Companies that rely on referrals and relationship (network) selling for new business are struggling today to reach their sales goals due to the prolonged sluggish economy.  With no clear up-swing expected in the near-term, the answer is clear, change the way you sell or down-size to accommodate the reduced demand.  Most favor the former, but are struggling with how to implement a proactive sales program without wasting time and money.  Meta, who specializes in sales prospecting services and prospecting & sales skills training for companies with hard-to-sell products & services, has developed an effective 4-step process for organizations to transition from a referral & network selling-based approach to a more predictable and controllable proactive selling method.

To transition from a referrals/networking sales model to proactive selling method, the company must establish an outward-focused sales oriented function.  To do this requires the following 4-steps, described in brief, below.

This requires defining the type of organizations you wish to sell to, as well as the individuals in these organizations you plan to pursue.  Consider the type of companies that have benefited from your offering in the past and those in other industries or markets that could benefit from your offering.  Identify the geography these businesses should be in to sell and service them cost-effectively, and the size of company that can justify investing in your offering.  Also define the type of individual by title or function who would make the buying decision and be the best to pursue.  The best people to target are the highest-level people (typically executives) who would be impacted the most, both economically and operationally, e.g., the CFO & COO.  Avoid selling to purchase agents, project managers, and those that implement your offering – they are not decision-makers.

Identify several sources of leads (suspects) that you can import into a spreadsheet or lead-tracking system (CRM).  A simple search on the internet will result in many sources.  Focus on getting the most up to date records that are well filtered for your specific target market(s).  Make sure the records include phone numbers.  It is not important that the records contain a correct contact name, as many supplied names are wrong (due to job turn-over) or "title" generalizations and don't usually result in a decision-maker anyway.  It is not difficult to identify the right person when calling, if the right approach is used, see below.

The other tool that you will need is the messaging and questions that form your call-guide. Your message should briefly introduce your company and explore the issues, problems, & needs that your offering addresses.  Once "need" has been identified, you will need questions to explore the extent of the need to confirm that you are speaking with the right person and to scope the opportunity.  You will also need a statement as to what your offering accomplishes for the prospect without becoming "technical".  Keep your description at a high (strategic) level since you should be speaking with a high-level decision-maker.  The best product/service descriptions are delivered as solution stories – how your offering helped a customer like the company you are prospecting.  For opportunities with identifiable need, you should also develop a list of buying situation questions to help the sales person acclimate themselves with the prospect.  These should include:  how they are addressing the need today, what solutions they've looked at, the capabilities they need, their buying process, who will need to approve the solution, etc.

Choose a person in your organization who is articulate, knows your offering, will follow your messaging & questioning, and has stamina – prospecting is grueling.  A good prospector should make from 80 to 120 calls a day and maintain a record of all calls and conversations in a spreadsheet or CRM system.

Prospectors should follow a consistent process.  Below is the 5-Step TeleProspecting® process developed and employed by Meta that it uses on a daily basis for numerous clients.

1. Assess fit – Confirm that the organization being pursued matches your geography, business type, and organization size criteria.  This normally can be determined by speaking with anyone who answers the phone in the company.

2. Identify the target.  Leverage the initial discussion in a suitable organization to identify the top economic or operation buyer, defined in the first step.

3. Deliver the message – Call the target you identified in the previous step and deliver the message you developed to identify need for your offering.  Be careful not to be sidetracked by people who express interest (who are inherently curious), but where need is not present.

4. Explore & qualify – For those with need, ask the exploration and qualification questions you crafted to explore the scope and viability of the opportunity.  Doing a good job of exploration has the added benefit of building rapport, credibility, and helps to establish a trusted advisor relationship with the prospect.

5. Gather sales intelligence – Once it is clear that you have identified a good sale opportunity, gather situational information to help acclimate the sales rep to the opportunity.  Typical questions focus on:  how they are addressing the problem today, what solutions they've looked at, the capabilities they need in a solution, their evaluation & purchase process, budgetary considerations, etc.

Following the execution of the 4th or 5th step, once it is apparent the prospect has interest in addressing their need, the caller should try to schedule a follow-up call between the prospect and the person who will "sell" the account.  Before a sales call appointment can be established, it may necessary to have multiple phone calls with the opportunity spanning over several days to several months.  During this time it usually is necessary to provide written information about your offering and your company, usually in an electronic format (PDF).  Also, it is critical to establish a system to track and manage call-backs and follow-up discussions, but it is not necessary to spend a lot of time and money on this when starting out, as a calendar based system or Excel spreadsheet will suffice.

With a qualified opportunity in hand, the focus shifts to prospect development and closing.  The easiest way to close a sale is to satisfy the factors the buyer considers when making a purchase decision.  These factors tend to be the same for each buyer, but the buyer's understanding of them and their approach in synthesizing them varies widely.  Meta refers to the process of helping a buyer to understand and work through (synthesize) these factors so that they are comfortable making a purchase decision as Ergonomic Selling™.

After establishing rapport and both the prospect and seller agree to proceed, there are four factors that influence a purchase decision:

Once the above four factors have been satisfactorily addressed by the buyer, he/she is normally prepared and comfortable making a purchase decision.  Applying the Ergonomic Selling method makes it possible to close more sales, with less effort, and in less time, not to mention win more business in competitive sales situations.