The 7 Step Prospecting Approach

One of the most difficult steps of the sales process is prospecting. Prospecting is one of the most vital stages of successful selling. You can have the best product or service in the world but you will not consistently produce new business if you only have a few qualified prospects. The more qualified prospects in your sales pipeline, the more opportunities you will have to generate sales. The 7 keys to prospecting success are mentioned below.

1. Determine Your Niche Market: locate a niche where your product offerings will successfully fulfill your prospects' needs or problems. To gain the trust of your potential customers, you should become an expert in your target market.

2. Locate Your Potential Customers: create a directory of potential customers located in your marketplace. Potential sources you could utilize are the Internet, lead lists, library resources, and personal contacts.

3. Prequalify Your Potential Prospects: determine which potential prospects are qualified based on having a need for your product offering, sufficient monetary resources, and the authority to make a purchase decision. You may have to fully qualify prospects during the first contact.

4. Create a Script: prepare a prospecting script to remain consistent and focused as you briefly emphasize the value you can provide by meeting your potential customers' needs. Include answers to common rebuttals or objections you expect to confront.

5. Identify Contact Medium: to convert your initial contact with prospects from "cold" to "warm", decide whether to use personal connections, referrals, and/or possibly mail.

6. Make Contact with Your Prospects: contact your prospects and use your prospecting script to ask for the sale or generate a meeting to present your product offering.

7. Create a Plan and Execute It: develop daily, weekly, and monthly prospecting goals and dedicate time to meet these objectives to ensure you keep a pipeline filled with qualified potential customers.

By mastering the 7 steps to successful prospecting, you will establish a solid foundation to a rewarding, exciting, and lucrative sales career.