How to identify your best prospects
To identify a prospect, we first must know what one is ... a definition. A prospect is someone who you suspect is a candidate for your goods or services and in some way has engaged with you. It could be that they requested information from your website, called into your booth at a trade show or telephoned your office.
Don't get confused. Many think that because your client base might be primarily from the light engineering sector that all light engineers are your prospects. But no, they are still 'suspects' until they have individually engaged with you in some way. It doesn't mean that your light engineers segment shouldn't receive special marketing attention from you ... but it will be a message directed to 'suspects'.
So back to our prospect. Your goal in this stage is to qualify your prospect to the level of knowing who the decision-maker is and having identified an interest in your goods or services. But it's even more than that really.
Marketing resources are always scarce. You must quickly determine who to focus on. As any sales person will know, not all prospects handed to them from the marketing department are created equal.
You need a process for identifying the best prospects within your entire prospect list.
Here are three steps to help get that process started. It starts with not looking at your prospects, but by looking at your current clients.
1. Segment your current customer base. Start by analysing your current customer base. Pull out the customers you have found to be your best. Use criteria that points to higher revenue, profitability, shorter sales cycle, etc. From this list, decide what like characteristics these customers have or had in the sales process. This would include factors such as need, buyer's title or role in buying cycle, industry, size, geography. Don't limit yourself here, brainstorm all like characteristics of this group of customers.
2. Define a 'profile' from the data you've collected. Once you've compiled the list of 'ideal' customers, use this information to build a profile of the 'ideal' prospect. You will need to prioritise the factors you've identified in Step 1 by which factors most directly relate to why they are one of your best customers.
3. Use this profile to create a lead qualification checklist. From the profile, determine the top ten criteria for what to look for in future prospects. With this criteria, create a checklist by which you will rate all prospects that cross your path.
It is important to remember the distinction between the sales process and the marketing process. The sales process is all about converting prospects into customers. Marketing is the process of identifying and creating demand for your products and services. In both the sales and marketing processes you will need to be qualifying and disqualifying at each step of the way. To do that, you'll benefit from a quick and methodical way of identifying which prospects will be worth your investment of time and money.
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