Customer Prospects: Turn Prospects into Clients and Handle Rejections

Good marketing programs create many customer prospects. But all prospects do not — and should not — convert to clients. Here are ideas to help you convert prospects into clients.

Take Action Immediately: Not immediately following up with customer prospects causes them to go cold. Then you are right back where you started. The prospect will likely forget meeting you. Or, the prospect may think you are not interested in serving them.

Furthermore, your response time to a lead’s request is an indication of your response time when he is a client. So take action quickly when you receive a telephone inquiry, a trade-show lead, a referral, or other lead.

Focus on Referrals: Referred prospects are the most valuable. When you receive a referred lead, the selling has already been done. If you act quickly on referred leads, it will reflect well on your source, and he will be inclined to refer you again.

If you delay on a referred lead or handle it poorly, don’t expect to receive any further leads from your valuable referrer.

Evaluate the Lead: Some follow-up on every lead is a good idea. You want to separate the suspects from the prospects. Evaluating the lead will enable you to follow up more quickly with the better prospects.

Ask the lead or the referral source about problems, needs and wants, the decision process, and his or her ability to pay your fees. Ask these questions as early in the process as you can.

Have a Follow-up Plan: An automatic follow-up system will make it easy for you to follow up in the same way every time. Set aside a definite time for contacting and courting a new prospect.

Unless you set aside time in your calendar, you may have trouble fitting it in. Prospect value can dissipate rapidly. If you are fully booked, fire off a letter or call the lead to set a specific time to meet.

Add the Prospect to a Mail List: Every professional should have a marketing database. When you obtain a lead, the information should be permanently recorded in your database. “A” prospects should receive regular and personal attention, whereas “C” prospects can be handled by mail. (Handling of “B” prospects can depend on your load.)

Give the Prospect to Someone Else: If you cannot follow up the prospect, or if the lead is of little interest to you, give it to someone else in your firm. Selling is a team effort. Ask your designee to keep you informed as to the progress of the prospect. Offer to help when the prospect gets close to closing.

A pipeline full of good customer prospects is critical to the steady growth of a firm. A full pipeline enables you to be selective and to follow up with the best leads.

Attending Trade Fairs or Public Events Can Create Good Leads

Prospecting for leads isn’t quite as easy as finding money in a bank. But if you’re seeking to fill your sales hopper full of good customer prospects, it makes sense to exhibit at an industry trade show. Here are a few pointers to help you make your trade show a winner.

Focus on the Result: You want to end up with new clients as a result of your trade fair activity. Realistically, the trade show encounter is only the first step in about other marketing interactions that you should plan with a new customer prospect BEFORE he or she will engage you.

Coming away with good leads often requires you to evaluate the trade fair’s potential for generating the right leads. Ask the show promoter for a list of last year’s exhibitors and call two or three of them to find out the “rest of the story.”

Rarely will your attendance at a show result in immediate business. Two thirds of all sales from trade shows aren’t achieved until 11 to 24 months after a show. So set a realistic expectation for lead generation.

Know What Types of Leads You Want: Before you attend the trade fair, decide what type of lead you will seek. For example, when you attend a trade show for your primary industry niche, the attendees at the show may be your predetermined targets.

Other times, at a general business exhibit, the exhibitors themselves may be your targets. Every time you meet someone at the trade show, attempt to qualify him or her as a potential prospect.

Ask planned questions that will enable you to follow up appropriately after the show. Ask pertinent questions about their current provider, such as: Has your professional helped you be more profitable? Has your accountant helped you deal with new technology? Has your attorney helped you with business advice?

When you plan your trade show/public event booth, consider a unique theme that will attract potential prospects. The lesson here is to differentiate yourself.

If you are well prepared, trade shows can be an effective vehicle for professionals/businesses that are willing to reach out to people in a show environment.

The Deadly Sins of Customer Prospecting

Looking for new clients’ needs to be a regular and on-going effort. No matter how good your retention rate, there will be some attrition and need to upgrade your client base. Prospecting is much like exercising or practicing your golf swing. Until your business goes flat you aren’t aware of the neglect.

Here are deadly sins of Customer prospecting. Avoid them like the plague:

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