Before You Prospect, 10 Things You Need to Do First

Posted on The Sales Hunter.com by Mark Hunter

"There are 10 things you need to do before you begin prospecting. If you don’t do these 10 things, your chances of being successful at prospecting are zero. I guarantee it. If you haven’t checked out my book, High-Profit Prospecting, go read it. I’ll share ideas from it today as well as from my latest book, A Mind for Sales. Let’s dive in!

1. Don’t start what you can’t finish
Too often, salespeople say, “I’m going to call a bunch of prospects. I’m going to start a bunch of calls.” However, they get busy and sidetracked and don’t have the ability to follow up and follow through. The key is that unless you can manage “X” number of prospects the entire way through your process, don’t even start with them, because all you’ll end up doing is making one call and that’s it. You won’t get anywhere.

2. Know the Outcomes You Create
Know what value you create with the outcomes you provide to your prospects. How do you know the value? Look at your current customers and ask yourself what outcomes have you been able to create for them. This is what you must zero in on. When you look at the outcomes you’ve created for your current customers, identify them vertically- by industry type, by segment, whatever it is. Then, as you call prospects, you will have in your mind that this is going to work, because probably, the outcomes that a similar type of customer is looking for will match up to what you achieved with another company and another customer.

3. Know your POE
POE stands for “point of entry.” This is how you’re going to lead off. So, what will you lead with? It doesn’t work to begin with a wonderfully, feature-driven statement. They don’t care who you are nor do they care what you make. All they care about are their problems. You have to be able to understand them well enough by vertical, by segment, by however it is. Then you’ll be able to identify and start coming in and approaching them from a prospecting standpoint, because you know your business well enough to have an intelligent conversation. That’s what it means to know your POE.

4. Be clear on your CTA
CTA is your call to action. Never make a prospecting call, no matter what form – email, phone, voicemail, etc. – without having a clear call to action. This means it has to be simple. It has to be plain enough and engaging enough for them to want to contact you. Now don’t kid yourself… don’t think that you’re going to get a high abundance of people suddenly calling you back just because you left them a voicemail. No, but you do have to be clear because there will be customers. Prospects will call you back, but you have to be clear. You have to articulate your message very simply.

5. Identify your ICP
ICP stands for ideal customer profile. Who is your ideal customer? What do they look like? Remember back to number two on this list, when I talked about knowing the value of the outcomes you create. That will help guide you to who your ICP is. The tighter you can be with your ICP, the better your POE will be and the better your CTA will be; therefore, the better everything will work for you because you’ll be able to craft your messages around just the ICP.". . . [Read more at The Sales Hunter.com]