Hello fellow Sales X-Ray technicians and welcome to the third installment of the “Care and Feeding of Prospects” mini sales series. It has been a while since our last post, but we have been working on some truly special new features here at Sales X-Ray so you’ll want to stay tuned.

If you happen to be a fan of horse racing, although fewer and fewer people are each year, it’s still the season when everyone feigns temporary interest for Derby fever. The Kentucky Derby is known as “the most exciting two minutes in sports.” Well I don’t know about you but “the most exciting two minutes in sales” is getting confirmation of payment from a client!

While speaking at a conference in Las Vegas, I asked the audience for a show of hands to see how many of them were familiar with the term “handicapper”. For those of you not familiar with horse racing ease, technically speaking, it’s someone who analyzes and predicts the outcome of events, using various methods of leveling a sport or game.

A sale is not a sport, a challenge to become the victor at the cost of someone else’s win, so I have learned to never handicap a prospect! Trust me this is an easy trap to fall into, and we have all been guilty of this in our sales careers at one time or another.

Myself, having come from a background which includes analysis and handicapping for Fox Sports, I have learned these methods simply do not apply to sales.  I once sold a $20,000 franchise to a man residing in a homeless shelter. Who was I, with my preconceived notions, to stand between this man and the dream of owning his own business?  I caught a lot of flack in my office at the time for chasing this seemingly unqualified prospect, but I followed my sales process at the time, which unfortunately did not include Sales X-Ray, but I continuously qualified him the old fashioned way at every level of the sales cycle/sales funnel without prejudice. Had I had the luxury of using Sales X-Ray at the time, I would have seen that he was just as interested as any of my other hot prospects.

The point of all this is that everyone in this profession at one time or another has neglected to give someone their full attention on a sales call or meeting because they “assumed” they would not or could not buy.  Assumptions are a venerable trap to contend with; by using Sales X-Ray you will truly become the most objective and unassuming sales master, free from all the time wasting and misleading “HANDICAPS”!

We have eliminated the guesswork, so now, step away from the blog, and get back to closing.  It’s always closing time somewhere; the race is on!

As always…welcome to the revolution, because after all, life is too short to sell the way you have been. There’s a brand new way and it’s fully illuminated.

As with almost every aspect in life, patience in sales is a virtue, nevertheless we all want our deals closed yesterday. In this second installment in the “Care and Feeding of Prospects” mini sales series, I will discuss timing and how crucial it is to getting to yes.

A fundamental question to ask is; when are your prospects looking to get started? You are always looking for people that can make decisions and commitments. Immediately you should know what their time line looks like. Are they looking to start in six months? If so, don’t spend your time talking to them now unless your sales cycle is that long, otherwise anything you say to them now, they won’t remember in six months and you’ll have to tell them all over again. Direct them to your website and any additional documentation you have supplied and then follow up based on their timeline, or when Sales X-Ray tells you to!

A document or proposal that you created six months ago within the Sales X-Ray platform that suddenly gets re-accessed by a prospect means that prospect is interested once again, or at least now has the current time to revisit your solution. For you this means the time to get back in touch with them is now, as they may have just become a hot prospect!

Yet another example of how Sales X-Ray really is the ultimate time management tool.

Here’s a great question to ask – “You know Mr. Prospect, if all this made sense to you and you are ready to move forward, when are you looking to get started?” This is an ideal way to get the answer you need. Insight into their timeline is crucial to know when to go in for the kill, err, I mean close.

Voicemail can be your best friend!

Don’t be discouraged if you call a prospect and get their voicemail. I look forward to getting a prospect’s voicemail for the following reason: Let’s say I have up to a hundred prospects that contact me or that I need to follow up with on a daily basis, to speak to each of them directly would obviously require more time than I have. Some of these people are worth spending my time with, but others are looky-loos and tire kickers that never had a sincere interest to begin with.

By the way, Sales X-Ray does an excellent job at making sure you flush out and avoid these time wasters. Beyond that, voicemail has always been an excellent time management tool to further weed these people out. I spend a large portion of my day leaving voicemail messages and if they don’t call back I have created a self-monitoring system that helps eliminate uninterested parties. Also, any time I can bypass the gatekeeper via a call back from the real decision maker, it’s a win-win for my time saving approach.

I do however follow-up with a second call, typically within 48 hours as a final chance to connect with them and make sure they did in fact receive the first call. If supplied, making the second call to an alternate number helps me cover all bases, so to speak.

That’s all for now folks on this sub-topic of sales time management. With these tips and Sales X-Ray as your ally, you’ll be spending more time on the 19th hole before you know it.

So welcome to the revolution, because after all, life is too short to sell the way you have been. There’s a brand new way and it’s fully illuminated.

There is a colossal difference between the two and in this mini sales series we will be discussing how to make this distinction right from the start. We have just given you the incognito capability with Sales X-Ray to track qualified prospects during your sales adventures but what about weeding out those habitual tire kickers and time wasters? Don’t be confused by the “Usual Suspects”!
This is the first installment in the “Care and Feeding of Prospects” Series on how to properly qualify a prospect in this high tech day and age.

Financial Feasibility

Does your prospect have the cash to afford the service you have to offer? You should be asking this question within the early stages of the sales cycle, otherwise you won’t have one. I would wager to say, (and I’m a gambling man) that many of you are probably already making the mistake of spending too much of your time explaining the features and benefits of your services to people who simply cannot afford them. Again, do not be afraid to ask if they have the money, or rather, what kind of budget they are working with for this project, if you would like to maintain more couth. Also, you want a clear and decisive answer; do not stand for vagueness. The “Usual Suspects” will typically continue to gobble up your valuable time if you don’t nip them in the bud.

Occasionally, I get consulting clients who have a hard time understanding how to command top dollar for their goods and services while remaining competitive. This is how I speak to that:

One day I would like to drive a Ferrari, but I know that I cannot afford a Ferrari right now, so I don’t spend my time wandering around on a Ferrari lot. No one there is going to feel sorry for me and put me behind the wheel of one of these fine Italian automobiles by lowering their prices to what I can currently afford, and it would compromise the integrity of their product if they did.

My point is, stand by your service by offering value above and beyond your competition and the right clients will always appear. It’s a big world out there and it’s your job to market to a specific demographic, one that can afford to purchase what you have to offer! There is no need to tolerate any financial deception-game playing.

If a prospect isn’t willing to go along with some of your information requests, you need to think long and hard as to whether they should be “fired” as a potential client right then and there. As I like to say, if there aren’t any breadcrumbs on the trail, don’t go any further down the path.

So welcome to the revolution, because after all, life is too short to sell the way you have been. There’s a brand new way and it’s fully illuminated.