Business Solutions: Prospecting Tools to Super Charge Productivity

These traditional Sales Productivity indicators are:

• Size of the Funnel or Pipeline in dollars/$ or number of accounts

• Number of Move Forward appointments/ Sales Representative

• Equipment Sales / Sales Representative or Sales Employee

Each one of these indicators has at its root, a function of finding or developing quality prospects. Office imaging prospecting is typically limited in scope to cold calling, tele-selling for appointments, blitzes, mailers, and managing the base of current customers (MIF) etc. Another thing is typical of office imaging dealers/sales professionals - they hate prospecting. They hate prospecting because it has become far less productive / call in developing the leads that lead to closeable business.

Many creative sales types use sporadic marketing tools / gimmicks to augment their marketing activity. At one time or another we have all seen creative collateral materials used in bread crumb marketing campaigns that leave multiple items for a suspect at the front desk ,over a period of time, to intrigue the suspect to make contact with the Sales professional. I once had a Sales Rep leave me a bag of nuts at my reception desk with a note that said, “I’m going nuts trying to get to see you.” I enjoyed the nuts but never saw the Rep. There are only two reasons I would see a Sales Representative then and now: #1, they can help me grow my Sales; and #2, they can help me grow my profitability. The tool I am about to describe would definitely help me grow my sales and it will do the same for yours.

Innovative Tactic

I was exposed to the most innovative prospecting tool ever used on me in August of 2011. I received a high quality transparent envelope and I was suddenly surprised that I could see my picture on the enclosed card through this envelope. When I opened the card the simple message said, “Steve, if I have intrigued you enough to open my envelope and look in this card; I ask you to do one more thing. Go to my web site and type in the four digit code when you are prompted to do so and I will show you how you can get in contact with the people you want to do business with.”

Cynical as I am, I went to the website called Prospect Magnet, keyed in the 4 digits and began reading on how this Sales Rep driven program worked. Twenty seconds into reading this information my phone rang. When I answered the phone I heard a young lady introduce herself from Prospect Magnet (PM) who said, “Steve, I see you are on my website.”

My first reaction was to search my office for hidden cameras. When I asked how she knew I was on her website, she told me that when I keyed in the code, her software sent her an email and text, in real time; and on her cell phone that told her I was on her website. I asked her how she got my number and she said it was simple as calling my office and getting my extension off my automated directory. I asked her how she got my picture and she said, “I had a ton of choices from your Facebook page and your company website. My next reaction was a simple one. “WHEN CAN WE MEET?”

The Tool

When I met with the folks from “PM” they told me that the company is about printed mail that ties seamlessly into your online content by pointing your desired prospect to what you want that specific prospect to see. Each mailer is custom designed for each potential prospect and designed to be utilized by Sales Reps, not marketing departments. The tool had an astounding 20% plus response rate on one mailing and over 40% if two or three mailers were sent to the prospect.

The company informed me that my company like others needs to be online. However, our website, like other companies, was just too cluttered for our prospect generation efforts! Basically, the “PM” tool allowed me to take the content I wanted my potential prospects to see and put it online to focus them on specific content. In an economy like we are facing right now, you have to make marketing budgets go farther – you have to find creative ways to reach out to new customers with impact – and keep the costs low.

Let’s face it, nobody likes cold calling! So other methods are always of interest if they’re cost effective and get good results.

It is pretty common for sales reps to downplay the quality of leads generated by corporate marketing. You often hear, “The leads were no good” or, “You mailed to the wrong people” when revenue falls short of your targets. Salespeople are ultimately in charge of generating their own high-quality leads. With this new sales tool, the Rep creates the wording/video for the card; the “Magnet” produces the mailer and mails it out the night it is created by the Sales Representative.

Salespeople can reach out right away to a name they saw in a publication, a referral, a trade show contact and introduce your company on their own - the way you want it done.

I was already completely sold on this prospecting tool when they told me about the reporting process that came with the software. I ordered my first batch and went to work on my toughest “C” level clients. I pulled their pictures off of websites, Facebook or other documents I had scanned into my computer. I got a 42% response rate on my first mailer to these CEOs. I then decided to use the tool as an invitation to an event I was conducting in Las Vegas and the response rate was the same. What a great way to focus on people you want to have come to product shows! Even better, what a great way to find out they read your invitation and in “real time” confirm their attendance.

I shared this with one of our largest dealer clients and he took off and ran with it. His sales force now uses this tool as a primary prospecting vehicle and the preliminary results so far are astounding. Good deal. If you want to know even more, give me a call.