Saturday, January 16, 2010

Changing Course - Slowly

My prospecting calls have bogged down. The prospector continues to deliver good leads, but I have ceased to make the phone calls to the Presidents.

Why?

Possible cause: I sense it is not working.

What's "it"?

My procedure for establishing a relationship; I was calling the president, mentioning the press release, and asking for a name to contact; then I'd phone or email the contact, mention that the president had sent me, wait 2 days, make a follow-up call, send information etc. etc. when my goal was to get a face-to-face meeting.

Once my body/foot is literally in the door, I can usually make a sale of one or more of my services or products.

So I'm trying a new tactic. I'm going to phone the president and ask for a 15-minute face-to-face meeting.

It's what I want, and I'm making the call.

Management Measures!

I get 2 prospects per business day (19 prospects in 14 days so far this year), which translates to 10 prospects per week.

Suppose I call each one and ask, point-blank for a meeting.

Worst-case: he says no.

But if one case out of ten results in a curious but guarded "YES", then I'll be establishing face-to-face contact with 50 presidents each year.

And that is way better than I have been doing in the past.

How about you?

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