Where are you getting your prospects? Is this a good source and is it working for you? It seems that most of the sales people who contact me are getting their prospect names from the phone book. My company (AlexanderHancock Associates) begins with the letter "A" and so I get a lot of "dialing for dollars" sorts of calls. Obviously the caller has made no attempt to learn about me or my business (or even whether I am a business as opposed to a residence) and so it is obvious they have no genuine interest in me as a customer. I usually listen to part of their sales pitch simply because I am interested in playing the game with them. Returning a couple of questions to them shows them to be embarrassingly unprepared and ignorant of basic product information. Added to this, the "boiler room" background noise tells me they are not interested in me as a customer.

Qualify Your Prospects

It is exciting to get a good list of prospects to begin working, but it is more exciting to get a list of qualified prospects. Even if you have to buy a list that includes more screening, it is worth your while not to have to guess whether the prospect is viable or not.

Ask For Referrals

There is no stronger prospect than one referred by an existing customer. Most of us are guilty of not asking our existing customer base for referrals to other customers. Why? If they are happy with us as a vendor why would we not ask them to refer us to others? Most of my business has come from referrals, but usually not because I asked. I am as guilty as anyone of being reluctant to ask for this basic favor. However, I found that when I do ask, most people are willing to help. So ask your existing customers for names who might be a good prospect for you.

Multiple Contacts Inside The Organization

Many of us work one contact within the organization without asking who else in the company might be a candidate for our services. Sometimes there's only one contact, but many times there are numerous contacts who can buy our services if we only ask. Even if you're just checking in with a prospect and don't anticipate any business, conclude the call by asking "Can you think of some other people in the company that I should be calling?"

We will continue to add to this list as we receive suggestions from the forum page. What ideas do you have on this?

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Last modified: Saturday October 22, 2005.