Prospecting in 5 Easy Steps —Farquharson/Tedesco

When you are, give yourself a treat. When you aren't, pee on your leg. (We're only half-kidding; accurate record keeping is a core component of long-term, tele-prospecting and selling success.)

Need a helping hand for your tele-prospecting efforts? Here's an opinion you might not expect from two veteran print sales reps: In some situations, salespeople are just too darn expensive! Successful salespeople aren't necessarily cost-effective at every point in the sales cycle. Before filling our in-boxes with hate mail, read on.

Consider the market research and prospect qualification activities described earlier. This work is necessary for kick-starting the sales process—you can't sell to a company if you can't identify their key business influencers and what they need.

Tele-prospecting is tedious, time-consuming and perhaps not the most efficient use of well-compensated sales resources. A company's sales leaders should concentrate their attention on what they do best: converting qualified prospects into high-margin customers. The opportunity cost of using your expensive salespeople for "high-in-the-sales-funnel" suspect-to-prospect research activities may not make financial sense.

Market research, prospect qualification and lead identification are crucial, and often neglected, steps in the sales process. If only there was a more efficient way to help bridge the gap between sales and marketing…wait a second!

Perhaps we've been looking at prospecting all wrong! Integrating prospecting activities into your marketing program may be the best way for printing businesses to identify and qualify leads before handing them off to the sales team. Maybe a tele-prospecting individual training or a complete outsourced solution is available…hmmm. PI

—Bill Farquharson, T.J. Tedesco

About the Authors
Bill Farquharson is the president of Aspire For (www.AspireFor.com). His Sales Challenge can help drive your sales momentum. Contact him at (781) 934-7036 or e-mail bill@aspirefor.com. T.J. Tedesco is team leader of Grow Sales, a 15-year-old marketing and PR services company. He is author of "Playbook for Selling Success in the Graphic Arts Industry" and five other books. Contact Tedesco at (301) 294-9900 or e-mail tj@growsales.com.