Chapter 9: Developing and qualifying a prospect base

Question 1

1. Discuss the importance of developing a prospect base.

Answer 1

▸Prospect: Potential customer who meets the qualification criteria established by you or your company.
▸Prospecting: A systematic process of identifying potential customers.
▸Prospect base: List of current and potential customers.
▸Importance of prospecting:
1.The customer may have a one-time need or there is an extended period of time between purchases.
2.The customer may have move to a new location outside the salesperson’s territory.
3.A firm may go out of business or merge with another company.
4.A loyal buyer or purchasing agent may leave the position because of promotion, retirement, resignation, or serious illness.
5.Sales are lost to the competition.

Question 2

2. Identify and assess important sources of prospects.

Answer 2

*Analysis of product and existing customers can help identify, locate, and profile prospects.
▸Sources of prospects: Referrals, Centres of influence (friends and family), Directories, Trade publications, Trade shows and special events, Telemarketing and email, Direct response advertising and sales letters, Websites, Computerized databases, Cold calling, Networking, Educational seminars, Prospecting by non-sales employees.
▸Referral: Prospect who has been recommended by a current customer or by someone who is familiar with the product or service.
▸Telemarketing: The practice of marketing goods and services through telephone contact.
▸Website: Collection of web pages maintained by a single person or organization.
▸Cold calling: Method of prospecting in which the salesperson selects a group of people who may or may not be actual prospects, and then calls by phone or personal visit on each one.
▸Networking: The practice of making and using contacts. It involves people meeting people and profiting from connections.
▸Social network: Your set of direct and indirect contacts.

Question 3

3. Describe criteria for qualifying prospects.

Answer 3

▸Qualifying: Process of identifying prospects who appear to have a need for your product and should be contacted.
▸Qualifying the prospect:
1.Does the prospect have the need for my product?
2.Does the prospect have the authority to buy my product?
3.Does the prospect have the financial resources to buy my product?
4.Does the prospect have the willingness to buy my product?

Question 4

4. Explain common methods of collecting and organizing prospect information.

Answer 4

Most companies rely on Customer Relationship Management systems to keep track of sales data.
▸Sales data: information available from a company’s CRM system.
▸Sales intelligence: Goes beyond data, giving salespeople access to insights into the prospect’s marketplace, their firm, their competitors, and even the prospects themselves.

Question 5

5. Describe the steps in managing a prospect base.

Answer 5

▸Account Analysis: An estimate of the sales potential for each account.
▸Sales Process Model: The total set of prospects being pursued at any given time.
▸Balanced funnel: A portfolio of prospects where there is a sufficiently large number of prospects at each stage in the sales process.
*CRM Technology for pipeline management:
▸Pipeline Management: Process of managing all the prospects in the salesperson’s sales funnel to ensure that sales objectives are met.
▸Pipeline Analytics: Ability to conduct sophisticated data analysis and modelling, allowing salespeople to generate new reports regarding the movement of prospects through the sales funnel.
▸Pipeline Dashboard: At a glance visualizations that define, monitor, and analyze the relationships existing in the pipeline or sales funnel.