As some of you know, I’m the highly introverted (INFP) who is also a Sales and Marketing director for a company that sells both nationally and internationally.
So, this tells us that I really, really, really dislike sales prospecting – at least in the stereotypical ‘pick up the phone and cold call’ ‘sales hunter’ way. I’m always looking for ways to find prospects in unorthodox ways.
One of these is spelled out in my article Cold Calling for Introverts where I detail a means of using the phone that won’t cause an introvert to want to lie down and die.
I found another one yesterday – it’s called Google Alerts, and as with most Google tools, it’s simple to understand and use.
In a nutshell (“Look, I’m in a nutshell!”) you add some relevant search terms, tell it how often you’d want to be alerted and enter your email address. Poof! A Google-formatted email appears in your inbox full of relevant goodness!
Now you may be saying, “Thank God Almighty! I see the light!” and others may be saying “So?”
Let’s give some examples. Let’s say you work in state and local government sales in water purification. You depend on RFPs (Requests for Proposal) so in the Google Alert box, enter government, RFP, water, purification – from that moment, you will receive everything Google finds that references those terms.
Or if you sell large equipment to transportation companies, create an alert with the words heavy, equipment, fortune 500 or whatever makes sense to you.
Be careful not to fill the alert with too many words or you may miss opportunities because you’ve been overly specific. Keep it general – it may be better to create more than one alert that covers different aspects of your field and customers.
Now you may get immediate gratification and you may not – but it’s a lot quicker and easier than hunting for these manually. Let me know how this works for you by commenting or sending me an email.
Copyright 2008 Hal Warfield
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The answer is: it depends on what kind of prospecting you are asking about. A great general tool is Huthwaite. They came out with SPIN selling. If it fits for you needs, it's a powerful tool.
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As a sales oriented marketer, if I needed new nationwide restaurants, I would go to Infousa.com and buy the list. It will be exactly what you want and for the money it costs 8-15 cents a name you can focus on what you do best… Sell!!! Good Luck to you!
check this out – it will take your skills to the next level!
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just type in the stock ticker and on the left hand side of the screen you should see all the financial statements for the past few years
What i normally do is try through research to get an approximate value and then use it in my question.When you back your question with a statement (usually) a prooven one the prospect cannot hide or lie.
Another method is by asking the question in a way that obliges him/her to have the correct answer. For Example using the name of his person of influence or using a past report, or hurting him/her on a growth factor
Most voicemails are not returned- but that doesn't mean that you should not leave messages.
I find that if I leave numerous messages, the prospect is often more willing to talk to me when I finally do reach them. At least, they know who I am.
Also, by leaving messages that do not fully identify you, or why you are calling, you may pique the prospects curiosity enough to get them to call you. Such as "Hi Bob, this is Mr Best Answer calling- I have a question for you when you have a minute. Please call me at xxx-xxxx when you get a chance".
They may assume you are somebody other than a salesman and call. NEVER pose as a customer to get a return call, though.
The type of message you leave will vary, depending on your product.
View your prospectis as semi-friends type of relationship. Make 1 or 2 relevant jokes to break the ice and off you go from there…
Don't put too much pressure on yourself. They are rejecting the offer, not you. =)
Good luck – i know it's hard.
Host a chamber of commerce meeting at one of the dealerships.
Give away hot dogs etc in front of the dealership.
Call past buyers of cars from the dealership from over 5 years ago just to touch base with them.
Call up recent buyers and offer them incentives for referrals.
I like your blog theme. What template did you use ?
Great I have read your article and by the way I found you website on Google and I think after I read somepost on you website especially this one I have my own opinion about what should I say on the next conversation with my friends, maybe tomorrow I will tell my girl friendabout this one and get debate.