What Sales Prospecting is NOT

A lot of the pieces I share here on Market Leadership Journal focus on one of the countless aspects of sales prospecting. So I thought it would be helpful to share some important points specifically about what prospecting is, and also about what prospecting isn’t.

First, sales prospecting is NOT marketing. Generally speaking, marketing is the planning and implementation of a process that involves:

• Identifying specific customer wants.
• Defining groups of people who have those wants.
• Customizing (or creating) a solution that grants those wants.
• Articulating and delivering messages that focus on what the customer wants.
• Creating awareness in the prospective customer’s mind of the messenger/seller as the source for providing for those wants.
• Laying the groundwork for making the sale
• including calls to action so that true prospects may reveal themselves

Marketing takes a macro-view of the whole process. Its efforts are directed toward a group. Marketing is about the forest. It involves processes and activities such as advertising campaigns, publicity campaigns, outreach efforts (which may involve a little more personal touch), all directed toward delivering a compelling message to a specific audience.

Next, sales prospecting is NOT itself selling. If marketing takes a macro-view of the cycle, then selling takes the micro-view. It focuses more on the individual. If marketing is about the forest, then selling is about the tree. Selling is the process of asking the prospect to buy—to become a customer. It involves greater personal interaction between the seller and the prospect/customer.

Effective marketing fuels the sales process. Marketing helps build product and/or brand awareness, and it aids the sales professional in attaining an audience with the prospective customer (i.e. it helps with prospecting). However, it is the skill of the sales professional that closes the sale.

To get a better sense of how marketing and selling relate, imagine what it might be like to try to sell with absolutely no marketing efforts to fortify you. It would be like trying to move a sailboat without any wind.

If marketing takes a macro view, and selling takes a micro view, then sales prospecting bridges the gap. Prospecting is defined as the continuous activity of exploring for and qualifying new people to meet and talk with concerning your business.

Notice the word “selling” is no where to be found. Prospecting starts with the market. Individuals in this group are not even considered prospects unless they:

• Need and want the value your products and services deliver
• Can afford to pay for it
• Can be approached by you on a favorable basis

Let’s review these criteria in a little more detail: Needs, wants, and value. Need is important, but value is critical.

Value determines want, and the reality is people will most often buy what they want before what they need. Wanting is the key, and people want that which adds value to their lives. In other words, it benefits them in some compelling manner.

Affordability. A suspect cannot be promoted to the status of a prospect unless you are confident that he can afford what you offer. While issues of affordability can be resolved on many occasions, there are two factors that can impact this challenge:

1. Budgeting can only be accomplished when there is enough “wiggle room” to pay the price.

2. Whether the prospect wants what you offer badly enough to pay the price.

You can save yourself and others much time and effort, by being tactfully realistic with people in determining whether or not they can afford what you offer.

Approachability. In lines of business where relationships drive most activity, this is critical. A prospect may meet all the other requirements, but if you cannot approach him in a favorable manner, then he is not your prospect—at the moment. Don’t throw the name away—because something may change in the future that may qualify him.

Rapport is crucial, especially when you’re in a business that gets personal. For example, legal, insurance and financial services people get about as personal with their clients as one can. In fact, the only people getting any closer usually are their health care professionals.

Now that we all have a shared understanding of what prospecting is (and is NOT), and how it relates to your other sales and marketing efforts, I look forward to sharing more ideas that address the many challenges—and opportunities—that exist when you unlock the key to sales prospecting.