Prospecting Tools

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Prospecting Tools (Home); Unsolicited Mail ; What Criteria? ; Researching the Prospect ; Establishing a Group ; The Introductory Kit ; The Follow-up Call ; First Day's Experience ; The Second Version of the Harvester ; My Working Documents ; Scripts ; My Experience

Prospecting Tools

We need a methodical approach to harvesting new prospects for our business. We need it to be easy to run, and most importantly, we need it to be beneficial to our prospects.

When we cold-call a new prospect we must have something of immediate benefit to them in that first sentence. The easiest gift is that of information, and the best information (for the prospect) is that this call has been made because we have singled them out most sincerely as a good match between their industry and the benefits we provide.

We do not guarantee a "sale", whatever that is. In most cases a sale will be a promise to meet on schedule at a certain date/time in a certain place. For most consultants, once we get our foot in the door it is easy to satisfy a client.

It is getting that foot in the door that is the hurdle, and prior to that, establishing a relationship that is based on enough knowledge to entrust us with 30 minutes time from a group of three executives.

Think about that.

Perhaps you bill out at $100 per hour.

You may have nothing better to do Thursday morning, why not chat with three executives?

But Management Measures, and those three executives for half an hour represent 90 minutes of corporate time. If they bill out at your rate, that's $150.

Are you prepared to spend $150 to meet with them?

I thought not.

Why should their organization spend $150 on you? You are an unknown.

The purpose of this exercise is to build the relationship to the point where you are known well enough by any one of those three executives that they will make the decision to spend $150 on you, not cash, but in the nebulous but oh-so-measurable cost of them NOT spending that time making revenue for the company.

Here then is how I set about making that first call, armed with enough knowledge to convince the contact that they should accept an email from me.

Unsolicited Mail

Toronto and Mississauga, Wednesday, March 24, 2010 6:25 PM