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It’s Only Common Sense: Keep Your Prospects Closer

Here’s an interesting question: When do you decide it’s not worth calling a prospect for the umpteenth time? For me, it depends on the prospect. If you know for sure that you have exactly what a specific prospect needs, then you will never stop calling on them. This isn’t to say that you call them twice a week for the next 18 months, but you want to make sure that you have some sort of sequence or cadence to your calls and touches, with “touch” being the operative word here.

First, let’s eliminate those prospects who are not a good fit. If someone does not come close to fitting your ideal customer profile, and they seem unreceptive, then it is time to move on—especially if they are not a good fit. What do I mean by that? I mean they might buy from you one day but even if they do, their requirements are going to make for an uneven relationship. For people like this, I think getting them on the company’s email newsletter list for most of your touches is the best use of your time. If either of you are amenable to checking in from time to time, that’s okay, but the key here is your time has value, as does theirs. You want to make the best use of that time and chasing poor fits is not the way to do it.

That takes care of the marginal fits, the ones where you must squint to see if they would be a great customer. But what about the ones that are drop-dead perfect, the companies that use what you specialize in right now? These are the people you never give up on. And even if you can see the fit is perfect, they may not realize it themselves. Here’s some common responses you might receive to your inquiries:

• They tell you that their suppliers are great and that those suppliers are doing a great job
• They tell you they don’t need another company that supplies what you supply
• They tell you that the head office is demanding that they reduce the number of vendors they work with
• They tell you there is no budget or no time to develop another source
• They are in “even keel” mode, and people in even-keel mode don’t want to rock the boat

They are going to tell you all these things, but if they are that good a fit, then just keep at it. Now, I don’t want you making a complete pest of yourself, nor do I mean bugging them to the point where they are ready to issue a restraining order on you; no, not at all. Remember that operative word I mentioned back in the first paragraph? “Touch.”

Your job now is to stay in touch with your perfect prospect so that you will only be a phone call or an email away when they need you. Here are several ways to stay in touch with your perfect prospects on a regular basis without bugging or offending them.

• Send email newsletters. Get them to sign up for your value-added newsletter—even if you don’t really have one in your company. I know sales reps who are taking material from all over their companies and sending their own newsletters to prospects, even when their company already has a newsletter. Put together a custom newsletter filled with tips, tools, and other information custom made for your perfect prospect.
• Share industry articles and content. You can also stay in touch by sending that hard-to-know buyer something that is of particular interest for him or her. It can be business or personal, something that pertains to her company, or something that pertains to a hobby or interest he told you about. You can share things you find on the web. I like using LinkedIn because I can search for content through keywords and phrases.
• Use promotional items. Every salesperson and, more importantly, every company, should seriously consider buying some promotional items that will keep you in front of the customer at all times. It can be something as simple as a really cool coffee mug with your company’s logo on it; or it could be some kind of desk tool—a memo pad, pen, a clock, or anything that has your company’s name and contact information on it. Note: It should be something both cool and useful so that the buyer will actually keep it on his desk instead of taking it home to his kids. Calendars are a great idea—either a large, 12-month wall hanging calendar or one of those cool 90 days at a time calendar. You could even create a custom-made, 12-month calendar that is filled with your company’s information and dates. Everyone says promotional stuff is hokey, but there is a reason that the promo industry is still around—it works!
• Enlist phone and email touches. The well-paced and well-placed touch through a phone call or an email that just lets the perfect prospect know you are still out there waiting to provide her with the perfect solution to her exact needs.

These are all ways you can stay in touch with your perfect prospect by doing it the right way; providing her with something so useful that it will always be a positive reminder of you and your company so that when that day finally comes—one of those “solid” suppliers screws up or goes out of business, when it becomes questionable that the old supplier can meet the customer’s future needs, or best of all, when they are in trouble and need a favor fast—who are they going to call? You—the person who consistently, politely, and repeatedly stayed in touch.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.