Five ways to determine which are good prospects

All prospects are not created equal; some are more likely to turn into sales. To avoid wasting time, you need to weed out the poor prospects and concentrate your efforts on prospects who will yield a return on your investment of effort, money and resources.

The following five steps will help you distinguish good prospects from bad prospects:

1) Define your target market precisely. Break your market down by demographics ie geography, market, company employee size etc. This will enable you to focus on the prospects that match your target audience.

2) Assess need, budget and the prospect’s purchasing authority. Ask basic questions that will allow you to determine whether a prospect is ready, such as:

What's the timescale for this project?
Who else is involved in making the decision?
What's the budget for the product or service?
How will the decision be made?
Is your company ready to purchase if the right product or service is found?
If you decide that our product or service meets the need, what will the next step be?

3) Ask for a “yes” or "no." Conventional thought says that as long as the prospect hasn't said "no," then the sale is still possible. However, when it comes to rating prospects, get a decision, even if it's no. It’s better to find out sooner rather than later that the opportunities of closing a sale are slight.

4)  Evaluate the prospect's financial position. Creditworthy prospects are better than high-risk customers. Stable prospects are better than customers going through widespread changes. A company that is merging or downsizing may delay buying decisions.

5) Develop a sales lead scoring system. Rate prospects by a letter or number grade, based on the possibility of closing the sale. Concentrate on A or B prospects, and upgrade or downgrade the other prospects as circumstances change.

The Seven Ps of Marketing

As well as the traditional four Ps (Product, Pricing, Promotion and Placement), services marketing calls upon an extra three, making seven in total and they are known together as the extended marketing mix. These extra three are:

People: Any person coming into contact with customers will have an impact on overall satisfaction. Whether as part of a supporting service to a product or involved in a total service, people are very important because, in the customer's eyes, they are generally inseparable from the overall service . As a result of this, they must be appropriately trained, well motivated and the right type of person. Other customers are also sometimes referred to under 'people', as they too can affect the customer's service experience, (eg at a sporting event).

Process: This is the process involved in providing a service and the behaviour of the people involved, which can be crucial to customer satisfaction.

Physical evidence: Unlike a product, a service cannot be experienced before it is delivered, which makes it an intangible item. This, therefore, means that potential customers could perceive that there is a greater risk when deciding whether to use a service. To reduce this feeling of risk, and improving the chance for success, it is often vital to offer potential cnew ustomers the chance to see what a service would be like. This is done by offering and providing physical evidence, such as case studies, testimonials or demonstrations.