Leverage What Your Prospects Are Telling You

As you are working with clients, or calling prospects, you are in a position to glean a lot of useful information that is current and relevant to a given sector or type of buyer. Why not use that information right away to generate more appointments.

While not every call turns in to an appointment, and not every appointment or client meeting turns in to a sale, they still can add value to your “above the funnel” success. You can leverage each conversation into valuable and usable information and action.

Each person you meet with in a B2B situation is likely to have at least two things of value, usually three. They generally have customers, they have suppliers and they know others in their business. It is easy to convert these in to referrals. Add one simple question to your sales routine: “Who else do you know that would find value in the kind of discussion we just had?”

Very different than asking who else they know you might be able to sell to. Jargon, buzz words and trends, all things that can be gleaned and leveraged in your adventures trying to gain new prospects and opportunities. Even if you have no luck with one prospect, take what you hear and use it on the next target in the same vertical, region what have you.

As you build your knowledge of trends and other things related to a particular sector, you can call people in the same sector that you have tried in the past, and demonstrate the interest you have in their sector, how you are keeping up with developments and why they should rethink meeting with you. This especially works if you present it to them in the context “I was thinking about you and the impact ………would have on you company” (project, initiative, tax, cost of fuel, the elections, what-have-you). People really respond when you tell them you were thinking about their issues and how you can help rather than just as an order.

You can also call new prospects and lead with something current and relevant, distinguishing you from the horde of reps whose initial prospecting call is generic with little or no relevance for the prospect. The more folks you engage with based on their points of interest, the more you increase your probabilities and resulting appointments.

Remember, leads are recyclable, so leverage them over and over, sometimes it will lead to an opportunity with that specific lead, other times with others, but you need to work and rework each lead in multiple angels and directions, a good lead has many lives and lots of value to be leveraged beyond the obvious.

Part 4 of the SalesMarks Sales Guide: 5 Ways to Get More Sales Appointments