Filing the Sales Pipeline by Wendy Weiss

"I have made attempts to contact you to determine if there is a mutual fit between our companies. How would you like for me to follow-up with you going forward? 

"I have been working under the assumption that Weiss Communications will be considering _________. Is this still the case? If you are not interested or if there is another person you would like me to follow-up with, please let me know. I certainly do not want to waste your time."

This is an email I recently received from a sales representative. It's interesting because this is the first communication that I actually received from this representative. Didn't recognize the rep's name. Didn't recognize the company name. Don't really know what he's selling or why I should be interested. And of course, I have heard nothing further from him.

I suppose that if one sent enough emails of this type, eventually someone would respond that they are interested. This strikes me as a very frustrating way to fill a pipeline.

The bottom line is that if you want to be able to sell consistently, if you want to have those million dollar and beyond sales careers, if you want to avoid major frustration and wheel spinning, blanketing the earth with emails, voice mails or even phone calls is not the answer.

The answer is to be highly specific about who your prospect is and why they should buy from you. Far too often when speaking with entrepreneurs, business owners and sales professionals, I ask them, "Who is your market?" and the response is "Everyone."

Sorry. "Everyone" is not the answer that will make money for you. Even if "everyone" could use your product/service, (highly unlikely) they would all be buying for different reasons. Your job is to identify those reasons, make sure the reasons correspond with the prospect with whom you are speaking and help your prospect understand that your product/service is the answer to his or her needs, wants and desires.

So here are the questions that you need to ask yourself:

1. What am I selling? What is the value and/or benefit to my customer who buys what I am selling? What is the reason my customer buys? Why should my prospect be interested in what I am selling? What need, want and/or desire does my product/service satisfy?

2. Out of everyone in the entire world who might purchase my product/service, who is most likely to purchase my product/service? Out of that group, who is most likely to buy a lot of my product/service? And who is most likely to return again and again to buy more of my product/service?

If you are able to satisfactorily answer these questions, you will be able to spend your time wisely, focusing on prospects who are truly viable. Your selling time will be productive and your numbers will go through the roof.

To your success!

© 2007 Wendy Weiss

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