Wasting Time on Prospects

Once they get beyond selling to the niche market that made them successful, many small businesses have difficulty making sales. The owner is often the chief salesman. He spends a lot of time talking to prospects and often has very little to show for it. He starts thinking he is not good at selling. He hires some expensive, hot-shot salesmen who have a good track record at selling but who don't know the product. They don't do any better. The owner starts thinking there is something wrong with the product. At this point the company is going downhill fast and the owner doesn't know what could be wrong.

We need to backtrack to the beginning to find the owner's mistake: a wrong approach to selling. You're not selling hype or image - you're selling product, quality and value and the owner, or someone who has helped him develop the product, has the in-depth product knowledge to sell it. You're also not Coca Cola, trying to sell to everyone. You're looking for the small percentage of people who really need your product, have made the decision to buy and are willing and able to pay for it.

Getting lists of prospects is the first step. Once you have the prospect on the phone, don't waste your time. The first part of the conversation should be mainly about him. What are his needs? Is he ready to buy? Does he have a budget? Can he make the decision?

Too often a prospect is prepared to spend hours with you gathering information for needs that require a product quite different from yours. You have to recognize right at the beginning whether your product is suitable and, if not, politely terminate the conversation and call the next prospect.

Often a prospect is planning to buy at some future time but is quite prepared to spend time picking your brains now. Get the date when he plans to make a decision and call him back then.

After spending an hour with a prospect, he suddenly says that you're too expensive. Get his budget at the beginning or, at least, let him know what price-level he's looking at from you. If he has a nephew who does this kind of work out of his basement, you're not going to get an order so don't waste your time.

Finally, make sure you're talking to the right person. You want to avoid spending hours with a prospect who then says, "OK, sounds good - let's go and see if we can convince my manager."

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