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The Biggest Mistake in Sales ProspectingFree-Reprint Article Written by: Alan Rigg See Terms of Reprint Below.We have moved our TERMS OF REPRINT to the end of the article. Be certain to read our TERMS OF REPRINT and honor our TERMS OF REPRINT when you use this article. Thank you. This article has been distributed by: Article-Distribution.com Helpful Link: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act - Overview www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/dmca1.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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Written By: Alan Rigg Copyright: 2005 Contact Email: alan.rigg@thephantomwriters.com Article URL: thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/d/r/sales-prospecting-mistakes.shtml For more free-reprint articles by this Author, please visit: thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/d/index.shtml#Alan_Rigg --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Biggest Mistake in Sales Prospecting Copyright © 2005 Alan Rigg 80/20 Performance www.8020performance.com Recently I received a prospecting voice mail message from a salesperson. The salesperson explained his company was "the leader in Microsoft hosted Exchange solutions" and he encouraged me to visit his company's website. That was it - that was the "meat" of the voice mail message. If you received that salesperson's voice mail message, what would go through your mind? Do you think it might it be a question like, "What the heck is a Microsoft hosted Exchange solution?" Do you think the voice mail message would inspire you to call the salesperson back? Why did the salesperson's voice mail message fail to accomplish the desired end result? Because it focused on a SOLUTION rather than a PROBLEM. If your prospecting calls and related voice mail messages talk about a solution, in effect you are assuming that your prospects are already aware of the problems that your solution can solve for them. If your prospects are not able to relate your solution back to their own specific problems, your message will probably just "bounce off". If you use industry-specific jargon to describe your solution, you are making the additional assumption that your prospects are familiar with the jargon that you are using. If they aren't, it further reduces your chances of attracting their attention! How could this salesperson restructure his voice mail message to be more effective? Instead of talking about his solution, he could talk about one or more of the problems that can be solved by using a hosted Exchange service. A revised voice mail message might sound something like this: "We help small companies look like big companies to their prospects and customers; plus, we help companies of all sizes focus more of their time and resources on their core businesses, which accelerates growth and profitability. If you'd like learn how we do this, please give me a call." This salesperson could further enhance his message by including a specific QUANTIFIED IMPACT that his company's services have produced for customers. Here is what it might sound like if we add a quantified impact to the previously revised voice mail message: "We help small companies look like big companies to their prospects and customers; plus, we help companies of all sizes focus more of their time and resources on their core businesses. This has helped some of our customers reduce their operating costs by as much as 30% in just six months. If you'd like learn how they were able to achieve these results, please give me a call." Do you see the difference between the revised messages and, "We are the leader in Microsoft hosted Exchange solutions; please visit our website"? Do you agree that the revised messages are likely to capture more prospects' attention and produce more returned phone calls? There are other advantages to focusing your prospecting messages on problems rather than solutions. If you talk about a solution, your message will have the most appeal for prospects that are already actively looking for that specific solution. But, do you think those (few) prospects are just sitting around waiting for you to call? Or, do you think they might be doing some proactive research? In fact, isn't it possible they might already have some price quotes in hand? If they are that far along in the buying process, how does it impact your chances of winning their business? If you do manage to win their business, how profitable is it likely to be? Wouldn't you agree that in this situation your solution is more likely to be perceived as a commodity, and the business is likely to go to a low bidder? Contrast this scenario to a properly managed, problem-based prospecting approach. If you are successful in attracting a prospect's interest by talking about the business problems that you can solve and the quantified impacts that your company has delivered to customers, the natural next step is to ask the prospect to identify which specific problems pertain to their business. Once the prospect prioritizes their problems, you can ask more questions to help them quantify the impact of these problems on their business. If the quantified impacts are substantial enough, it becomes quite easy to justify a very profitable price for your solution. If you want to improve your prospecting effectiveness, stop leading with solutions in your prospecting calls and voice mail messages. Instead, lead with the problems that you can help prospects solve, and (ideally) one or more of the quantified impacts that your company has produced for customers. This type of problem-focused prospecting approach will attract the interest of a larger percentage of your prospects, produce higher close rates, and generate more profitable sales.
--- END ARTICLE --- ..................................... TERMS OF REPRINT - Publication Rules (Last Updated: April 7, 2005) Our TERMS OF REPRINT are fully enforcable under the terms of: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281.ENR: ..................................... *** Digital Reprint Rights *** * If you publish this article in a website/forum/blog, You Must Set All URL's or Mailto Addresses in the body of the article AND in the Author's Resource Box as Hyperlinks (clickable links). * Links must remain in the form that we published them. Clean links must point to the Author's links without redirects having been inserted into the copy. * You are not allowed to Change or Delete any Words or Links in the Article or Resource Box. Paragraph breaks must be retained where the author has placed them. * Email Distribution of this article Must be done through Opt-in Email Only. No Unsolicited Commercial Email. * You Are Allowed to format the layout of the article for proper display of the article in your website or in your ezine, so long as the words, links and paragraph breaks are not changed or deleted. *** Author Notification *** We ask that you notify the author of publication of his or her work. Alan Rigg can be reached at: alan.rigg@thephantomwriters.com *** Print Publication Reprint Rights *** If you desire to publish this article in a PRINT publication, you must contact the author directly for Print Permission at: alan.rigg@thephantomwriters.com ..................................... If you need help converting this text article for proper hyperlinked placement in your webpage, please use this free tool: thephantomwriters.com/link-builder.pl ===================================================================== ABOUT THIS ARTICLE SUBMISSION thePhantomWriters.com is a paid article distribution service. thePhantomWriters.com and Article-Distribution.com are owned and operated by Bill Platt of Enid, Oklahoma USA. The content of this article is solely the property and opinion of its author, Alan Rigg www.8020performance.com
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