MARKETING EVOLUTION
Prospecting For
Customers
By Marion Wakahe
P
rospecting for customers is the
process of identifying, prioritizing
and qualifying sales opportunities
from new customers. From the flow of
prospects, an organization increases its
chances for continued existence. Typically,
businesses will lose 10% to 15% of its
customer base every year due to gradual
attrition. Without prospecting, the entire
customer base will eventually erode.1
Businesses that are starting out have
little choice but to prospect in order to
grow. However, as they become more
established, the discipline of prospecting
may not be given its deserved attention.
This is typically as a result of managing
operations but mainly because it is easier
to get repeat business from existing
customers as well as cross-sell to them.
In addition to the opportunity for
conversion,
prospecting
presents
the advantage of gathering data and
conducting market research. It takes time
before prospects become customers, and
even then, a good number will not become
customers. However, through prospecting,
businesses can determine evolving
customer wants and needs, competing
offers and how to adapt to changing
expectations.
The process of prospecting is one laden
with rejection and, if not, requests to wait
until the prospect is ready to purchase.
And as Zig Ziglar aptly put, every sale has
5 basic obstacles: No Need, No Money,
No Hurry, No Desire, and No Trust. For
this reason, in addition to having a thick
skin, smart businesses will need to allocate
resources and develop systems to make
prospecting more effective.
The first step to improving prospecting
is to acknowledge how imperative it
is to getting sales results and treat it
accordingly. It is important to add here
that, even with outstanding salespersons,
without the proper systems in place and
In addition to the opportunity for conver-
sion, prospecting presents the advantage
of gathering data and conducting market
research. It takes time before prospects
become customers, and even then, a good
number will not become customers. How-
ever, through prospecting, businesses can
determine evolving customer wants and
needs, competing offers and how to adapt
to changing expectations.
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working environment, the sales effort will
prove futile. Unfortunately, there can be
an over-emphasis on star salespersons
that take away from recognizing existing
systems that allow for these salespersons
to shine.
Pipelines and funnels are designed to hold a
constant stream. Businesses that empower
salespersons to regularly prospect and
insist on the same grow faster than others.
Being in sales or business development,
the following steps will come in handy in
helping you better prospecting prowess.
Prospect consistently
Depending on the prospecting goal of the
company, one should carve out time each
week to prospect. For example, to generate
5 sales a week, and on average close 1 out
of 50 prospects, one would have to make
250 calls per week. The salesperson would
know best how much time he or she would
need every week to make 250 calls. Some
insist that prospecting should be done
daily but one would have to figure out
their own schedule to make the discipline
of prospecting work for them. It’s a good
idea to dedicate at least two hours a week
to prospecting.
Turn off the distractions
This is probably a difficult one to
implement because today, salespeople
turn to social media to prospect. To avoid
being pulled in to the ‘infinite scroll,’ a
salesperson should have clear targets in
terms of the number of prospects he or
she intends to get from social media and