DEFINATION OF PROSPECTING

Prospecting is defined as any activity or conversation you

engage in to position yourself in front of a prospect with the
intention to inquire, assess, discover, and educate so that
you can determine whether there's a fit and a relationship
that's worth pursuing which can then lead to presenting your
product or service in order to earn your prospect's business."

SALES PROSPECTING AND ITS ORIGIN

Let's take a look at the word prospecting. It gets its

orgin from the physical act of looking for minerals,
specifically gold. So for sales people it is making
calls, for others it is direct mail and still others it is
networking. I am sure there are others who are still
even more creative or use a combination.
But keep in mind, it is the act of doing the searching,
not the preparation of doing it. You can buy a shovel,
a gold pan or a dredge to search for gold and doing
so will make you more succesful but just becuase
you purchase these tools or prepare for prospecting
does not mean you are actually prospecting. The
only part of prospecting that counts in my book is the
act of searching for possible customers.
After you have identified possible customers it is also
valuable to qualify them. You can do this during your
prospecting time, after your done prospecting or not
at all. Obviously those who do use qualifing
strategies will spend their time more efficiently as
they will spend less time with those who are not
likely to buy. This is much like when a gold
prospector takes his gold to a geologist to put a
value on the gold. Some of the gold (like the
prospects) will be more valuable than others. And
some will find there work completely without reward.
But the more and more prospecting one does the
better chances of him finding that golden nugget.

THEORECTICAL PROCESS OF SALES AS

WELL AS SALES PROSPECTING

Creating an Effective Sales Process

A sales process is simply a series of steps that enable your
sales force – whether that’s a single sales professional or a
small team headed up by a sales manager – to close more
sales and generate more repeat business.
Customer Buying Process Steps
Identify Determine Evaluate Negotiat Impleme
Needs Requireme Options e nt &
> > > > >
nts Evaluate
Success

All customers go through five basic steps in the Customer

Buying Process. Obviously someone who is thinking about
purchasing a candy bar at the check-out stand at their local
grocery moves through the steps much more rapidly than a
plant manager considering upgrading his drill presses.
Nevertheless, the fundamentals of each stage are very
similar.

• Step 1: Identify needs. Business owners look for

ways to improve revenues and market share, to lower
costs, and to improve operating efficiencies. Consumers
look for ways to improve their standard of living or their
overall satisfaction.
• Step 2: Determine requirements. The customer’s
goal in this step is to clearly identify all the aspects of
 the problem or opportunity they are trying to solve and
to specify the requirements for a solution.
• Step 3: Evaluate options. The customer solicits
proposals and seeks out proof that the potential
vendors can meet the stated requirements.
• Step 4: Negotiate. The customer now has a clear
understanding of the options available and begins
negotiations to acquire the product or service. Price is
one consideration, but negotiating considerations
include the cost of change and the risk that the solution
will not meet their needs.
• Step 5: Implement and evaluate success. The
product or service is implemented and the customer
begins the process of judging whether it truly meets the
stated needs.

Sales Process Steps

Prospecti Qualifyi Proposal Decision Repeat
> > > > >
ng ng Business

Five steps define the sales process methodology. Each step

is made up of several key activities with predictable,
measurable outcomes. The steps help small business sales
professionals succeed by:

1. Focusing on a total understanding of critical business

issues faced by customers.
2. Developing potential value to be gained by customers.
3. Creating a strong desire in the customer to buy
products and services supplied by your company.

Step 1: Prospecting. At this first stage of the sales

process, the salesperson is generating qualified leads,
finding new opportunities among the existing customer base,
and differentiating his or her company versus the
competition. Depending on the type of business, prospecting
can take many forms including networking, seminars,
marketing, trade shows, and cold calls. The purpose of this
step is to identify a qualified decision maker, or an ally in the
organization who can help you reach the decision maker.

Step 2: Qualifying. In this stage you and the customer are

sizing each other up. You are assessing the revenue
potential and costs associated with a customer opportunity
to decide if it’s worth pursuing further, while the customer is
assessing whether your company can meet their needs. In
this stage of the process, your sales professionals need to be
adept at probing to unearth the customer’s true needs, in
detail. Then they need a way to clearly articulate a “buying
vision” to the customer – capabilities that illustrate how your
company’s products or services can uniquely meet their
needs. The goal of this step is to convince the decision
maker to move ahead with an in-depth evaluation of your
solution.

Microsoft Outlook with Prophet gives you increased insight

into your business, whether you are a sales professional or a
small business owner. A sales professional can quickly
assess a customer opportunity by attaching pricing
information to the opportunity and assigning a probability of
closing the sale. The business owner can take a broader
perspective and run one of the sixty customizable reports in
Prophet Reports to view the entire sales pipeline sorted by
customer, product, or stage.

Step 3: Proposal. When you reach this stage the promises

end and you have to demonstrate to the decision maker that
your company can really deliver the goods. You can create a
mutually agreed upon Product/Service Evaluation Plan that
highlights key steps to prove your capabilities and ensure a
win for both the customer and the salesperson. The
Evaluation Plan is an important, formal lever that many
salespeople overlook: once a customer agrees to the
Evaluation Plan, the salesperson is in control of the sales
process. In other words, the customer can only afford to go
through the steps of an Evaluation Plan with one selling
organization because of the time, cost, and resources to
perform each step. The goal of the Proposal stage is that the
value has been demonstrated – via successful completion of
the Evaluation Plan – and the customer requests that the
salesperson submit a proposal.

At this stage of the process the consideration set of

companies narrows in the eyes of the customer, and
responding rapidly – and professionally – is essential for the
sales professional. Most small business owners wince at the
thought of how many potential sales slip away when a
commitment falls through the cracks or an e-mail goes
unanswered. Microsoft Outlook with Prophet consolidates all
of your customer interactions – e-mails, tasks, appointments,
notes, and even documents – in one place so you will always
have a comprehensive, up-to-date picture of what is going
on with that customer.

Step 4: Decision. By now, you are so close to pushing this

deal across the goal line that you can almost taste it. But
how often has your sales force fumbled the ball in the red
zone? Perhaps one of your salespeople gave too much away
in the final negotiations, making the deal unprofitable. Or
conversely, perhaps he or she walked away from a good sale
when a low cost giveaway might have sealed the deal. Such
is the delicate and tantalizing nature of the Decision step of
the sales process.

The desired outcome, naturally, is a successfully negotiated

deal – perhaps formalized in a signed contract – that
symbolizes a win-win arrangement for your company and the
customer.

Step 5: Repeat Business. A signed contract is really just

the first chapter of the story. The Repeat Business step
acknowledges that it is indeed a sales process – not a
moment in time when a contract is signed or a sales
commission is paid out. First of all, the product or service
must be delivered and implemented as promised. A sales
professional focused on a long-term profitable relationship
will take ownership and follow up with the customer to make
sure that everything is going smoothly. And at the right time,
he or she will begin the Prospecting step again, probing the
customer to see if there is an ongoing need that can be
serviced with a simple reorder or, if needs have changed,
the opportunity to upsell or cross-sell a new product or
service. Obviously the goal of this step of the sales process
is repeat business – not to mention a satisfied customer
willing to be a referral for you.

Staying connected with your customers is easier with

Microsoft Outlook and Prophet. You can:

• Use your current Outlook contact list to connect various

individuals and companies to a single opportunity
through the Sales Opportunity Manager.
• Use Outlook and Prophet to set tasks and reminders for
specific Opportunities.
• Use the Prophet Contact Manager to find all emails,
attachments, tasks and appointments for specific
people or companies.
• Use Sales Opportunity Manager to quickly view all
active or inactive sales opportunities, what stage they
are in and what the next steps are.
• Use Prophet Reporter to summarize the data in various
ways to give you the view and formats you need.

HOW QUALITY IN A SALES PROSPECTING CAN

IMPROVE SALES
There were days when companies thought about improving
the product alone to enhance sales. In today's hyper-
competitive global market, growing sales is typically based
on improving the sales process first. Understanding the sales
process and how best the sales force is adapting to it will
enable companies to focus on the sales resources better.

A commitment to quality in the sales process is central to

the growth dynamics of any enterprise. Each step in a sales
process should be well defined and the action to be
performed clearly set. Beginning from researching leads to
closing a sale, everything should move in clockwork
precision. Apparently trivial things can make a huge
difference to the final outcome. So care must be taken to
strengthen every action involved in each step of the sales
process. And often it's mistakenly assumed that sales

process improvement means sales training. Sales training

may be a part of the sales process improvement training,
but it is a broader subject.

Following are some examples of how improving the sales

process can make a difference.

Fresh and Creative Prospecting - The list of leads should be

current and include as many qualified leads as possible.
Trying to qualify prospects from a partially redundant list of
leads is going to waste your time and prospecting efforts. A
firm with a stale source of leads has got it all wrong from the
beginning. Working on the leads and checking for their
revenue potential will mean that you start your prospecting
activities from a position of sales strength. This will require
good lead generating and customer relationship
management (CRM) practices.

A Chilean company, Andrueza Patrimonios, rode the wave of

economic boom and made impressive growth. But soon the
sales force found that they were making duplicate calls and
that the information gathered during sales calls with clients
were lost. This is the example of a terrible loss because of
the absence of a good customer relationship management -
CRM - program to keep track of all the information.

All possible channels of generating leads should be

considered. Have you tried social networking websites apart
from trade shows, seminars, and lists of companies as
potential customers? Do you know how and when each of
your prospects prefers to be contacted? A good sales
process makes provisions for all of these sales actions.
Response Time and Quality

Sales depend on external customers that have identifiable

expectations from your company. They wish that their
questions and concerns be responded to within a reasonable
time limit. They expect a certain level of clarity and
objectivity in the answers they receive from salespeople. A
simple issue, such as response time to a new client inquiry
can make a huge difference to actual sales outcomes. When
a customer wants a proposal from a company she/he
expects to get an initial response within a few hours and an
actual proposal within a reasonable time frame depending
the size and nature of the project. If a sales rep fails to send
a proposal in a reasonable time-frame he is out of the race
even before it has begun.

Technology can play a vital role in responding quickly. An

email from the customer can be accessed when out of the
office and responded to instantly through a Blackberry,
Palm, and Windows Mobile. There are many customer
relationship management- CRM- tools out there that are
inexpensive and yet very useful. It is a sin not to be using
these devices to get back to customers immediately.

A set of winning proposals of past sales can be stored in your

company data bank and every salesperson should be
allowed free access to them.

The stored proposals should cater to all permutations and

combinations of customer requirements within all budget
ranges. So the moment there is a proposal request from a
customer, a sales rep will just have to search for a few
proposals broadly fitting the customer's requirements from
the archive. From those the best one suiting the customer
and the sales opportunity should be selected. This should
only take a few minutes. Changing the content of the
proposal to tailor it to the exact need of the customer is
what the rep in question has to work on before sending it to
the customer. Remember customers appreciate a quick
response. A delayed response may reach a customer when
the deal is already closed.

Streamlining Product Information

A Fortune 50 telecom company had 300 product descriptions

on its web site that were being referred to by its sales force
of 5000 people spread all over the world. The product
description was done by several authors and lacked
coherence as well as uniformity in voice. That caused
confusion among the sales reps and they found it difficult to
provide consistent information. They couldn't find quick
answers and when they found answers those didn't match
the sales process. They didn't trust the web site. A
consulting firm was roped in to set the problem right. The
consulting firm streamlined the product information and
created a logical and intuitive navigation framework for the
web site to support the sales process.

The consulting firm rewrote the product descriptions in a

uniform style. Salespersons could now access information at
every step of the sales process and there was consistency in
the information they obtained. They could digest the
information easily and share it with the clients.

The revamping resulted in the elimination of 66% of

unnecessary information and a 70% increase in web site use
and traffic. The division manager of product marketing for
the telecom company admitted that the bottom line was - a
huge boost to sales productivity and revenue.

A good sales process should be revamped to include uniform

product information and the best resources available for
salespeople. There should also be effective product samples
at the disposal of sales force for demonstrations.

Customer Focused not Vendor Focused

Sales process guru Michael Bosworth firmly believes that

sales processes should be customer focused. They should
address the need of the customer. Vendor focused processes
cause confusion and delays. The customer is always
interested in and tuned into radio station WIIFM, "what's in it
for me"? A sales process should be modified to communicate
that.

Spending Time with the Prospects - Does a prospect qualify

for your time and attention? If yes, how much? Genuine
prospects should be paid attention to and it is wise not to
waste too much time on prospects that won't buy.
Distinguishing between the two categories is a fine balancing
act that every salesperson in the organization must know.
Research has shown that the best salespersons spend
considerably more quality time with their top prospects.

They also spend less time on paper work. A survey

conducted by Watson Wyatt of 841 salespeople from 500
companies with large sales forces has established that the
best sales professionals from financially high performing
companies working for high incentives and stock options
invest 40% more time on their best prospects and spend an
additional 3-4 hours on high-value sales activities than their
counterparts do in financially low performing companies.
These achievers also analyze the needs of the prospects in
detail and allot more time to prospects that they know.

If a good sales rep is producing satisfying results but taking

an inordinately long time to do so he could be the victim of
this - getting hypnotized by posh offices of potential
customers and spending more time than necessary there.
Some of the high-profile potential customers may actually be
looking for very competitive prices for low volume of
purchase. They may be valuable as customers but are the
long hours and special attention lavished on them worth it?
An effective sales process should weed out such time
consuming practices. It can lay out a broad time range to be
allotted to different categories of customers.

Too Close to a Good Closing Yet Missing Out - Do you have

sales reps that get very close to a fruitful closing but don't
succeed in clinching the deal? They do everything right to
get there, but miss the target by a whisker. There are
uncountable numbers of sales efforts that have come very
close to a successful deal and failed at the last minute. The
reason - lack of knowledge of proper closing techniques. A
solid sales process lays down the best closing practices to be
followed. Be aware if your salespeople are asking the right
questions or offering the right incentives to close a deal? Are
they practicing active listening techniques and allowing the
customer to talk? Are they allowing the customer to say
"yes" to a deal? Are they keeping some offers until the end
as final incentives to strike a deal?

An effective sales process makes it clear to all sales reps to

use the best closing techniques.

Repeat Business - Referrals - Signing a deal is not the end of

the sales plan, it's just the beginning. There are more deals
in the offing and a good sales process recognizes that.
Repeat business is easier and cheaper than prospecting for
new business and every sales process should include steps
to procure repeat business via a referral process. After a sale
has been made the sales rep should follow up with the
customer about the performance of the product and the
degree of satisfaction of the customer. If the customer is
happy with the product than it can lead to repeat sales or
sales through his network of contacts. A sales process gives
this fact due consideration and mandates that sales reps
don't wash their hands of a customer after the sale is made.

Practical Sales Process - Take an honest opinion poll of your

sales reps and find out what they feel about the company's
sales process. If the majority of them feel that it's - "Too
theoretical", "It worked back in 2001", "Management's
fantasy", or "Cast in computerized concrete" - it's time for
you to consider overhauling or changing the entire sales
process.

Sometimes a problem may lie with a single step and may

need slight modification. Evaluate periodically how your
sales process is performing. Watch out for weak areas and
fortify them. A sales audit can help in identifying problem
areas that require attention.

It is less of an art and more a scientific formula that the

combination of a smart sales process and efficient
salespeople almost always produce astounding results.
Companies therefore should have a vibrant and workable
sales process in place to aid their sales force in achieving
their sales targets smoothly.