Keep Your Prospects Close But Keep Your Ideal Prospects Closer

An interesting question: When do you decide it’s not worth calling that prospect for the umpteenth time?? Well, it depends on the prospect. If you know you have exactly what a specific prospect needs, you will never stop calling on them. This isn’t to say that you call them twice a week for the next eighteen months, but you want to ensure that you have some sequence or cadence to your calls and touches. And “touch” is the operative word here.

First, let’s eliminate those prospects who are not a good fit. If someone does not come close to fitting your ideal customer profile and seems unreceptive, then it is time to move on. Especially if they are not a good fit. And by that, I mean they might buy from you one day, but their requirements will make for an uneven relationship even if they do. For people like this, I think getting them on your email list and using the company email newsletter for most of your touches is the best use of your time. If you or they are amenable to you checking in occasionally, that’s okay too, but the key here is that your time has value, the same as theirs. You want to make the best use of that time, and chasing poor fits is not the way to go.?

That takes care of the marginal fits you have to squint to think they would be great customers. But what about the ones that you are dead perfect? The companies that use what you specialize in now. These are the people you never give up on. And even if you can see the fit is perfect, they may not realize it themselves. They are going to tell you that their suppliers are great and that those suppliers are doing a great job. They will tell you they don’t need another company that supplies what you supply. They will tell you that the head office demands that they reduce the number of vendors they work with. They will tell you there is no budget or time to develop another source. They are in what I once read called “even keel” mode…and people in even keel don’t want to rock the boat. They will tell you all those things…but if they are a good fit, just keep at it.

Don’t get me wrong here. I don’t want you making a complete pest of yourself. Nor do I mean bugging them to the point where they are ready to issue a restraining order on you, no, not at all. Remember that operative word I mentioned back in the first paragraph??

”Touch”

Your job now is to stay in touch with your perfect prospect so that you will only be a phone call or an email away when they need you.

Here are some ways to stay in touch with your perfect prospects regularly without bugging or offending them:?

Email newsletters. Get them to sign up for your value-added newsletter…even if you don’t have one in your company! I know sales reps taking material from all over their companies and sending their newsletters to prospects – even when their company already has a newsletter! Create a custom newsletter with tips, tools, and other custom-made information for your perfect prospect.?

Share industry articles and content.?You can also stay in touch by sending that hard-to-know buyer something of particular interest to him or her. It can be business or personal, appealing to something that pertains to her company or something that pertains to a hobby or interest he told you about. You can share things you find on the web. I like using LinkedIn because I can search for keywords and phrases and then for content with those in them.

Promotional items.?Every salesperson and, more importantly, every company should seriously consider buying promotional items that will keep you in front of the customer at all times. It can be something as simple as a cool coffee mug with your company’s logo on it or some kind of desk tool, a memo pad, a pen, or a clock, anything that has your company’s name and contact information on it but also something so cool as well as useful that the buyer will keep it on his desk instead of taking it home to his kids. Calendars are a great idea. Either a large twelve-month wall hanging calendar or one of those cool ninety-days-at-a-time calendars. You can even design your custom-made twelve-month calendar with your company’s information and dates. Everyone says promotional stuff is hokey, but there is a reason that the promo industry is still around – it works!

Phone and email touches.?Finally, the good old, well-paced, and well-placed touch through a phone call or an email lets the perfect prospect know you are still out there waiting to provide her with the perfect solution to her exact needs.

These are all ways you can stay in touch with your perfect prospect by doing it the right way; providing them with something useful will always be a positive reminder of you and your company so that when that day finally comes – one of those till now solid suppliers screws up or goes out of business, or when it becomes questionable that old supplier can meet the customer’s future needs, or best of all when they are in trouble and need a favor fast…who are they going to call? YOU, that’s who. The person who consistently, politely, and repeatedly stayed in touch. It’s only common sense.