Handling Prospect Records.
How to organise all the information you hold on ‘Suspects’ & ‘Prospects’
PROSPECT RECORD HANDLING
INTRODUCTION
Record keeping is a vital sales technique. Expert sales teams keep two kinds of record - prospect records and client records. They keep these records in different systems.
Prospect records are your lists of suspects and prospects. You've dealt with finding and using suspect lists in the section on Finding Clients. But how do you store and grade these prospect records? How do you improve them?
When prospecting, prospect management is time management.
You spend your time most effectively when you put your records in order of priority, and spend your time with your high priority names.
Learning Objectives
When you've completed work on this ebook, you should:
Be Able to
· Create and manage record systems for all your prospect lists and client data
Understand Why
· Prospect record systems are kept in date order, while client record systems are kept in alphabetical order
Understand How
· To classify and record the most important information you can hold on a client - their FUTURE buying behaviour
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As a professional, you work with three systems:
· Lists of suspects
· A box of prospects
· Full client records
This report looks at handling your ‘suspect’ and ‘prospect’ records.
Let’s recap our definitions:
We use the terms 'Suspect' 'Prospect' and 'Expect'. For our purposes:
You target a group of "SUSPECTS" to approach with your offer (because you suspect that they might need what you sell). This group of ‘suspects’ is usually no more than a list of names.
You offer everyone in that target group an incentive to come forward -- to identify themselves as interested in your product or service.
For example, you might offer them a free report, or a free consultation.
Those who take you up on your offer and request a ‘freebie’ immediately become your
"PROSPECTS". They're interested. They've responded to you.
That’s the end of the ‘Finding’ process. You’ve found them.
Once you have sent your "Prospects" their freebie …… you contact them again …. and ask permission to keep in touch. If these people have shown some interest, then they are more important to you than the ‘suspects’, so you need more information on them.
You should spend more time with prospects than suspects, because the chances of prospects booking an order with you are far higher.
The next process is the Sales Conversion Process where you contact your Prospects again and again -- with offers, news, samples ….. so they become familiar with you.
You also QUALIFY these prospects during this Sales Conversion Process -- to see if they are TRULY interested in doing business with you, and if they have any MONEY to spend with you. So you need a system to record the contacts you make with your prospects.
Anyone who passes your qualification -- they have money and they need your product -- is an
"EXPECT". You can expect to do business with them. You give your "expects" a sales talk.
Your List of Suspects
How many names do you need on your list?
That depends on the type of offer that you're making and the type of customer you're trying to attract.
When you go ocean fishing with a fishing line, you hook individual fish swimming amongst the shoals of fish in the sea. YOU don't choose your fish, you dangle some bait and wait until A FISH CHOOSES YOU.
Once a fish has bitten your line and you've hooked it, then you can start to reel it in. You can 'play' your hooked fish and use your angling skills.
In the same way, you discover your PROSPECTS swimming in a shoal of SUSPECTS. You throw your bait -- your ideas for helping that business -- to lists of suspects. Some bite and become prospects, most keep swimming in their own little sea.
You can't create money in a suspect's bank account, nor interest in a closed mind.
So you comb lists of suspects to find potential prospects.
The better your list of suspects, the more prospects you’ll find for every 100 names you call. 'Prospecting' is the process of sifting a list of suspects to discover if any prospects lurk among
them.
You find a high-grade list of suspects - full of prospects - by constructing one yourself from lots of high-grade SUBLISTS.
The list of suspects which you construct from many sub-lists will be unique to you.
Once a list of names fails to produce enough prospects for every 100 names contacted -- by postcard, fax, cold telephone call … whatever method you use -- you throw the whole list away.
You then start working your way down a new list of suspects.
The individual names on a suspect list are of no interest. They are just suspects. Only when a suspect ‘bites’ and becomes a prospect do you start to gather contact information on them.
Your Prospect Record System
For most sales, your most effective contact strategy is call - mail - call again.
At the end of your successful first call, you've found out that your prospect is interested and has some money, and you've agreed to send your prospect some information.
On your second call you close for a booking or an appointment to visit your prospect, depending on the type of product or service you sell and whether you're involved with telesales or outside sales.
The success of your second call depends less on the information which you mail than the way you conduct that call. (See chapter on Prospecting for details).
When you make the second call, you're no longer dealing with a suspect, you're dealing with a
prospect - someone who has shown interest and has some money.
But to make an effective second call, you need to make it on the right day (3 to 5 days after the first call).
If you're making 250 calls a week, including first calls, you need a system to handle your second call schedule.
Firstly, you get a box of 3 by 5 cards. Once you start calling your list, you make out a card for anyone who shows interest and has some money. At this stage you just fill out a simple name card with contact information, and file it in your "box of prospects".
You put your prospect's card into the box in date order of the day you send the information.
You'll call them three to five business days later, to set up an appointment or telephone interview. Beware! The system described in the section on Finding Customers is capable of generating huge
numbers of prospects. If you try to organise hundreds or even thousands of names alphabetically, you'll drown in 3 by 5 cards and bits of paper containing your call-back schedule.
If you try to cross-reference your calendar or a sheet of paper with tomorrow's call -back cards, (including the ones that you failed to reach today), pretty soon you'll be in a mess.
There's only one reason to keep your prospecting box in alphabetical order - to let you have instant access to every name that you've ever called before.
The prospect to whom you spoke three months ago just might call you back and say that she's now ready to book an order. How do you find her details quickly, if your box isn't in alphabetical order? Don't even try. Ask her to refresh your memory on your last conversation, and take down the details again.
Remember, this is your prospecting record system.
[Your client record system is kept in alphabetical order. Once your prospect places an order, they become a client and you move them into a new system; your client record system. Until they book,
they're no more than a prospect card in your date-ordered box. If they fail to book with you, they stay in the box.]
For your prospect box, as well as your cards you need:
1-31 index. You need a divider for each day of the month. Some of your prospects will ask you to call them on a certain day next month, or in a fortnight's time when they return from a trip, or have had their board meeting. You've to fit in with your prospect's ordering timetable. Your 1-31 index helps you do this without fuss.
Monthly index. This is a set of twelve cards at the back of your box, one for each month of the year. Some of your prospects may only be interested in doing business with you at certain times of the year, or when you are promoting certain products or services. This index helps you keep track of specialist customers.
Day-glo marker pens. You should colour-code your cards so that you can call back your prospects by their area of interest. This allows you to pull all the right cards when a special editorial feature is coming up.
Your colour code should not be too elaborate, because these names are still only prospects. But if you give all your prospects who can offer advice on say, tax shelters, a blue dot in the top left hand corner of their card, then when a feature on Monaco comes up, you can call them all, irrespective of their call-back date or whether they're accountants, lawyers, IFAs etc.
The Prospect Categories
Your prospecting box is now broken down into three categories:
· the A group
· the B group
· the C group
The A group contains your best prospects -- your ‘expects’. The people you expect to book some business from you this week.
These are the people who have expressed interest, have the money, and to whom you've sent some information. You file them in the 1-31 index for a call-back five business days after you mail them, (two to three days after they should have received the information which you sent).
When your system is up and running properly, there should be between 5 and 10 cards in each of the 1-31 day sections for your next five working days.
Every day a new batch of names will be added. You'll also have one or two cards of people who asked you last week or last month to call them on a specific date. Together, these cards store your hot new prospects. From a quarter to a half should convert to bookings. These are not present clients who have booked before.
This is new business! Cherish these names. They're your future.
The B group contains the people you've qualified for a known later date. You've had a conversation with them which ran:
Prospect: "We're not interested right now, but our new Hi - Power range is coming out in early September and we'll be looking to do something with you around that time...."
This is your second best list and you file them at the front part of each monthly slot. You call these names at least three weeks before they said they'd be ready to make a decision.
The C group is filed at the back part of your monthly slot. This is a list which many sales executives throw away. It contains the names of people to whom you've made a presentation, in person or over the phone, and who said "No!". In America, this is called the 'pitch and miss' list.
Suppose that you made a presentation to one of your prospects, and they didn't have quite enough money at the order the solution which they needed, or they had some reservations about your company. They decided not to go ahead with you, and booked an order with a rival company instead.
If you just maintain periodic contact with these people, they will eventually order from you.
One of two things will happen. Either they'll grow and prosper, so they'll say to themselves: " We need to protect ourselves with an alternative supplier , who do we know?" Or things will not go well for them with your competitor, and they’ll say: " We need to try an
alternative. Who do we know ?"
You file your C prospects at the back of the monthly divider, two or three months after you've 'pitched and missed'. Keep calling them, four or five times a year.
When they're ready, you'll positioned as someone whom they know and can talk to. If they've already had a presentation from you before; said "No!"; given you a referral; and spoken to you two or three times since; then they'll mark your card as someone they can do business with -- when they're ready.
One danger with re-calling your C list too often, is that you spend too much time keeping in touch with prospects who aren't ready to buy today. That's why many sales executives throw this list away.
But you should treat this group of prospects, as a group of above average 'suspects' - names on a list. They're worth your two minute call, but not a twenty minute call. Any name on your C list is still better than a name from the yellow pages. But each name remains only a suspect until they tell you again that they have some money, and are interested in advertising.
David Ross works his A group
Here's David Ross, an ad space sales executive, working with a suspect. His industry is different to yours, and once he get’s selling, his presentation will be different.
But he’s not selling -- yet. He’s still prospecting …. Finding out if the prospect he thought was about to become an ‘expect’ is truly ready or not.
Let's pick up the conversation in the middle of his call to a lady who seemed keen 5 days ago. He put her in his box as an A prospect. Then he sent her some information and a media pack.
Unfortunately, his call-back isn't going well.
D.R.: ..... Miss Manning, a full page in Mega Press costs £1500. I remember that you indicated last week that the money wouldn't pose a problem for you at this time?
Mi ss Manning: It certainly would. We've spent our advertising budget for this year already, and there are still three months to go.
D.R.: I see. I'm sorry, I must have got hold of the wrong end of the stick. Since
you really need a full page to reproduce your artwork properly, let's leave it until your new year begins. Tell me, when do you expect to be promoting yourselves again?
M.M.: Just as soon as the new budgets are agreed in late Ap ril.
D.R.: Great! Suppose I give you a call then, alright?
David puts her into her to his B group. She's filed in the front of the April slot. Note that David did not try to sell to her. HE'S STILL PROSPECTING - NOT SELLING. If she doesn't want to know, neither does he.
[Actually, with the second call he should be moving from prospecting to selling. Many managers would blast David for being weak here, insisting he should sell hard. You can debate this point forever. How you play these calls depends upon your sales manager and your house style].
Now it's April, and time for the call back:
D.R.: Hello Miss Manning, this is David at Mega Press. You mentioned that you'd be reviewing your advertising again this month, after your annual budget. Would this be a good time to tell you about how we can bring you some sensational new business?
M.M.: Not likely. Our budgets have been put on indefinite hold!
D.R.: When would you expect to get back to normal?
M.M.: Hard to say really.
D.R.: Fair enough. Suppose I check back with you from time to time. Meanwhile,
if things change you've got my card, O.K.?
So now Miss Manning isn't an A or even a B. She doesn't have 'interest with money at a later known date'. David downgrades her to a C and puts her in the back of the box for June. In June he tries again.
D.R.: Hiya. Its David at Mega Press. I'm just touching base with you. Have you been getting the magazine? How are things with your budget?
M.M.: Funny you should call David. We had a meeting yesterday, and have authorisation to spend again, in a limited way.
D.R.: That's great. I can see you tomorrow at 2.50, or Wednesday at 8.50. Which looks better to you?
M.M.: Did you say 2.50?...
Miss Manning now changes from a suspect to a prospect. David starts to fill in any information that he can find out about her and her company on his sales pre-planner form, ready for the meeting (see the pre-planner form which comes with this ebook).
If David sells an advert to this client he'll move her into his client record system and put all her details onto a new form -- which will contain far more information than you keep on a prospect card.
Client Record Handling
Your client record system is entirely separate from your prospect record system.
[See our companion ebook on Sales Coversion for expert advice on keeping Client records]
A stranger goes through several stages from your first cold call to becoming a long-term client. At each stage you learn a little more about them.
First the stranger is just a name on a list - a suspect.
Then they become a prospect in your card box.
Then they become a client who books an initial order, and has a partially filled-out record.
Finally, they become a client with a long-term relationship who books series of orders, and about whom you know more than their own family.
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