Prospecting
If you run an organization with a mission, you seek donations. If you run a for profit firm, you seek sales. In either situation, you need clients, customers, patients, or donors. In other words, you need to Prospect.
The verb Prospect seems to find its origin in the gold rush in the Southwestern US back in the 1840’s. “Explore for gold or other minerals, examine land with a view to a mining claim.” This is from the Online Etymology Dictionary. But, for those of us seeking “sales” of any kind, we can see the correlation.
When it is time for you to approach your sales landscape, you will likely survey your target audience. Identify who or what meets the criteria of what you are seeking. Regulations, rules, laws, internal compliance, underwriting criteria may influence who you see on that forward looking landscape. But, whatever you provide, there is an audience, otherwise, you would not be in your role. Prospecting can take many forms and can sometimes be industry, product, or service specific, yet there are global approaches which can be fine tuned to make it work for you.
First, know your target audience. If it is not provided to you by the nature of your service or product or mission, review your best clients. Likely, they share common traits - size, purpose, geographic location, similar characteristics. Once those are identified, do your research on who is similar in profile. You will likely have a greater level of success in landing new clients that share a striking resemblance to those already in your portfolio. If you are mission based, your mission likely has its own set of dedicated followers. If you are patient based, patients with a successful experience will likely refer their friends and family if the same medical need arises. If you provide a product, research the competitors in the industry space you may likely find the clients in your own portfolio. Your audience is out there, identify it, and locate it. A thorough effort in those two actions will hopefully yield a pool of eligible candidates.
Identify, research, contact. Three words to focus upon when you prospect. Contact is normally the more challenging step. How do you contact the pool of candidates after you have identified and researched? The most common approaches include a warm introduction or a cold call.
Warm introductions involve a friend, a colleague, an existing client, an acquaintance opening that door for you. That door can be in the form of an email, a phone call, even a letter. Work with your introduction source to determine which mode they are most comfortable with, given the profile of your prospect. If you can make lists of your prospects, and your referral sources are open to reviewing those lists for common contacts, that can be an efficient manner to provide them with your entire prospect list at once. Not everyone will want to take the time to assist you, but most who have a stake in your well being, in your success, certainly should.
Cold calling, two (2) words that always gave me anxiety when used together in my corporate career. The vision of me in a barren room with a desk, a phone, and a phone book always made me uncomfortable. There are prospect calling firms that can be hired to do this for you. But, that requires money, so inevitably your profit margin, if any of those attempts result in a sale closure, are driven downward. I had a colleague that always prospect called on Thursday evenings between 4 pm and 6 pm. And, it worked for him! Often, gatekeepers are gone for the day and the owner is left to field the calls directly. Depending on your industry, give this a try. Mondays start a hectic week, Fridays end one, so calling during the midweek days of Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday seem to make most sense.
Prospecting for your ideal audience is its own artistry. It takes recognition, design, and implementation. It takes research, focus, and perseverance. It may also take resources to “wine and dine”, to “cultivate”, to spend time showcasing your product, service, or mission. There is no one solution. Research, Introductions, and Strategies may not always guarantee you success but will certainly move you forward in the right direction of finding your pan of gold!
Be like our Golden Retriever in today’s Blog Photo. Find your own golden sand and locate that stick to success!
Be well.
