Page 169 - Marketing the Basics 2nd

THE SELLING PROCESS
We now turn to the selling process, a methodology that the sales- person follows in order to close a sale. The personal selling process consists of seven parts: prospecting, pre-approaching, approaching, the sales call, closing (part of the sales call) and following up.
PROSPECTING
The first step in the selling process is called prospecting. Prospecting involves devising a list of qualified customers who would be receptive to a marketing offer – at this point they are merely suspects. Finding the right customers saves resources and avoids the possibility of building a client base whose needs and wants are difficult to satisfy.
Although the company can provide leads on prospective sales opportunities, capable salespeople generate new business themselves. Asking existing clients for referrals, trolling telephone directories and searching the Internet are just some of the methods one can use to find the names and contact information of potential clients. The truly bold salesperson engages in a practice known as cold- calling, which involves calling or visiting the offices of a prospect unannounced. This is psychologically challenging. Salespeople spend months calling hundred of firms; most lead to nothing. We have a name for salespeople that thrive in this hothouse atmosphere: hunters. They are in contrast to farmers who prefer to work with existing customers and till them to get additional business for their firms. Both are valuable but generally hunters are more rare and are paid more because of the value of new customers and the sheer difficulty of bringing them in. Once a list of potential customers has been drawn up, the salesperson must screen out those that offer the least potential. You may wish to picture a funnel, at the wide end are a large number of suspects, at the narrow bit there are a relatively small number of customers who actually buy substantially. The job of sales is to turn the large majority of prospects into customers. Along the way a salesperson qualifies who should move to the next phase of the funnel. The further down the funnel you get the more expensive it is. Only customers who are really interested should be allowed to move the next level of higher marketing spend. Once
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