Purchasing and Negotiation Training

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Editor’s note: Stu Schlackman is a frequent contributor to this blog.

Most sales pros cringe at prospecting for new customers! Prospecting creates anxiety, uncertainty, pressure, and fear of rejection to cite a few discouraging words.  Your success will improve when you view prospecting as establishing a relationship.

How NOT to build a relationship

On a trip to Morocco, we were bombarded with street peddlers trying to sell gold jewelery. They asked if I would buy. Hearing “no”, they continued to try to convince me. As we walked on, their price dropped by 75%. They ignored my expressed lack of interest because they did not care. They were peddling their merchandise; the sale, not the customer, was most important. 

Sales folk often equate prospecting with cold calling. Cold calling has a low return for the amount of time invested. The reason is quite simple. You’re calling someone you don’t know and you have no idea what their needs are. You do not know if there is any match of their needs and your product or services. You don’t have a relationship established. 

There are three approaches that address this quandary and lead to successful prospecting.

1st—– Reality: prospecting is NOT selling

Customers do not buy from someone they don’t know. Prospecting is only the start of a longer process which may eventually result in a sale.  Or it might gain you something else of value.  Even if you establish at the outset that they do not need your products now, building a relationship can lead to a referral down the road.

The main purpose of prospecting is to develop a relationship.  Find out about the prospects their business. There is a good chance they might not be a fit for your products or services, but they can become interested in you or appreciate your interest in them. The call is the first step down a road to creating a relationship. When calling a prospect for the first time we need to establish “a reason” for us to meet. Customers will meet if there is a good reason to.

Stu's Four People You Should Know

 2nd—– Reality: intent counts more than technique  

You might have a well established method for getting meetings with clients, but if you don’t have the right intentions the customer will reject you. Your intention should be to establish rapport and build trust.  Let the customer know that you plan to learn about their business and their needs. Once you establish this, you can begin providing value. Value is only measured by the needs of the customer. If they don’t have a need for your products or services, you cannot provide value!

3rd—–Reality: customers reject sales people, not solutions

In your initial talks with a customer, you are “guilty until proven innocent.” Overcome this negative barrier by learning about their needs. The sales professional’s purpose is to see if they can “help” the customer and not “sell” the customer. Establish that you are a person that wants to, and eventually will, convey value to the customer. If you are perceived as a person that can provide value, they will meet with you all day long!

Prospecting is critical to every company’s sales force. It provides “new” customers to the company’s revenue stream. As a general rule of thumb, successful sales professionals prospect four to ten hours a week through networking events, luncheons and other events that get them out of the office and into the field.  There they plant the seeds to establish new relationships.