What is prospecting?
Prospecting is the process of initiating and developing new business by searching for potential customers, clients, or buyers for your products or services. The goal is to move these prospects through the flywheel until they convert to revenue-generating customers.
Now who is a prospect?
The most widespread definition of a prospect is that it is a potential customer that fits three main criteria:
- Fits the target market of your business,
- Has the means (money) to buy,
- Is authorized to make buying decisions.
Thus, prospects don’t need to show a high level of buying interest but to fit the mentioned criteria. For example, if you are in the service of real estate services, you have many people ranging from 25-75 years who would be your viable prospect for your business as the they are the ones directly interested in what you offer (target market), has the means to buy it (the budget for your services is in its hands) and has the authority to make buying decisions.
Why is sales prospecting important?
Prospecting helps you connect and work with potential customers whose needs and interests align with your solution. It gives you perspective on your prospects’ pain points, ensuring that you’re getting in touch with contacts who will be receptive to your value proposition.
Moving forward, let us talk about the 6 factors of prospecting and how it can help you grow as a realtor.
- Make Time and Make a Plan
Creating a follow-up schedule–complete with notifications–keeps the process efficient and effective. When you’re fielding leads from phone calls, emails, website inquiries, social media, even snail mail, mapping out your plan of attack isn’t just convenient, it’s essential.
Making plans makes you special and it also helps in time management and other necessary duties that need to be carried out.
- Treat Potential Customers With Respect
Following up with potential customers shouldn’t be tricky. The lead is warm, and the interest is there. All you need to do is initiate a genuine conversation that will hold their attention and nudge them gently forward.
Trying your best to maintain a good customer relationship is very productive, because this exposes you to many things you don’t know and these same customers or clients might decide to introduce you to their friends. The main goal is to win the client’s mind.
- Provide Valuable Content
Your prospects are busy, and not every follow-up requires a direct conversation. You want to add value, not stress and aggravation. Content marketing not only allows you to bridge the gap with value during the in-between times, but it also allows you to expand your potential touchpoints.
However, Not all clients want to get emails, messages or even calls about your product each time. Get content, comedy, motivational quotes, latest updates outside your product.
- Meet Prospect Where They Are
If you want to form a lasting connection with potential customers, meet them on their own personal stomping grounds. It’s all about their comfort and preferences, not yours. Meeting your prospect in the office, shopping Mall or any place with no bad intentions helps to elevate the level of transparency and trust the prospect has in you. You can equally meet with your prospect online.
- Respond Quickly
In the dynamic world of business, the speed at which you respond to incoming leads can be a game-changer. In this age of instant communication and fierce competition, a quick response is not just appreciated, it’s expected. Let’s explore why fast response times are an integral part of your business strategy and how they can impact your success.
Remember that First Impressions Matter, The saying “first impressions last” holds particularly true in business interactions. Responding promptly to inquiries and leads shows that your business values potential customers and their time. This level of attentiveness and efficiency sets a positive tone for future interactions and lays the groundwork for a beneficial relationship
We mentioned at the very beginning of this post that time is of the essence when you first respond to a prospect. However, it’s important to balance speed and personalization. This means reaching out quickly with a response that doesn’t feel canned or empty
- Ask open-ended questions
A probing question that helps sales representatives better understand their prospects is an open-ended sales question. They can be applied at any stage of the consultative sales process, from the first discussions with a prospective client to the agreement’s conclusion.
Instead of simply accepting a generic “no,” ask the prospect why they’re not interested. This will help you get to the root of their objection and give you an opportunity to address it. Generally, questions that start with “what” are good, non-biased open-ended questions. For example “What did you think of today’s workshop?” or “What would you like to learn more about?” allow the respondent to answer without being influenced by the person asking the question.
- Listen carefully
Once the prospect has given you their reason for not being interested, take the time to listen carefully to what they’re saying. This will help you understand their concerns and develop a response that is tailored to their needs. Active listening is also a form of communication that aims to achieve mutual understanding between two or more parties. It is used commonly in professions like teaching, coaching, and sales. With active listening, both parties benefit from the communication by having their needs, wants, and desires heard.
Active listening is important because it has the goal of achieving common ground between two or more parties. In sales, active listening is imperative as it’s nearly impossible to sell anything if you aren’t in agreement on the problem and solution by the end of the conversation.
But active listening is not as simple as turning our ears on and repeating everything we hear back to the other person like a mockingbird. There’s a framework for doing active listening well, and I’ll walk you through it in the next section.
Thanks for reading..
