Understand your prospect

Professional athletes study extensive films of their opponents before each game. By understanding the opponents strengths and weakness, the athlete can determine the best means of success.

The sales professional is no different. The more information you have about your prospect, the smoother the call will go and the more comfortable you will be. Sales leads are great means of understanding your prospect. With a quality sales lead you will be able to identify the decision maker, determine relevant information about the prospect and their operations and more importantly, pre-qualify the prospect for your campaign.

Business owners and executives are very busy but they also understand that success means listening to new ideas. Most executives have filters (“gate keepers”) whose jobs are to minimize disruptions.

A quality leads database will help you get around those filters. I’ll discuss the various methods and how to effectively use sales leads in part 2 of this article.

Understanding the prospect and their operations will allow you to communicate effectively and impress them with “hot button” or “key terms” that show you know what you are talking about.

Rehearse the intended conversation

Some professionals like scripts while other prefer to wing it. Which is right for you usually depend on your knowledge of the industry and your comfort level for personal speaking.

I personally prefer a combination of the two – especially for new hires or new associates in the field. A script provides a game plan or a starting point. With this game plan, the professional can role-play, rehearse and get comfortable with the presentation.

The call rarely follows the script, but the goal of the script to provide options. Reality does not follow a script but having a game plan and practicing for various changes, will make the person fill more comfortable thereby allowing them to generate a better presentation.

In the next article I’ll discuss what to do during the call.

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