7 Ways To Find Prospects
You’ve just finished your last Christmas take down, and everything is stored for another year. Now you’re raring to make some sales calls to close that next account. But wait, something’s wrong. You’ve looked in your daily planner and there is something missing – prospects. This means, of course, that you’ve got not one to call. Brace yourself, my friend, you’ve got a bad case of the “ICKYS” – Interiorscape Christmas is Killing Your Sales.
Don’t worry, every interiorscape salesperson has had this problem before. Somewhere back in October you stopped putting new prospects into the sales pipeline as those Christmas sales and installations became so important.
Well, you’re in luck, because here are seven tried and true ways to find new interiorscape prospects. But, before you begin, there are a couple of crucial questions to consider.
First and foremost, ask yourself: Who is my best prospect? For a complete discussion on this matter, see a “Laser Beam Marketing Plan for 2001” in the November/December issue of Interiorscape. Simply stated, don’t waste your precious selling time on poor quality prospects.
Another critical question is: What area of town needs new accounts? We all have certain routes that are not as profitable as others. Either the account is too far from your office or there is too much drive time between it and the next account. If the drive time is greater than or even close to the service time, this is a place to look fro new accounts. Or, perhaps you have one account in a large building that has many other companies that are potential customers.
Now that you know who your best prospect is and which route needs some tweaking, here are seven techniques to jump-start your 2001 sales.
- PBDA. You’ve probably heard of MWBA, or Management By Walking Around, which says that the best way to manage is to get out there, walk around and see firsthand what’s really going on. This same idea applies to my favorite way to prospect: PBDA – Prospecting By Driving Around. The best way to get a handle on your prospects is to drive around and look at buildings.
Not only does the market change form month to month, especially if you have a lot of growth in your area, especially if you have a lot of growth in your areas, but you can easily target your best prospects by seeing their buildings. In addition, if you want to build up a route that is underperforming, the best thing to do is drive to that area of town and see who else you could sell to.
When I am Prospecting By Driving Around, I use a tape recorder to dictate names and addresses. Occasionally, if I see a hot prospect, I’ll stop in and make a cold call, but I generally find this unproductive and prefer to plug the prospect into our direct mail system and then make a “warm call.”
- The Yellow Pages. Almost every company or individual you want to do business with is listed right there. In addition, they are sorted by category with their names, addresses and phone numbers. All you have to do is look up your prospects and make your list.
Or, if you’re trying to think of new categories of businesses to sell to, then go to the directory at the beginning of the Yellow Pages, where every business is listed by category.
- Exhaust a category. If you already have a couple of car dealerships as accounts, you have gained some valuable experience about that type of customer. You know why they buy your services. Go to your Yellow Pages and write down every other car dealership in your market.
Additionally, your experience with these dealerships gives you credibility as you market to more dealers. Ask for a testimonial letter from your current dealership clients and use that in a mailing to your new dealership prospect list.
Contact every business in this category and then move on to the next category of customers you do business with and exhaust that list.
- New accounts. If you aren’t asking your new clients for referrals, you are missing a great opportunity. Don’t forget, your company is a hero in the eyes of your newest customers. You took their drab offices and brought them to life with your plants. Your new clients are happy with the results, and it’s during this time that you should ask for referrals.
We have a special way we ask our new accounts for referrals. A couple of days after a new installation, we usually send a gift basket that is designed to welcome them as new customers. We use this opportunity to thank them and compliment them as we ask for referrals. The gift is sent with a card that says:
We welcome you as a customer and value our new relationship of service and trust. Please accept his gift as our way of saying “Thanks” for the confidence you have placed in us.
We realize you probably associate with many people who mirror your values and appreciation for quality. We would prefer your referral over any other source for new customers.
Would you please take just a moment to write their names on the enclosed card? They will only receive one courteous phone call to inquire of any future needs.
Again, thank you. You have our assurance that we will always do everything possible to continue to earn your trust and goodwill.
Sincerely, Brad Miller
Interior Plant Scapes
The enclosed postage-paid card allows the client to write in four names of referrals. The prospects that come from this method are of the highest quality.
- Regional business and specialty publications. These are the local magazines that everyone has in their markets. The businesses that advertise in these are the movers and the shakers. They are the ones that are growing. The next time you pick up one of these magazines, leaf through it with a pen and paper in hand and look at the advertisements for prospects that fit your parameters.
- The newspaper. The paper is by far the most up-to-date source for what is going on in your market. The business and commercial real estate sections that report on new companies and property sales are rich sources of prospects. But they are not the only sources. Read the other sections for business news that could reveal prospects. Also, don’t forget to pay attention to those advertisements.
- Current customers. One of the easiest sales you or I will ever make is to someone we’ve sold to before. As I said earlier in my card asking for a referral: “We want to continue to earn your trust and goodwill.” Our current customers are the people who already know we do our best to exceed their expectations.
How can we tap into these relationships with the people who trust us the most in a way that grows our businesses? One way is through add-on sales.
Add-ons give our customers more of what they trust us to do. This could be more plants for a currently sparse area or for another part of the building that has no plants. Add-ons could also be additional services we offer that our customer has not yet purchased. Another way to sell to our existing customers is by inquiring about branch offices. We don’t know if we don’t ask.
If you want to keep your sales pipeline full, even during the holidays, invest some time each week using two or three of these techniques. You may never have another cause of the “ICKYS” again.
