This week we began a conversation around successful prospecting. As part of that conversation, we asked several questions throughout our social networks. Below is a collection of some of the better answers:
1. How much time do you dedicate to prospecting activities every day?
•The time you invest in prospecting should be directly proportional to the health of your sales pipeline. To begin with you might consider identifying what your sales pipeline benchmark should be. I'll skip the formula for creating a benchmark but let's say you land on the need for 20 active prospects in your pipeline. The answer then is simple. Compare your scrubbed pipeline to the benchmark and decide what shape you're in. (Greg Deming)
•Telephone prospecting should never go to zero regardless of how full your pipeline is. If I keep a full pipeline I can choose the quality opportunities to pursue and I can also choose not to chase marginal opportunities. (Roger Hamilton)
•If the goal of a given prospecting effort is a meeting, for example, then perhaps the number of meetings set needs to be tracked for a time for a given prospecting method. Once it is known how much effort (which may or may not be time) is needed to set a meeting, then the amount of effort required can be rolled back into sales goals. (David Masover)
•Our company does not manage an amount of prospecting time. We put into place certain lead generation activities and then work to accomplish a number of set and held first appointments, quotes, and sales per month based on the anticipated ratios between those selling activities. In other words, we do what it takes to get enough qualified quotes out the door each month to meet our sales targets. (Lance Cooper)
2. What is your most effective prospecting strategy?
•I send out monthly mailers and post cards...over & over & over & over
they all call me eventually...you have to hit them when they are looking..who ever hits them first gets the shot at them.. (David Treutelaar)
•We have had great success with internet type marketing stratergies as of late. Cost compared to "paper" mail is about the same, but better quality prospects. Also, easier to track and obtain prospect information for follow up (Burt Steingraeber)
A very big THANK YOU to everyone that participated in this week's conversation.