What Is Sales Prospecting?
Sales prospecting is simply what you do before you actually sell something. Building a business can be challenging, regardless of whether you are building a retail-focused business or are focusing your efforts toward a network marketing or MLM business, direct sales or any small business. The challenge begins with sales prospecting.
Why does the thought of having to prospect and sell stop many marketers from pushing the 'go' button? Could it be a fear rejection? Is it that we really do not want to sell anyone? Is it perhaps a lack of confidence? There could be many reasons why we run at the thought of prospecting.
Sales prospecting done right can have a huge impact on your sales profits. That’s why it’s a critical skill that must be learned. The good news is… it’s a skill that can be learned. When I started internet marketing in November 2004, I didn’t have a sales bone in my body. In fact, I flunked a Sales Skills Assessment test. (Although, my results did show: The examinees score of 100 for ETHICS is SUPERIOR and indicates that this individual will rarely, if ever, resort to unethical tactics to close a sale.) Hmmm... Guess I did pass the most important section of that test. Well, the nice man who went through my test results with me said that these are skills that can be learned. So, I set about to learn them. If you’re determined and willing to learn new things, you can learn them too! Understanding Prospecting
One of the biggest reasons of failure with homebased businesses is that most people have 'underdeveloped skills' in prospecting, recruiting, and even selling their products and services.This creates a lack of confidence, which is a major obstacle in being able to build a successful business. The first step in overcoming this challenge is to focus on developing your skills in prospecting. By learning these skills, you will be better positioned to 'attract people to you,' which is a critical element if you want to build a lucrative, long-term, residual-based business. It doesn't matter whether you are selling a product, service, or your opportunity, without prospecting you will not find yourself where you really want to be. Remember... your customers (retail or part of your down line organization) are your business. Without them your business will die. Effective sales prospecting is an important key to locating the interested people, your target market, who will buy your products, services, or opportunity. There is a difference between prospecting and selling. It is important to understand this, otherwise, it causes you to do steps in your marketing at the wrong times. This can cost you... Prospecting and selling are both important, but sales prospecting MUST come first. The following definitions come from the book, "Prospecting Your Way to Sales Success!" by Bill Good. Sales Prospecting: The art and science of finding someone to sell to. Can also be viewed as the art and science of discarding, which is of little or no value. Sales prospecting is primarily an act of discarding, getting rid of. Selling: Defined as the step-by-step procedure that increases desire to own the benefits of a product or service to the point the prospect wants those benefits more than the prospect wants to keep his or her money. As you can see, sales prospecting and selling is not the same thing. Sales prospecting is a process of sifting and sorting, which can end with a "no." In Selling, you have created enough interest, or attracted someone to you, and then you go through the process, with the prospect, of determining if what you have is a good fit for them. 5 Point Sales Prospecting Strategy
The 5 Point Sales Prospecting Strategy is simply using five different methods to promote your business. It is a powerful strategy that helps you keep a balance in marketing your business. By implementing the "five point sales prospecting" strategy, you will always have someone for the selling part of the sales cycle.This prospecting strategy is also important in providing balance while building a solid foundation for your business, which ultimately determines your success. Following is a list of just a few of many sales prospecting strategies that will help you build your business more effectively. #1 OPRIUS I listed Oprius Oprius first because it provides three sales prospecting strategies all in one and also a contact management tool, which is vital for any serious entrepreneur. First, this tool provides an email account. You can manage your personal Email and List Mails all in one place. It also includes a permission manager to eliminate spamming. Second, you can have unlimited lead capture pages, which provides a way to generate your own home business leads. Third, an autoresponder that allows you to automatically send emails and be reminded to follow up with contacts. Ann Sieg, author of The Renegade Network Marketer, says: "Oprius is a super user friendly contact management system that helps track prospects, close sales and continue the all important follow-up and follow-through for customer service. I give Oprius a five star rating." People often need time to think things over and do research. By utilizing an autoresponder, you can ‘drip’ (pre-written series of email messages) information to them that will continue to education them, not only about the product or service you are offering, but also show yourself as an expert and one willing to provide solutions to their problems.
Ty Tribble, author of three of the most read blogs on the subject of Network Marketing says: "If you own a business of any kind and do not have an active blog, you are flat out missing the boat." A blog can be used to increase search engine traffic for certain keywords or search terms. Search engines particularly like promoting blogs because they offer a large amount of content that is updated and added to on a regular basis. I recommend and use Squarespace.com. Squarespace has been mentioned in both the Wall Street Journal and Business Week, as well as on countless other blogs and news sites. Squarespace is SEO optimized. Squarespace sites include clean article links, proper tagging, and valid HTML code, all which make your site loved by search engines. You won't get all of this using free resources.
With that said... Build a SBI! Website As Soon As You Can! #3 SITE BUILD IT One of the best things you can do for your business is to build your own money-making, lead-generating website that will work for you for years to come. Site Build It! provides step-by-step help geared towards the home based and small business owner, including those in the network marketing business industry.  You will eventually need a domain name, which assists in helping you 'brand yourself.' A domain name helps you appear professional and lends to your credibility, not only for your website, but many other marketing strategies that require a URL.
About 50.5 million people visit Facebook each month with another 100,000 first-time users each day! As a result of getting noticed in all the right places, you can generate leads and convert those leads into sales. SQUIDOO.COM Comscore reported for January 2009, 4,810,710 people visited Squidoo.com. Do a search on almost anything right here in Squidoo.com, and you will be amazed at what you can learn. It's an awesome, free marketing tool that provides a means to get your content published along with the potential to attract people to you. YAHOO! With Yahoo! you can advertise your business in search results on Yahoo! and other popular sites. You can also put your business in front of potential customers at the precise moment they're searching for what you sell. INSTANT VIDEO GENERATOR A fast-growing marketing tool that many marketers are using is VIDEO. You can instantly add streaming video to your emails and website without expensive equipment or technical know-how. In March 2009, Comscore reported 84.4 million people visited YouTube. As you can see, you have the potential of getting your message to thousands of people, possibly generating tons of new prospects. Check out Instant Video Generator.
This prospecting strategy is so important that Ann Sieg, whose book, The Renegade Network Marketer, created quite a buzz, has included the tool that she determined is the most effective in accomplishing the follow-up and follow-through process, as one of the 40+ affiliates in her Renegade System. 
Did you know that…» 99% of greeting/post cards get read » 25% of emails get read, and » 17% of junk mail gets read So, there is obviously some profitable wisdom in utilizing a marketing strategy that: • actually arrives in your prospects mailbox, via US Mail • that can include your picture or a picture of your product or business icon (as long as your company permits) • perhaps ways you can help them (you know... providing solutions to their problems) • and even your name, phone, and email If you want to give your existing business a major boost, then you need to use this system and utilize the power of sending cards.
EVERYONE IS NOT YOUR PROSPECT, AND YOUR PRODUCT DOES NOT SELL ITSELF! Get the training and tools necessary to build a professional business—one that will provide you with long-term growth and success. Think Profitability
There is no limit to the number of strategies you use, but you should not have fewer than five.It is important to remember that there are many, many methods of marketing, and the best methods for you must be the methods that bring results. Always stay within your marketing budget and do what meets your marketing goals. Always be actively involved in developing your skills. Think profitability. The point of the strategies you use is to get your message delivered in multiple ways to further educate the prospect and help guide them toward a decision. Each method plants a seed and continues to educate your prospects. It also builds credibility because that prospect sees you in the marketplace consistently.
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