Your Business Development Prospecting Questions Answered...plus tips, advice & lots more on using B2B sales prospecting by Phone for YOUR business.
Welcome to business development prospecting in The Age Of The Customer.
If you are prospecting in the Age of The Seller you are playing a loser's game.
Thanks to the internet, buyers no longer need you in front of them to make purchasing decisions.
Face-to-face sales presentations have diminished in importance.
This is where I can help you.
I develop relationships for you with the key prospects in the markets and companies you want to reach.
Yes, building relationships and creating trust is what selling in The New Age of The Customer is all about.
Get used to it. Or find yourself another profession.
Effective Business Development Prospecting
Effective business development prospecting is a methodical process.
It's about list building and then developing your lists to find the leads you can work into sales appointments.
Quality appointments do not happen overnight.
Routine follow-up calls plus e-mail follow-ups work wonders to get you in the door for a face-to-face meeting.
So EFFECTIVE B2B Sales Prospecting is a process?
Absolutely! B2B Sales Prospecting is a form of direct marketing.
And building a highly targeted database is the key to any successful direct marketing campaign.
Therefore, I view each call as a means for fine tuning your business development prospecting database. It's a work in progress that never ends!
How do you prospect qualify?
Good prospects...weak prospects?
I find out who's who by asking specific questions. For example, "Does this interest you?" Or "When would you like me to recontact you"? Each follow-up call fine tunes a prospect's interest level. That's why I make prospect qualify questions part of every b2b sales prospecting script!
What happens after you qualify a prospect?
Once I qualify a prospect as genuinely interested in your business, the next step is your email follow-up.
After that, I recontact your prospect by phone. Starting to see how this business development process works?
When do you make those follow-up calls?
My call backs are scheduled according to your prospect's request.
The time between the introductory cold call and the follow-up call varies from prospect to prospect.
Why not let me do those follow-up calls?
Salespeople are notorious for leaving those all important follow-up calls for last on their list. Face it, you're just too busy!
How do you keep track of who to call and when?
I use a sales management program that organizes contacts, phone numbers, call back information and call histories into a single database package.
How do I know the prospects you qualify are worth MY time?
With introductory cold calls I learn who's a good prospect and who's a dud. From there I make routine follow-up calls to further qualify and develop the best prospects.
Have you worked your business development Prospecting in my specific industry?
A good over the phone sales person can work any industry. Same goes for face to face sales. The top producers are at home regardless of product or service they sell.
What about voicemail? Do you leave messages?
Leaving voice mail for customers or prospects who you know well is one thing. But for new prospects it's a waste of time --- theirs AND yours!
When B2B sales prospecting or making follow-up calls, what do you say?
I never "wing it". I always use a script. This keeps repetitions, omissions and improper sequencing out of my pitch. They spell trouble when it comes to business sales lead generation phone prospecting.
What size call list do you need to get started?
Keep it simple. 100 or so prospects is plenty. Quantity is good. But quality is better!
Creating trust with each prospect is my primary goal --- NOT making a sale. Your calls are important…and making sure they’re done this way is why I don’t outsource to third party call centers.
Become Better At Business Development Prospecting
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Also, go here for DMA 2012 response rate reports for lead generation marketing media. Plus this Advertising Age update on B2B phone marketing.
Also, if you do nothing else today click and read this: 7 New Rules for Prospecting In The Age of The Customer