Prospecting is the act of filling a salesperson’s workload. Salespeople can only work on so many deals at a time. When they have open time, they prospect to find who to focus on next. Or, sometimes internal salespeople fill the sales funnel for outside salespeople to pursue. When prospecting, I think the most interesting question is, “what are the characteristics of the companies you want salespeople to invest time with?” And of course, the answer is based on value. Hence the title of this blog.
Below are the four value-based characteristics of potential buyers to look for.
- Do they have the problem? Value comes when a buyer has a problem, buys our solution to achieve a result. The value of that result is what we want to sell. If a buyer doesn’t have the problem we solve, they won’t buy.
- Do they know they have the problem? Many buyers might have the problem we solve, but don’t know they have it. That means we have to educate them about the problem. We greatly prefer buyers who already know about their pain.
- Are they trying to solve the problem? Buyers who aren’t yet looking for a solution need to be motivated. We need to convince them to make this problem a priority. It’s much easier to sell to buyers who are already looking for a solution.
- How valuable is the solution to them? The more value, the more likely they will buy. If you know that some buyers get a little value while other buyers get a lot of value, focus on the ones who get more value. They will buy more quickly and at higher prices.
The farther down this list a prospect gets, the more likely they will buy and the more important they are to put in the funnel. This list can also guide your prospecting. If you know which buyers tend to get the most value from your solution, start by prospecting them. If you can’t tell, you may ask some early qualifying questions to determine how far down the list they get.
In the end, buyers trade money for value. If they don’t get enough value, they won’t purchase. Buyers who get tons of value will purchase more quickly and at higher prices. Fill your sales funnel with buyers who get more value.
If you want more detail on value-based prospecting, please read my latest book, Selling Value: How to Win More Deals at Higher Prices. And if you want help to get your salespeople winning at higher prices, please reach out to me at [email protected].
Now, go make an Impact!
