Where Do I Find Good Leads?

I get that question all the time. In the old days, we used to buy lists and then dial for dollars. Depending on the age of the list, there was a high probability that either the company was out of business or the contact was long gone. The hard part was pronouncing the name while trying to sound like he/she was an old friend and your call was expected.

Today, lists are still available and you can practice that age-old prospecting habit. As for the accuracy, well, I don’t think that will ever change...For years, I’ve personally given the name “Desmond Farquharson” to anyone who called to ask for the office, accounting, shipping or any other manager’s name. Today, he gets mail, credit card applications and, of course, phone calls. Desmond is my 14-year-old black lab.

But that is not what I wanted to blog about...

With the sun finally breaking through and making a long-awaited May debut, I sat outside on my front porch armed with coffee, my girlfriend and The Wall Street Journal where, I read the following headline:

“Big Banks Join Battle for Online Payments”

It seems that Bank of America, Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan are racing to battle PayPal for the ability to allow their customers to transfer money via cellphone and e-mail. As a PayPal customer (if you have children, I strongly urge you to check out the capabilities of its Student Debit Card), I can vouch for the usefulness of this service. At stake is “billions of dollars in credit card, overdraft and checking fees each year,” according to the article.

So what, you ask?

So there’s a killer app in them thar words!

Banks (and not just these three TARP morons) are interested in signing customers up for their online banking services. Once they do, you see, customers are far less likely to bolt to a competitor. Now, if you have to ask “So what?” again, you might want to look into many of the fine employment opportunities at WalMart because short of me making the calls for you, I am not sure what else I can do to help.

Here’s the question, then: How can you help a bank to accomplish this goal? What if they called you and asked for help, do you have the skills to meet their need? The equipment? The interest?

Applications like this appear every day in the WSJ and the wise seize them, make them a part of their prospecting process, solve problems and earn orders. For the rest of you...No, Desmond cannot come to the phone. He’s napping.

Check out Bill’s recorded webinars at www.AspireFor.com. You can contact him at bill@aspirefor.com or (781) 934-7036.