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Answer Upon - Managing Your Prospects: Funnel Management as a Critical Component to Your Success
I visited with a client today and during the conversation it became apparent they were having issues with their advertising – print advertising to be precise. They showed me the original advert and told me it cost them a little more than $1,700 to place the ad.When I asked them who created the concept, the copy and the design – the client smiled and said the publisher had included it for free! Free is fabulous in marketing, but not when it comes to the design and production of your advertising materials.It never ceases to amaze me the number of people who think the design of the advert and copy concept are not important enough to pay a professional to develop. They’ll spend thousands buying advertising space and they’ll skip over the design of the selling mechanism. Here’s an analogy that might help you see my point of view:So you buy some ‘space’ where your prospective clients like to shop and they’re walking around happy and fat with cash – and what do you do now? Well, the smart move would be to place a professional sales person in the crowd, but no… you’re too darned cheap.You look around (trying to save a buck) and pressgang the first
ADD VALUE ON EVERY CALL
Every time you meet with a prospect you should add value. Make sure you never find yourself in a position of calling on a prospect just to see where they are in their decision making process. Some examples of adding value are:
? Bringing a so
As a senior in high school, he paid cash for a BMW with money made by selling newspapers. In 1983, as a college freshman, he sold custom-made PCs and parts out of his dorm room…hiding them behind his roommate’s shower curtain whenever Mom and Dad visited. A year later, with just $1,000 in start-up capital, he dropped out of school to focus fully on his expanding business. It took him just eight years to become the youngest CEO ever of a Fortune 500 company.Today, he is one of the richest people on the planet, with a net worth estimated to be greater than $14 billion. His company employs nearly 60,000 people, and Fortune magazine ranks it as America’s most-admired.Michael Dell’s vision as an 18-year-old is now legendary, and he continues to believe in the same basic principles: manage inventory, and listen to and respond to customers. “Being an entrepreneur wasn’t on my mind,” he once said. “What was on my mind was the opportunity I saw ahead, which was so compelling.” Dell understood at a young age that knowing where you want to go is as important as knowing how to get there.Success Handler Action: What is the vision for your franchise business?
One day he flew into Panama City, Florida from Atlanta to ride in the field with me. His visit was unannounced so I just followed my regular schedule for that day. It was a Tuesday and our first stop was at one of my prospects that had a copier on trial. The prospect was the Pinnacle Port Condominiums twenty-six miles from our office. When we walked in the door I was greeted by the receptionist and told to go on back. I introduced Bob to the manager and the first words out of his mouth were, “I see more of Marvin than most of my employees.” After we left Pinnacle Port we went to the Panama City Beach Police Station. As soon as we walked in, the officer on duty told us to go on back. I then introduced Bob to the Police Chief, Lee Sullivan. His first comment to Bob was, “I see more of Marvin than most of my officers.”
On that one day in the field, we visited five companies and, completely unsolicited by me, they all said basically the same thing: I was there more than most of their employees. When I was driving Bob to the airport at the end of the day, he looked at me and jokingly said, “Marvin, people don’t buy from you because they like you. They buy from you to get rid of you.”
In every situation I had continued to add value by having a face-to-face meeting with every prospect at least once a week. At each meeting I made sure I had a legitimate reason to be there. I closed every one of the sales we visited that day.
Where prospecting ends, territory management begins. How you manage your territory, or your base of prospects, will determine how successful you are.
One of the greatest problems most salespeople have is losing track of prospects. This is especially true if the prospects are not going to buy in the near future. This is why salespeople have a tendency to experience peaks and valleys when it comes to sales performance. Salespeople work hard to close their hot prospects and then have to turn around and find more.
FACE-TO-FACE PROSPECT CONTACT
The only effective way to manage your relationships with your prospects is face to face. I understand this can be challenging for salespeople with large geographic territories. A great rule of thumb is that to maintain a greater than seventy-five percent closing ratio, you need to maintain face-to-face contact with your prospects. If you cannot maintain a face-to-face contact with your prospects, then your closing ratio will probably fall to less than thirty-five percent.
ADD VALUE ON EVERY CALL
Every time you meet with a prospect you should add value. Make sure you never find yourself in a position of calling on a prospect just to see where they are in their decision making process. Some examples of adding value are:
? Bringing a sol
If you are moving your household and do not know where to search for packing and crating services, try locating a toll free numbers directory. You can make free calls to local craters and packers and inquire about their services. It is convenient and easy to dial a toll free number, get all your queries answered, and arrange for the service without having to pay a dime.Packing and crating services take away the burden of dismantling, arranging, packing household goods, and making the actual delivery. They ensure all fragile goods are delivered safely without any damage.Online toll free directories can make your task of locating a packing service easier. Just type in the keywords, or if you know the business name, any part of the business with your regional area, and press enter. The results page would show you all the packing and crating services by location near you.Toll free numbers have gained in popularity due to their ease of use. Any kind of query related to packing and moving can be placed to be answered immediately or through a return call. In addition, all this comes for free. It is great for both the business and the customers to be abl
On that one day in the field, we visited five companies and, completely unsolicited by me, they all said basically the same thing: I was there more than most of their employees. When I was driving Bob to the airport at the end of the day, he looked at me and jokingly said, “Marvin, people don’t buy from you because they like you. They buy from you to get rid of you.”
In every situation I had continued to add value by having a face-to-face meeting with every prospect at least once a week. At each meeting I made sure I had a legitimate reason to be there. I closed every one of the sales we visited that day.
Where prospecting ends, territory management begins. How you manage your territory, or your base of prospects, will determine how successful you are.
One of the greatest problems most salespeople have is losing track of prospects. This is especially true if the prospects are not going to buy in the near future. This is why salespeople have a tendency to experience peaks and valleys when it comes to sales performance. Salespeople work hard to close their hot prospects and then have to turn around and find more.
FACE-TO-FACE PROSPECT CONTACT
The only effective way to manage your relationships with your prospects is face to face. I understand this can be challenging for salespeople with large geographic territories. A great rule of thumb is that to maintain a greater than seventy-five percent closing ratio, you need to maintain face-to-face contact with your prospects. If you cannot maintain a face-to-face contact with your prospects, then your closing ratio will probably fall to less than thirty-five percent.
ADD VALUE ON EVERY CALL
Every time you meet with a prospect you should add value. Make sure you never find yourself in a position of calling on a prospect just to see where they are in their decision making process. Some examples of adding value are:
? Bringing a so
There are many components of a brand identity: logo, color palette, font choice, and the Visual Vocabulary. There’s a lot of information available about the use of logos, colors, and Visual Vocabulary, but not much on the effective use of fonts. So, here’s some information on the creative, practical, and technical aspects of fonts.Font basicsA font is a set of all the letters in the alphabet, designed with similar characteristics. This is also known as a typeface.Fonts are usually designed to include several style variations. This can include styles like light, regular, bold, semibold, ultra bold, and italic. Some fonts also include “Expert” versions, which are fonts that include fractions and mathematical symbols.Font families are typically packages of fonts that include all of the different versions of a font. Using fonts with large families will give you a wide range of fonts to use in your materials, for variety and emphasis.There are many basic classifications of fonts. Four of the most common classes of fonts are:• Serif fonts, which have little "feet," called serifs, at the ends of the lines th
In every situation I had continued to add value by having a face-to-face meeting with every prospect at least once a week. At each meeting I made sure I had a legitimate reason to be there. I closed every one of the sales we visited that day.
Where prospecting ends, territory management begins. How you manage your territory, or your base of prospects, will determine how successful you are.
One of the greatest problems most salespeople have is losing track of prospects. This is especially true if the prospects are not going to buy in the near future. This is why salespeople have a tendency to experience peaks and valleys when it comes to sales performance. Salespeople work hard to close their hot prospects and then have to turn around and find more.
FACE-TO-FACE PROSPECT CONTACT
The only effective way to manage your relationships with your prospects is face to face. I understand this can be challenging for salespeople with large geographic territories. A great rule of thumb is that to maintain a greater than seventy-five percent closing ratio, you need to maintain face-to-face contact with your prospects. If you cannot maintain a face-to-face contact with your prospects, then your closing ratio will probably fall to less than thirty-five percent.
ADD VALUE ON EVERY CALL
Every time you meet with a prospect you should add value. Make sure you never find yourself in a position of calling on a prospect just to see where they are in their decision making process. Some examples of adding value are:
? Bringing a so
What is creating a brand? Brand marketing is creating recognition, creditability, and trust in your products and services. Your business image should be recognized as a leader of the services that you provide. What makes your services the best? What will make that potential customer choose you over your competition?It has to be more than that you are a trained massage therapist. The basic training of every therapist is Swedish massage. It is important that you recognize in yourself what skills that sets you apart from your competition. These could be through the products that you utilize to the environment that you create or the skilled combination of other modalities and treatments that you include in your massage therapy services.Why create a brand?The increase in the demand of massage therapy services will also increase the number of those that will supply massage therapy services. As competition increases, you need to be able to survive in order to become successful.When do you start creating your brand?Creating a brand starts at the beginning; even before you choose your business name. If yo
One of the greatest problems most salespeople have is losing track of prospects. This is especially true if the prospects are not going to buy in the near future. This is why salespeople have a tendency to experience peaks and valleys when it comes to sales performance. Salespeople work hard to close their hot prospects and then have to turn around and find more.
FACE-TO-FACE PROSPECT CONTACT
The only effective way to manage your relationships with your prospects is face to face. I understand this can be challenging for salespeople with large geographic territories. A great rule of thumb is that to maintain a greater than seventy-five percent closing ratio, you need to maintain face-to-face contact with your prospects. If you cannot maintain a face-to-face contact with your prospects, then your closing ratio will probably fall to less than thirty-five percent.
ADD VALUE ON EVERY CALL
Every time you meet with a prospect you should add value. Make sure you never find yourself in a position of calling on a prospect just to see where they are in their decision making process. Some examples of adding value are:
? Bringing a so
In Chapter Seven of Sun Zi Art of War, Sun Zi mentioned four important areas to achieve a good fighting force. They are:1) Morale 2) Psychology 3) Physique 4) ChangeMorale refers to the fighting spirit or the troops' willingness to fight. Psychology refers to emotional intelligence of the troops, their ability to manage their emotions. Physique refers to the well-being of the troops, whether they are well fed or well rested. Change refers to the troops’ ability to respond to situations.So how can we apply this to business?Business ApplicationMorale This is the most important areas out of the four. It is equivalent to the fighting spirit of the employees in your the company. High morale can help the company to tide over even the worst crisis. But morale is very fragile. Any slight negativity in the company like a bad remarks or rumors can cause a drastic drop in it. So a good manager should always be able to keep the morale high in a company .Psychology This is equivalent to the emotional intelligence of the department This in turn is equivalent to the emotional
ADD VALUE ON EVERY CALL
Every time you meet with a prospect you should add value. Make sure you never find yourself in a position of calling on a prospect just to see where they are in their decision making process. Some examples of adding value are:
? Bringing a solution to a problem they may be having.
? Providing the prospect with additional relevant information such as an article.
? Introducing an additional resource such as an engineer.
? Giving a prospect an appropriate gift.
? Involving an outside vendor or strategic partner.
THE BEST DIFFERENTIATOR
A large number of face-to-face meetings with a prospect are the best way to differentiate yourself from your competition.
An interesting phenomenon occurs when you increase the number of face-to-face meetings that you have with qualified prospects. Our research has shown that the closing ratio increases an average of eight percent per additional face-to-face meeting. Below are the typical increases in closing ratio for each additional visit.
*Important note – The closing ratios listed below are for qualified prospects.
Number of face to face meetings Closing Ratio
Three to Four 25% Five 33% Six 40% Seven 45% Eight 50% Nine 60% Ten 65% Eleven 70%
After eleven visits the closing ratio will typically remain at about seventy-five percent. WHO IS A QUALIFIED PROPECT?
When I first got into sales, I was introduced to an acronym that has always helped me to determine whether a prospect was qualified or not. You are dealing with a qualified prospect if you can answer positively to the three criteria listed below.
Money – does the prospect have a budget to buy your product and can the prospect afford the product?
Authority – Are you in contact with someone who will be making the decision to purchase?
Need – Does the prospect have a need for your product that will force the prospect to buy within a reasonable time frame?
If you can yes to these questions then you are dealing with The MAN and you are dealing with a qualified prospect.
HOW DO YOU KEEP TRACK OF YOUR PROSPECTS?
To manage your prospects and your territory, you need a system. The system needs to be simple and effective. One of the best territory management systems is the funnel. A funnel allows a salesperson to track prospects and move them forward in the sales process.
THE PROBLEM WITH MOST SALE FUNNELS
The problem with most sales funnels is that they do not force the salesperson to take action. Prospects end up sitting in a salesperson’s funnel until they close or the sales
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