The PROSPECTING rulebook, A 4-WEEK strategy document Hitting your sales quota each quarter is no mean feat. It takes a lot of hard work and talent. But if you’re working flat out and yet consistently finding it hard to make quota, it’s natural to find yourself thinking: what more can I do? Well, the answer most likely is: a lot. The truth is, ensuring you hit your sales quota is not as simple as having a great work ethic and attitude. It takes discipline, organisation and strategy. Use these tips to help ensure you hit your sales quota. CPSA Meeting in a Box: A series of 15-minute guided presentations to help increase your team’s performance.

Pre-learning: Facilitator: One week prior to your meeting, please inform your sales team to prepare with these CPSA Learning Hub resources. Reading: Increasing Prospecting Results: 5 Key Techniques Channel Strategy And Creating A Sales Funnel How To Be A More Productive Sales Rep Mastermind Session: Attract New Leads with Social Selling

UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET WEEK 2: UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET Analysing, Predicting, Segmenting and Communicating with the Right Prospects In week 2 we’ll get into ways to better understand your prospects and practical tips to help improve your sales outreach efforts.

Effective Prospecting: How to TARGET THE RIGHT BUYERS at the right times It is a fundamental law of sales that not all clients/customers are equal. Some have more potential, some are growing rapidly and need help, some are better credit risks and some are just easier to deal with. Many organizations look at their customer list and classify their customers as A’s, B’s and C’s. Given that the goal is to generate more “A” type customers, targeting becomes the process by which you can help make this happen. Targeting is a critical step to ensure that your prospecting efforts are directed to the clients or customers that are both attractive for your business and those that you can provide value to. This process will ensure that you receive the best return on the time you have invested in the prospecting process as well as help you increase your closing ratio.

Evaluating need Once the industries have been selected, it becomes easier to identify prospects within by asking: * Do they have a need for your products and services? * Is the company in a growth stage, static or in decline? * How large is the potential? * Can we be profitable with this account? * How important are our products/services to their business? * Do we have any history with this account? * Do we know any of the decision-makers? * Will our products/services be of value to this company? Targeting starts at a high level, first by identifying the industries, and sub industries that are best suited to the products and/or services your company provides. After that, you’re ready to drill down to find the ideal customer.

7 Ways to Be Better at Prospecting PART 1 1. Consistency Counts: Prospect Daily! Write a weekly plan making time to prospect every day. It is best to set aside the time first thing in the morning to ensure it gets done before the world makes other demands of you. 2. Turn Off the Distractions Turn off the Internet. Turn off your email. Turn off your Smart Phone. Focus. Hang a sign on your door saying “Do Not Disturb! Prospecting!” If you don’t have a door, use string and hang the sign over your desk. 3. Use Every Method Available To prospect well, you need to focus your time and energy on what works best for you, but not exclusively. If you are great at cold calling, you should absolutely focus on cold calling. But that doesn’t mean that you should never use email marketing, inbound marketing, networking, trade shows and conferences, direct mail, social networking, or referrals! 4. Write Scripts Write scripts for each of the prospecting methods you use. Write responses to the common objections you hear. Rehearse them. If you are part of a great sales team, do this together and rehearse them together. Commit the best language to memory and replace the unwritten and ineffective scripts you are already using. Here are some top tips to help you hone how you prospect to the segments and targets you’ve identified. 1. Consistency Counts: Prospect Daily! The first way to improve your prospecting results is to acknowledge its importance to your sales results and treat it accordingly. Improving your prospecting results begins with setting aside the time and the energy to prospect each and every day. And, yes, we do mean each and every day. You would never suggest that you could only close on Thursday afternoons, and it is ridiculous to suggest that there is only a single time at which you can be effective prospecting. It is equally ridiculous to suggest that your prospects are only open to taking your calls on Mondays and Fridays. 2. Turn Off the Distractions Turn off the Internet. Turn off your email. Turn off your Smart Phone. Focus. Tell your friends you have a new found discipline and that you need their support; promise to catch up with them later. Hang a sign on your door saying “Do Not Disturb! Prospecting!” If you don’t have a door, use string and hang the sign over your desk. 3. Use Every Method Available To prospect well, you need to focus your time and energy on what works best for you, but not exclusively. If you are great at cold calling, you should absolutely focus on cold calling. But that doesn’t mean that you should never use email marketing, inbound marketing, networking, trade shows and conferences, direct mail, social networking, or referrals. You should include all of these tools in your arsenal. Make a list of all of the methods that you can and will use to prospect. Plan the time that you will set aside for each method and how many prospects you will gain from your effort. For example, you might commit to attending one networking event per month with the result that you acquire two new prospects from each networking event. Measure these results and focus on what generates the greatest return on your investment of time, but remember that your prospects may have their own opinion on how they best like to be approached, and you shouldn’t exclude any method. 4. Write Scripts Your effectiveness is improved by choosing carefully the words that you use, making observations about what is working and what isn’t working. This takes an awareness, focus, and discipline. It also allows you to experiment with language choices to see what is most effective. Write scripts for each of the prospecting methods you use. Write responses to the common objections you hear. Rehearse them. As you are part of a great sales team, do this together and rehearse them together. Commit the best language to memory and replace the unwritten and ineffective scripts you are already using.

7 Ways to Be Better at Prospecting PART 2 5. Focus on the Outcome Focusing on the outcome means that you don’t allow your prospecting to turn into a needs analysis, a presentation, or a discussion about the merits of your product or service. It means you apply a laser-like focus on scheduling the appointment. 6. Calling Calling is still one of the fastest ways to schedule appointments and to open relationships, and the very best salespeople are the great at cold calling. They are also the very best at all other forms of prospecting, and willing to consistently ask for referrals, something else salespeople avoid. 7. Nurture Relationships Over Time Focus your time and energy on what works best for you, but not exclusively. If you are great at cold calling, you should absolutely focus on cold calling. But that doesn’t mean that you should never use email marketing, inbound marketing, networking, trade shows and conferences, direct mail, social networking, or referrals. You should include all of these tools in your arsenal. 5. Focus on the Outcome Effectiveness in prospecting is improved by simply focusing on the outcome. This means that you don’t allow your prospecting to turn into a needs analysis, a presentation, or a discussion about the merits of your product or service. It means you apply a laser-like focus on scheduling the appointment. The reason some salespeople struggle focusing on the outcome of an appointment and the reason they often slip into the sales mode is because they feel that they have to prove that they can create value for the prospect during their prospecting activity. But prospecting has a very different goal, namely, the opening of the exploration of the possibility that you might be able to create value and do something together. Selling, at this point, is premature. A successful outcome here is almost always an appointment. It doesn’t matter how much you liked them or how much they liked you if you didn’t schedule an appointment. 6. Get Good at Calling Cold calling is still one of the fastest ways to schedule appointments and to open relationships, and the very best salespeople are the very best at cold calling. They are also the very best at all other forms of prospecting, and the only salespeople I have found that are willing to consistently ask for referrals, something else salespeople avoid. Start cold calling. 7. Nurture Relationships Over Time Some of the best relationships and the biggest deals will take the longest time to win, and your consistent nurturing of these relationships will open opportunities for you over time. This approach proves that you are not going to disappear like so many of your peers, that you are truly interested in working with them, that you are a professional who executes well, and that you are determined. These are some of the attributes that people look for in salespeople and partners.

Take action! TEAM ACTIVITY: Write a nurturing plan. As a team or in groups, develop a plan with these factors in mind: What will you do to create value for your dream clients even before they decide to set an appointment with you? How often will you call? How often will they receive something from you? What will they receive? What will it say about you? How will it create trust? Time for exercise!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FROM CPSA TEMPLATES – CPSA is constantly building and upgrading our catalog of templates to make your job easier! WEBINARS - Our “virtual” training sessions led by industry experts, at your convenience. PODCASTS - Take the sales experts wherever you go! LEARNING HUB - Check out the latest sales articles, white papers, and ebooks

GO TEAM GO!