Empower Your Business with the Strategic Prospecting Process for Communications & Media

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How do I build a prospecting plan? It's a question I get asked a lot. My name is Mark Hunter, "The Sales Hunter," I wrote the book High Profit Prospecting. How do I build a prospecting plan? I'm going to give you eight steps right here that you can do right now: 1. Know who your perfect client is. Take your time - take some time - write, describe, write out: Who is your dream client? Look at who your existing customers are. What profile do they have? What type are they? Get your list, because these are the people you want to zero in on. Too many times prospecting plans are really all over the place. They really go out and prospect anybody. No, I want to be tight. 2. I want you to create a list of the outcomes you create - not the features, not what you sell - It's not the benefits, it's the outcomes. How does the customer benefit from what you sell. That's what I want to have. I want to have that critical list. When I have those two pieces, it's amazing how I'm well on my way. Step 3: I want to build a list of ten questions that you can ask that are going to allow you to really begin to uncover and engage the prospect to get them to share with you what their critical need is. Now, you're not going to be asking all ten of these questions every time. No, no, no, but you're going to have this list, because it's going to give you more confidence - because I may only ask one or two, I may ask three or four - it doesn't matter, but I'm going to have questions. And how do you develop those questions? They are ones that are really focused on what the customer critical outcomes are. Remember, who is your perfect client? Who is the outcomes? These are questions that they're going to find relevant to them. 4. I'm going to create a list of value-added statements and insights that I can share with them. Because here''s the whole thing: I have to remember that when I'm prospecting, I can't just hit you with the same message time and time again. I have to hit you with different messages. Every time has to be a different message. So I've got to have different insights, different statements, different things that I can share with you. Because I've also got to be able to fire this off in a sequence that makes sense. Now, what does that mean? I've got to - next thing - block the necessary time on my calendar. Now, nobody that I know of forgot to eat yesterday or didn't use the restroom. No. You see, you do those things that you need to do. Prospecting is something you need to do. The prospecting window is going to be 30 minutes, an hour, 90 minute. It may be every day, it might be five days a week - I don't know what it is - you have to determine it. But you have to stay very focused on that, because, now, what this allow you do is you've go the dream clients - the perfect clients you're going after. The outcomes. You have the questions. You have the statements. See, now you're prepared, and what you're going to be doing is you're going to be reaching out to them by way of the telephone, by way of email, by way of text - whatever fits right for your market. Now again, you're going to have to determine that based on who your customers are. See, this is why I say, start with who your perfect customers are. Now, with each prospecting block of time that you have, you need to set a goal. You need to set a goal. Now, initially, don't set the goal very high. Set it as a low goal, because you want to achieve it. What I've found is, success creates success, and if I set up too high a goal from a prospecting standpoint - wow, I'm going to call five people, I'm going to have five conversations, I'm going to get five sales - you're going to fail! It's not going to happen. But, if I set a low goal that says, I'm just going to make ten calls - I'm going to make 15 calls, that's my goal. I can achieve that. And what you do, is you begin raising the bar on the goals that you set. Next piece is, when you get done prospecting that prospecting window, evaluate: How did I do? What did I do right? What did I learn? How is this going to help me? I'm continually self-coaching myself. Now what this does, is it really means your attitude makes the biggest single difference in how you prospect. It is amazing how your attitude is going to have you prospecting or not prospecting, because the biggest single problem sales people have with any prospecting plan is they fail to follow up. They fail to stick with it. they make one round of phone calls. They send one round of emails and they don't get the response. I give up. No, no. You have to be persistent. And what I mean persistent is - you may have to reach out to them ten, fifteen times. Now here - hold one - you say, woa that's too...no, no, no you have keep in mind: If you believe in the outcomes you can create. If you believe this target audience is the right audience, you owe it to them to get in touch with them. You owe it to them, because you could impact their lives and make a difference. Now, here's the whole thing: They don't know that you could make a difference. They may say their life is perfectly fine. Their business is perfectly fine. They don't need you. But see, this is why you have to be able to hit them with multiple messages, each one different. This is why I said, I want to have ten value statements, ten insights, ten questions. I've got to be continuously doing it, because I'm never ever going to give up. The biggest single reason why salespeople fail when it comes to prospecting is they give up too soon. Hey, my name is Mark Hunter, "The Sales Hunter." All the information is right there in the book. Hey, please, reach out to me. Go to the website. Download, email me, talk to me. I want to help you be successful. Sales is about making a difference in the lives of others. That's what I'm hoping I'm doing here with you today. Prospecting is the start of sales. Sales is the start of business. Business is what fuels the economy. Guess what? It all comes down to prospecting! I'm Mark Hunter, "The Sales Hunter." Great selling.