Prospecting

Examples of Prospecting in the following topics:

• Identifying Prospects

  • Organizations must identify prospective customers and understand their needs and wants to improve the odds of making a sale.
  • Prospecting for customers is the first step in personal selling.
  • Consequently, identifying and maintaining a steady list of prospects is usually a salesperson's top priority.
  • Prospects are usually labeled as sales leads, which can eventually be converted into contacts and opportunities.
  • Salespersons conduct significant research on their target market to better market products and services to prospects.

• Signaling

  • Dividend decisions are frequently seen by investors as revealing information about a firm's prospects; therefore firms are cautious with these decisions.
  • An information asymmetry exists if firm managers know more about the firm and its future prospects than the investors.
  • Conversely, managers that have access to information that indicates very good future prospects for the firm (e.g. a full order book) are more likely to increase dividends.
  • A company's dividend decision may signal what management believes is the future prospects of the firm and its stock price.
  • A model developed by Merton Miller and Kevin Rock in 1985 suggests that dividend announcements convey information to investors regarding the firm's future prospects.

• Preapproach

  • After the prospect has been qualified, the salesperson continues to gather information about the prospect.
  • What information will the prospect require before they will choose to buy my offering?
  • Failing to analyze a prospect is the main reason for a great deal of wasted prospecting spent on a customer who should have been promptly discarded after due research.
  • A salesman's product must be relevant to his prospect.
  • The salesman must establish on the outset whether the prospect can afford to buy.

• The Sales Process

  • An effective sales process can be described through steps that walk a salesperson from prospecting through closing the sale.
  • Prospecting is the step where salespeople determine leads or prospects.
  • An effective sales process can be described through steps that walk a salesperson from meeting the prospect all the way through closing the sale.

• Handling Objections

  • The prospect may object to points made in the presentation, so the salesperson should be prepared to listen and address those concerns.
  • During the course of the sales presentation, the salesperson can expect the prospect to object to one or more of the points made.
  • Sales objections can be defined as statements or questions by the prospect which can indicate an unwillingness to buy.
  • Showing interest can also show prospects that you want to know their concerns in order to help them.
  • Any presentation of a product or service will raise objections from the prospect.

• Identifying Potential Business Customers

  • Having decided on a specific market, the salesperson should try to limit his prospecting to remain within that market.
  • Nonetheless, the closer a salesperson's prospect matches that ideal customer, the fewer sales objections will be placed in his way.
  • It therefore makes sense to ensure that his prospects at least resemble the specification as accurately as they can.
  • This means identifying the potential of a prospect at the very outset.
  • Failing to analyze a prospect is the main reason for a great deal of wasted prospecting time spent on a customer who should have been promptly discarded after due research.

• Telemarketing

  • Telemarketing is a method of direct marketing where a salesperson solicits prospective customers directly, usually over the phone.
  • Telemarketing is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits prospective customers to buy products or services, either over the phone or through a subsequent face-to-face or Web conferencing appointment scheduled during the call .
  • Outbound - proactive marketing in which prospective and preexisting customers are contacted directly.
  • Prospective customers are identified by various means, including past purchase history, previous requests for information, credit limit, competition entry forms, and application forms.
  • Marketing research companies use telemarketing techniques to survey the prospective or past customers of a client's business in order to assess market acceptance of or satisfaction with a particular product, service, brand, or company.

• Determine a Course

  • One of the best-known theories about bias in decision making is Kahneman and Tversky's prospect theory.
  • Prospect theory is based on the notion that people think about decisions in terms of potential gains and losses and tend to be more averse to losses than they are favorable to gains.
  • Prospect theory also suggests that people consider how others would benefit or be hurt by the outcome of their decision.
  • Evaluate the importance of bias and prospect theory in effectively ensuring decision makers arrive at the ideal option

• Defining Personal Selling

  • The personal selling process is a seven step approach: prospecting, pre-approach, approach, presentation, meeting objections, closing the sale, and follow-up.
  • The sales cycle, more generally speaking, turns leads into prospects, suspects into prospects and prospects into customers.
  • Prospecting is the step where salespeople determine leads or prospects.

• Managing Personal Selling

  • Salespeople are often taught to think of targets not as strangers, but rather as prospective customers who already want or need what is being sold.
  • Such prospects need only be "closed. " "Closing" is distinguished from ordinary practices such as explaining a product's benefits or justifying an expense.
  • Good selling involves asking questions to elicit the prospect's needs and desires and finding the appropriate product or service that meets those needs and that the prospect is willing to pay for.
  • If good prospecting (qualifying) is done, the prospect may already be well suited to the product or service.
  • In this case, the salesperson simply needs to lead the prospect to act on the desires and needs he has.