How Do We Approach Prospects

How we actually do approach these people?

If they are warm calls from before the holidays, then you've probably got a conversation to have with them and that's just fine. But what if they're not? What if they are clients that have been with you and left? What if they're people you put a presentation to and they just never bought? What if they're completely fresh and you've never approached them before?

Well, three things to remember.

1. Firstly, Name the Elephant.

That means name the thing you think will be the one thing that they might bring up as an objection or that could trip you up. Don't hide from it. Put it right out front and name it. By doing that you take a lot of its power away. So for example you might say 

"Hello Mr. Jones, I run you six months ago and at that stage you weren't interested." So tell them straight away I rang you six months ago and you weren't interested. Don't let them come to you and say hang on I remember you from six months ago I wasn't interested then. By front footing it you take the power away.

Another quick example. "Hello Mrs. Babcock, I recognize that you've already got a supplier however..." and by front footing that you've taken most the power away from the person when they try and say "Oh, but I already got a supplier". You've depowered that. Name the Elephant.

2. The second thing is that you've got to be is Relevant.

Don't ring someone without doing some research. Take the time to: 

• Get on their website.
• Have a look in your documentation in your own CRM.
• Have a look at what they've done before.
• Have a look at who they use.
• Who are their suppliers?

Get some really good ideas about what you could talk about, because when you do get that chance to talk to them you've got to grab their attention and hold it and you'll only do that if you're relevant.

There's no good saying I just thought I'd give you a ring we're a company that does this. You need to start by saying “I wonder if this is of concern to you. It's our observation that in the industry a lot of people looking for this now I wondered if you were”. So be relevant.

3. The final thing is to make sure that you put your Intent on the table.

These are busy people. Don't muck around. Let them know why you're ringing, make it short, sharp and just get to the point.

 Let them know what you're there to do because they’ve already got the idea when you rang them you're probably trying to sell something. It's not a surprise to them and it doesn't matter if they say no. This is a wheat and chaff exercise, you don't want the ones that aren't interested you want the ones that are.

 So it might be something like "Good morning Mr. Jones, it's Bill James here. I rang you six months ago and at that stage you weren't ready to review your supplier, but things do change. We've certainly got some significant improvements in what we showed you six months ago. Do you feel now is the right time to perhaps look at some of those improvements and see what you might do when you are ready to change?"

 So have a purpose, have a reason. Get to the point. If you do that you'll find that you'll succeed far more at getting in front of those potential clients.

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