Professionalism Improves Through Prospecting
By Don Hutson CSP, CPAE and George Lucas, PhD.
At the risk of over simplification, we
believe whole heartedly in the premise that a salesperson's ultimate success is determined
by two factors: how many people they talk to, and the quality of the exchange that takes
place when they do.
This article (the first of two parts that address the professional sales process)
is devoted to having enough high-quality prospects.
Our own experience in this industry, as well as numerous comments from
manufacturers, retailers and financial service companies, tells us that prospecting may be
the most important opportunity and challenge affecting everyone's prosperity.
Great salespeople generally have one thing in common: They are always working
diligently to compress the maximum amount of achievement into any given time frame.
With this in mind, high-income professional salespeople in the manufactured housing
industry must always be motivated, action-oriented prospectors.
Anyone who sits around the sales center just waiting for walk-ins is not in control
of his or her own destiny, but rather at the mercy of any blowing wind.
In sales, there are controllables and uncontrollables. For example, you may not be
able to control a slowing economy. Still, you can manage the number of people you talk to
by not only being skilled and eager when working with walk-ins. Maximizing calls to
previous buyers, asking other contacts for referrals and making "cold calls" are
a few of the many means of finding a large number of high-potential prospects.
The numbers game
The more people you talk to, the more
homes you will sell. So, do you keep up with your conversion rate? This is the average
number of leads you must identify to get a commitment from an approved customer who will
eventually live in a home you or one of your employees sells.
Far too many salespeople, if they have ever considered it, have only a very vague
idea about their personal "batting average." We have found that it is very
costly not to have this kind of information for yourself, and all the salespeople you
lead.
If you know how many times you must dial the phone to get a lead that puts you
eyeball-to-eyeball with a qualified prospect, you will know exactly what you must do to
ensure that you accomplish your ultimate sales goals and objectives for the day, week,
month and year.
At that point, the formula for success becomes much simpler, if not easier. If you
double the number of people you talk to, your income should increase similarly in a one
year period.
The funnel concept
Great salespeople generally sell
more manufactured homes for a very basic reason: they keep a significant number of future
buyers in the "Prospecting funnel."
Every time you make a call or establish a contact with a prospect, you are adding
them to the top of your "funnel."
You may not sell them on a given day, week, or even that month or year. However,
just the fact that they are in the funnel and you are processing them, albeit more slowly,
there is some chance you will sell them eventually.
At the very top are leads, sometimes referred to as suspects. These are people or
families whose names you have been given by some source (more on the various sources
later). They may also be people who have come by to browse on your lot just to collect
some preliminary information.
Leads turn into prospects once you learn who are the decision makers in the family,
what their basic needs are (home size, number of rooms and time frame).
Qualified prospects are people who have been given approval by a financial
institution to purchase homes with price tags that are consistent with their desires and
incomes.
These prospects turn into committed customers at the point they sign contracts to
purchase homes.
We do not refer to this level of the funnel as "closed sales." Your
relationship with them is not over. In fact, it has only just begun.
The time frame for moving people from leads to committed customers may take hours,
days or even years, depending on their motivation and circumstances. Your challenge is to
move them through this process in a consistent fashion with their needs, and to lose only
a minimum number as you move from level to level.
As that funnel gets relatively full at the top with leads, you must also focus your
attention on moving other leads to the prospect or committed customer levels. Mathematics
and gravity will work together to deliver committed customers out the bottom when large
numbers of leads are consistently fed through the top.
This model does work, but its ability to produce results is predicated on your
willingness to continue to make calls and gain top-of-funnel input.
A major question that should be on your mind at this point is,'"What is the
shape of my funnel, or the number of contacts required to make this process work for
me'".
Far too many sales people fool themselves into thinking that four strong leads this
week will net as many sales. As you know, there are a variety of reasons why leads may not
turn into committed customers.
They may buy from a competitive sales center, or decide not to purchase a new home
at this time. Also, they may elect to move forward, but not be able to qualify based on
the price level of the home they want.
The funnel is most challenging for a new salesperson, because an experienced
professional has more sources to utilize in adding names to the top of the funnel (a
larger existing customer base, more referrals, stronger reputation in the community).
That new salesperson must work harder and experience more rejection, while savvy
experienced salespeople can reap more benefits from prior successes.
Sales people with more tenure, however, must not allow themselves to become too
complacent, or they will soon find themselves with a funnel that has not been fed, and
thus fewer committed customers.
Prospecting sources
Field research and discussions have led to a very
clear conclusion about the way in which successful salespeople feed the top of their
funnel.
The more successful the salesperson is in generating bottom-funnel success, the
more creative he or she is in the use of sources that produce top-of-funnel activity.
Let's look at what we feel are some of the most productive sources for generating
leads and suspects.
Referrals: A recent study reported that two out of every three
manufactured home sales come from referrals.
The number one reason why sales people do not generate referrals is pretty
simple--they fail to ask. We suggest that you always ask anyone with whom you have
established a reasonably good relationship for referrals. They do not necessarily have to
be a happy new customer, or someone who has bought a home from you at all.
Keep a standing note in your daily planner that reminds you to write down "ask
for referrals" every day.
List the names of the people you expect to ask for referrals that day. At the end
of the day, add to that list those you unexpectedly encountered and took the opportunity
to ask for these valuable pieces of information.
Why do all that writing? Working in this manner will keep you focused on the
referral process. Prospecting should not be something you do on Monday mornings or Friday
afternoons. It should be something you do all day, every day.
How you advance a lead down the funnel is just as important as asking for it in the
first place. Any referral is better than none, but the source of the lead may be able to
assist you in moving that prospect more quickly toward a committed sale.
Several suggestions are useful here. First, get as complete a set of information as
possible (for example names, phone numbers, family members, where they work). This will
help you avoid chasing the "John and Mary Smith" nightmare. Documenting their
recent employment history will also help you avoid spending a great deal of time on
someone who wants a multi-section home, but can't qualify for your smallest single section
model.
A second suggestion is to ask the source of the lead to give that person a call to
let them know you will be contacting them regarding some exciting homes that have just
arrived. If the source is at your sales center, ask them if they would mind calling the
contact now, and then turning the phone over to you to set up an appointment. Make it easy
for the potential prospect, and you.
The third suggestion is to maintain contact with the lead source. Let them know how
your meeting went, and express appreciation for the opportunity, and most certainly for a
committed sale. A hand-written note to the source is a nice touch, followed by a phone
call to express your appreciation, and ask for another lead.
Most people have more than one friend, and even those who are so unfortunate
usually have multiple distant family members. This third step will help you keep the chain
working, thus feeding the funnel.
And do not forget to ask for leads from people who didn't buy from you and your
sales center. If they turned you down, many people will feel that they owe you something.
A name and phone number of a family member or friend who might be looking for a new home
is a way for them to leave gracefully.
We've devoted a lot of space to referrals due to their preferred status in
generating committed customers. Leads from this source are a part of such a large
percentage of sales, and they are the least likely source to generate rejection (funnel
dropouts).
Other sources, however, are also used by highly successful salespeople. They are
particularly important to bring into play when all referrals have been contacted, or don't
generate the volume of opportunities to meet your personal or sales center goals.
Cold calls: If you can't get enough introductions through referrals, one way to
feed the funnel is to get a phone book and start making calls. We refer to these as cold
calls because there is no referral source to warm them up.
Cold-calling is hard work, and stimulates a lot of rejection. With the wide-spread
use of answering machines and services today, you may need to call five or more numbers to
talk to just one live person.
You will need to contact a large number of people to find one who is considering a
new home, or has a friend or family member who is.
One fact is certain: you are more likely to find leads using the phone to make cold
calls than by reading the morning sports page. Your attitude should be simple as you
employ this process: "I don't have a lead now, and the worst way I can leave this
conversation is without a lead." How can you lose?
Direct mail: Targeted direct mail can successfully stimulate phone inquiries and
walk-ins. There are several keys to success when using this prospect source.
First, plan your message carefully. Provide information and visuals that stimulate
action, then let the reader clearly know how to take action.
Next, your mailing list will be critical. Send your pieces to homes in ZIP codes
that are most likely to have a heavy concentration of present or potential manufactured
home buyers.
Even with a well-focused list, 1 to 3 percent inquiry rates are common. Many sales
centers will find that buying lists and producing materials means working with an outside
resource firm. Fortunately, there are an increasing number of firms out there to assist
your organization with this process.
Make sure everyone knows what is in the material that has been sent out. Far too
frequently the conversation goes something like this: "I would like to see the home
shown on the letter I got from your sales center last week," the prospect said.
"What home was that? We have a lot of homes here," the salesperson replied.
A final recommendation is one that often gets overlooked: Don't start a direct mail
campaign if you can't send each person multiple pieces. The first mailing may not even get
scanned. The second hits the trash can after a brief look. It may be only the third piece
that starts a conversation between family members about the problems with their present
home environment.
Newspaper, flyer or shopper: Many sales centers generate a great deal of
leads with classified ads. Even when the home is already sold, if you manage the call or
walk-in properly, you have generated a lead.
A lot of sales center managers tell us that they have not had good success with
what is called image advertising. Rather than discuss a specific home, an image
advertising campaign promotes the quality of the brands you carry, and the way you treat
people before and after the sale.
Two factors have probably been responsible for this assessment. First, these ads
take longer to have an impact. Often. the reader is not looking for a home, and only
notices the sales center location. The presentation may raise their impression of your
center just a notch. It may be months, however, before the direct mail prospect or a
family member begins to look. It is only then that the positive impression gets translated
into action.
This fact causes the second problem. It's harder to track the impact of image
advertising than of classifieds. You can keep a tally of the number of people asking about
the double section home for $47,995. But you may never know that the series of image ads
were responsible for bringing the prospect, or a friend, to your door.
Managing walk-ins: In no way do we intend to tell you that walk-ins are not
critical to your sales center's success. Walk-ins can be an important source of
top-of-funnel activity, but only when managed properly.
We have heard far too many stories about people who come to the lot and leave
without buying. The salesperson watches them drive off without even the basic information
to direct them to the prospect level. No name, phone number, home requirements or time
frame.
The salesperson may think. "Not to worry, because they promised they would
come back." But far too frequently they don't, and there is no way to reach them.
Carry a small pad and pen to collect their personal information.
Whether you use some sophisticated software program or 3x5-inch file cards, ensure
that you followup in a timely fashion.
You may have a better home for them, and they may be more ready to make a decision,
or know someone else who is.
Prospecting is a lot like panning for gold. No self-respecting and well-fed
prospector would cast a nugget he found on the ground only to pick it up later.
Salespeople should feel that same way about their prospects. Yet far too often,
prospects are handled in a careless and unprofessional fashion.
Sales and Marketing Executives Intemational funded a study several years ago to
find out why so many prospects "fell through the cracks."
The five most common reasons identified for failing to advance prospects down the
funnel toward ultimate success are enlightening.
Many successful salespeople are described
by their peers as "lucky." In reality, it is impossible to be lucky for weeks on
end. Consistent high achievers generate their own success. They work hard and smart.
They may not call their process of productive prospecting a funnel, but they know
how to fill one, and make the numbers work for them and their organization.
They know what prospecting sources work best, and employ these sources
continuously.
Don Hutson, CSP, CPAE, is chairman and CEO of u.s. Learning Inc., an employee training and development firm based in Memphis, Tenn, and an internationally recognized sales trainer and speaker. George Lucas, PhD., is president and chief operating officer for U.S. Learning. Call U.S. Learning at 800-647-9166 for more information.
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