Dealing with prospect

## Appealing to Prospects

### Anticipate Questions

Before you engage with prospects, try to anticipate questions they'll have – whether or not they voice them. Put yourself in their shoes and answer some of these questions:

* Why are you contacting me instead of someone else in the company?
* Why should I take time out of my busy schedule to talk with you?
* What experience do you have with my business?
* What do you know about what other companies are doing?
* Do you understand the trends in my industry?
* Can you offer me any insight that I may not have or that I should have?
* What makes you different?

### Demonstrate Awareness of Customer Issues

To capture a prospect's interest, lead with their issues. Types of issues to be familiar with include:

* Customer issues: Just as you are concerned with the issues of your customers, your prospects are equally concerned about their customers.
* Financial issues: The financial health of every company is continually scrutinized and the source of many business issues.
* Talent issues: When a company's workforce is not motivated, skilled, or performing, there are bound to be troublesome issues.
* Work process issues: How efficiently work gets done is a measurable concern for many business leaders.
* Competitive issues: Customers need to differentiate themselves from the competition. Solutions to competitive issues can help put companies in a favorable competitive position.
* Growth and change issues: Whether growth and change is too fast or too slow, it's an issue faced by many businesses. Solutions to stimulate growth and deal with change will get a prospect's attention.

### Assess Yourself

If you get a negative response from a prospect, follow these guidelines to get yourself back on track:

* Figure out what you need to do differently.
* Get feedback from colleagues.
* Learn from it and persevere.

## Cold calling

### Identify and target decision makers – the person(s) responsible for improving how the organization meets its challenges

* Tailor greeting and value to target's profile and situation.
* Identify my understanding of the pressures of responding both quickly and accurately – and with as much data and information available as possible – to customer calls
* Offer solutions that can provide comprehensive data on demand to ensure agents are prepared, and to demonstrate that preparedness to callers

### Tips for Making Effective Cold Calls

* Prepare. Do your research. Understand the prospect and their business needs and challenges.
* Use a script. Based on the preparation work you've done, draft notes on the main points you'd like to cover during your cold call.
* Respect gatekeepers. Remember that the gatekeeper is a decision maker. He or she determines whether you will reach your intended target. Treat these people with respect.
* Seek a meeting. The ultimate goal is to make face-to-face contact. Ask for a meeting.
* Don't talk about you. The prospect didn't call you to learn about your offerings. Speak to their need, not yours.
* Avoid gimmicks. Communicate professionally without resorting to tricks or deceptive tactics to reach your prospect.
* Don't be vague. Get straight to the point and address the prospect's business need. Avoid conversational segues that leave the prospect wondering why you're calling.
* Avoid a sales pitch. Don't sell during the call. You're looking to make contact and gain a meeting.

### Creating a script

* Address the prospect's needs, opportunities, and challenges. Don't focus on your solutions. Focus on the prospect, framing your solutions around the specific details of the prospect's needs and challenges.
* Differentiate your solutions. Make sure you're not parroting your competitors. Make your script unique.
* Detail specific values or ideas. Know your prospect and speak specifically to their values and business. Don't be vague. Prospects respond to professionals that express an understanding of their business.
* Demonstrate acumen. Make it evident that you've done your research and can speak to your prospect's business intelligently.
* Link to action. Conclude your cold call by seeking a meeting or a follow-up, no matter if you're told "yes" or "no." And always follow-up with an e-mail expressing your thanks or confirming any agreed-upon action.

## Aligning Your Business Case to Customer Priorities

### Building a Business Case from the Inside Out

This Challenge explored techniques for aligning your business case with customer priorities. Your prospects or customers may not always be certain they require your product or service. They may be uncertain it fully meets their specific needs. In these instances, approaching the sale from the inside out can help to overcome this uncertainty.

Building a business case from the "inside out" means moving beyond the traditional approach of mapping your solution to the customer's needs. Instead, the aim is to work from inside the customer's organization to influence decisions that shape their business case. Two techniques will serve you in this effort:

* Learn what the customer wants to do and why. What is the customer's principal aim? Are they cutting costs? Growing their operation? Expanding their offerings? These questions will aid you in better understanding how to influence the decision makers in choosing your solutions to assist them. The key is remembering that they don't want to buy your product or hire your services. They want to buy what your product or service *does for them.*
* Know the decision makers and the factors governing their decisions. Get close to the people who matter. Target those who are close to the vision, the action, and the budget. Participate in their discussions and offer advice and ideas when you have an opportunity. Becoming central to the decision making can lead the deciders to view you as instrumental to their business plan and secure you the contract.

Closest to the action: This could be anyone, but usually means those who are doing the actual work or running the operations. They're concerned with "efficiencies" and "performance." The language you use should reflect these concerns.

Closest to the budget: The financial players have one focus – the money. It's their job to ensure that more money comes in than goes out. As such, you should speak to return on investments, short- and long-term financial position, earnings, forecasts, and other money-oriented topics.

Closest to the vision: The people close to the vision are the strategic players. They want to hear you talk about creating, developing, evolving, and growing. Using language that is proactive and forward thinking will work to your advantage.