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WHEN SEARCHING FOR NEW BUSINESS, WHERE DO I START?
We had so much fun at the Kentucky Broadcasters Convention a few months ago, working on better approaches to prospecting. Even the best strategies for developing new business can come up short. It’s not that we are doing something “wrong” necessarily, but we must constantly ask ourselves, “Should we be doing something different?”
I receive a weekly newsletter from Alex Goldfayn, a sales trainer and business growth consultant. (You can subscribe here.) Recently, Alex talked about proactive communication being the key to predictable sales growth. This means we must talk to more people and get more people in the pipeline if we want to predict future growth.
But.
Prospecting is hard.
In his newsletter, Alex suggests there are three types of customers we may be overlooking in our new business development efforts:
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Current customers who are also buying elsewhere. But they could easily buy those additional products and services from you. In fact, it would make their lives easier to buy more from you. So, offer to help them with those products and services, and they will thank you with their additional business.
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Customers who used to buy from you, but no longer do. These folks took their business elsewhere, and probably didn't tell you when this happened. Nobody likes to have breakup calls. They are in your accounting system, and you are in theirs. Go to them and let them know you'd like to help them again.
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Customers you got close to doing business with, but it didn't work out. I call this group "past prospects."
The magic to these three groups is that you already know them. You already have a relationship, or at least your company did. These groups are people who already know you. So, technically, it’s not a cold call.
At RAB, we suggest always having a well-crafted, Valid Business Reason before making a call. You create this through research and using RAB Tools like Instant Backgrounds, The Pitch, Consumer Behavior by Format Profiles and many other resources under the Prospecting drop-down on the all-new RAB.com.
Alex suggests that with these types of prospects, simply call them and tell them you were thinking about them and would like to help them more, again, or perhaps for the first time. Play on the familiarity and tie that to a strong VBR; it seems like an excellent recipe for success.
Consider asking your sales manager for a list of past customers; maybe you can turn that ugly word – ATTRITION – into a gold mine of new prospects!
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