decide that they’d like to know more about your company. The problem is they have absolutely no interest in investing in what you’re selling. They may fill out your contact form online, mail in a request for more information or even call you, but you’ll never hear from them again. You can usually spot these prospects pretty quickly because when you start asking them basic questions, they don’t have any answers – they just want you to send them every bit of information on your company. They will typically contact you once, or at most twice, and you’ll never be able to reach them again, so if you can’t reach them after three or four phone calls and an email or two, it’s time to move on.

Tire kickers

When you encounter tire-kickers, they will deluge you with requests for more and more information, which will often span several weeks or months while they are “weighing their options.” If you happen to get to a point where you have enough information to produce a proposal, they will usually drastically change the scope of their project, and then the process starts all over. These prospects are relatively simple to spot if you’re paying attention because you’ll find that the more information you give them, the more they want. Often, they will add to or change the scope of the project at every step of the way. If they are going to act like this before they are even a client/customer, think of how they will act once they are. As soon as you realize that you’re dealing with a tire-kicker, shift gears to spend your time with prospects that are likely to move forward.

Bargain hunters

Sometimes, you’re going to come across a prospect that really is a good person with limited resources, and in those cases, it’s fine to massage the terms of a deal to help them out as long as you’re not hurting yourself. There is nothing wrong with looking for a good deal, but when it comes to negotiating, the bargain hunter wants the world handed to them. When presented with a price, they will usually ask for a discount right off the bat. You may be tempted to cave in order to land the project, but keep in mind, they are just going to keep whittling your prices down until you can’t go any lower, and then they will jump ship for the next company that will do it for $10 less. This prospect will treat you as a commodity and has no loyalty to you, so while you may end up lowering your prices for them, make sure the numbers still make sense for you.

Family and Friends

No matter what industry you’re in, family and friends will always expect favors from you. This is a tough one because there are personal relationships involved, but you need to handle them the same way that you would handle bargain hunters, otherwise, you may end up feeling like they’re taking advantage of you and you’ll end up resenting them.

Go-getters

These prospects are great! They either already know what they want or they trust you as the professional to tell them what they need – and they’re ready to take action right away. Typically they are value-based shoppers, so they don’t mind paying a premium as long as they are getting their money’s worth, and they are usually quick to make a decision, which means that your sales cycle can be unbelievably short, but it also means that if you’re not meeting their needs, they will go elsewhere just as quickly. Spend the time necessary to properly qualify them, develop a proposal that’s tailored to their specific needs, be available and don’t be afraid to ask for the sale. If you spend your time with more of this type of prospect and less time with the others, you’ll quickly see a change in your revenue and you profit margins.

Looking back, you can now probably see some patterns with some of the prospects you’ve worked with in the past. Hopefully going forward, you now have the information to be more selective and work with more of the prospects who will improve your bottom line and less of the ones that will waste your time. Remember the 80/20 rule.

Related posts:

1. You’ll never convince everyone! - At least once each week, I talk to someone who tells me that their company produces something that everyone needs....
2. Who is following up with your prospects before you do? - If you’re like most business owners, you’re working hard at networking events and sales calls across the country each end...
3. Why your prospects want you to sell to them - Let’s face it, most people absolutely dread the idea of doing sales calls. Whether yours are done over the phone...

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