How to Filter Right Sales Prospects for Bigger Profits

Before starting to write on my article, I would say that 95% of the prospects buy a product or a service but the time varies from 1 hour to 7 Years depending upon that particular product or service and also on the need of that product. So that is why choosing right prospect is essential to attain better customer acquisition and to gain higher profit margins. For better understanding, you can read my article on Need Of Client Filtration.

Now, you can become a good real estate agent, businessman, author, actor, producer or a salesman but customer acquisition is an important aspect for all of us, irrespective of what profession we are in. Choosing the right prospect out of the entire sales funnel is the real hack that differentiates a leading personality from a common personality. According to Pareto Rule or the 80/20 Rule, 80% of our efforts bring 20% results and the remaining 20% efforts bring 80% results. So, in order to become successful, we need to understand our 20% of the tasks that are detrimental to achieving 80% results.

Now the question arises, ‘how you can filter the right sales prospect or how you can implement Pareto Rule (80/20 Rule) in real life to improve customer acquisition?’ Let us start from the beginning to understand the process clearly and keep filtering customers at every stage so that we remain with the top performing prospects in the end.

Choose the Right Market and the Right Time

If you are advertising a BMW in a village, grains seed in a metropolitan, software on a literature based website or sweaters and cardigans in summers, then you are making a mistake. First, understand the demographics of your customers devise your advertising strategies in that particular area accordingly. Doing this will save your time, money, energy and most importantly, it will keep you away from the headache of responding to unwanted queries like-Hey, I received your SMS in which you had mentioned: book your dream home near Airport and Metro Station in just 20Lakhs. I am sure you must be smiling if you are a real estate agent. So filter the crowd by advertising in the right market at the right time.

Generate Right Leads

Many advertising companies make the mistakes of not generating the right leads and as a result, receive several unwanted calls in abundance. Let me share an SMS with you which I had received a few days back and I started to laugh at its vagueness. The SMS read like this: ‘INR 20000 has been credited to your account dated dd/mm/yy; to receive the same SMS every month invest INR 20Lakhs in EXAMPLE Investment’.

Later on, I enquired that guy over the quality of leads and I found out that it was 1 good call out of 200. Here, the good call is not that he purchased the product, I was talking good to that call that at least listened to him. So never send misguiding messages or emails because they will only fill your hard disk and brain, not your bank accounts.

Now when you do the right marketing in the right direction, you will receive few good leads over which you have to work the entire week or month depending on the nature of your work. So now is the real time to filter those leads and to get the cream out of it.

Checklist for Client Filtration

Always remember never to filter your prospects or leads on the very first day. Filtering should be done after 5 Days. Make 2 types of lists according to filtering:

• a. Current List- Hottest Prospects
• b. Main List- Each prospect for regular follow up

Filtering the prospects doesn’t mean that you should never call back other prospects. It only means that you can give more priority to current list rather than the main list. Now let us have a look at checklist for making the filtration lists-

1. Understand Urgency

Understand people who are in the dire urgency of buying your or similar kind of products/ services as per their needs. Approach them on a priority basis and try to close the deal.

2. Stage of Client

Understand whether a customer has just entered the market and is a newbie or he has already done a great deal of research on everything. If he is new, he will take some time and if he has researched everything already, then don’t delay much and try to close the deal as soon as you can.

3. Time for Meeting

When your prospect is giving you time for the meeting, your first or the second conversation will help you in determining his or her interests towards the product. If he is giving quick dates and is eager to see you again, then put his name on the current list. On the other hand, if he is dilly dallying ceaselessly, then put his name on the main list.

4. Information Seeker and a Real Prospect

Sometimes, people call or send emails just out of anxiety. Not only that, sometimes competitors call just to inquire about your product. In both the situations, we end up wasting our own time if we are investing much time responding to those queries. One can figure out if the concerned person is just seeking information simply from the tone of his voice and their way of talking. You must listen to their queries clearly to be able to understand such a situation. If he is naming everything correctly about the product, then chances are that he is either a regular buyer or an investor or on the verge of close a deal or he is a competitor. In the first 2 cases, he will give you dates for personal meeting instantly and if he is not doing so then he is just wasting your time and is an information seeking competitor.

5. Prospect’s Demand

Let us take an example to understand this point clearly. Let us say that you are a computer seller and selling Dell, HP and Sony laptops. A customer arrives and tells you his requirement and is keen in buying your product but he is asking for Mac Book (Apple Laptops) only. Here you cannot do anything except just saying goodbye to him after giving him the specifications and cost of your products. So, in cases like these, you must remain motivated and let him go because each sale cannot belong to you.

6. Understand different types of Clients

There are 4 types of clients, namely, Director, Analyst, Socializer and Relater. According to their type, one must consider to give them the priority.

a. Director- These are the decision makers and they know most of the things in detail so never try to become over smart with such type of people. They like to stick to the facts and the good news is that they close the deals very soon, if they like it.

b. Analyst– They can close deals quickly but they want to know each and every nut and bolt of the product before buying it. Explain them everything properly and they will close the deal. And be ready for 1000s of questions which they are going to ask you.

c. Socializer– They always want to make new friends. For them, seller plays a major role rather than the product. So always be humble and treat them like your friend.

d. Relator– They have great contacts and the best way is to give them some reference if possible. Because they are always in touch with people from whom they can buy the product which you are selling.

So now you can decide which person to put on “Current List” and whom to put on “Main List”.

7. Number and Types of Questions

Number, types, and frequency of question a customer asks clearly speaks volumes about his mood towards the product. So if any client is asking lots and lots of relevant questions, then always give him the priority. And if someone is directly asking about buying procedure and delivery procedure, then instead of being on a phone call, you should be in front of him to crack the deal as soon as possible.

8. Revenue

Sometimes you have many good prospects on your list but a very limited time to work on those. So always focus on revenue. During my real estate days, I had never given much importance to those clients whose budget was less than 1cr. I believe one shark is better than a bucketful of minimal.

9. Time Duration

When you meet a client, never forget to ask about his financials, loan, the purpose of buying and time of buying. It will help you in understanding who can buy in what time. And accordingly, you can prepare your prospect filtration list.

10. Payment terms

Sometimes you will observe that client likes the product and also agreeing to pay the money on the spot but he is asking a rate that is half the actual rate and is far away from closing the desired rate. In such a scenario, stand up and move back. If it was just his negotiating trick, then he will surely make you sit again otherwise there is no use to wasting time in that meeting.

After filtering with all of the above parameters, you will only remain with the best prospects’ list and you are ready to make a big profit in no time as these are your best 20% efforts.

If you know any other parameter which should be on the list then you can definitely let me know in the comment section. It would be really interesting to learn more about filtering right sales prospect for bigger profits.