Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

That’s the sound of the countdown that begins on the first day of every year, on the first day of every quarter and on the first day of each month. It’s the one aspect of sales that just never changes.

Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

Sell, Sell, Sell. 

As we’ve all experienced, the sales process essentially boils down to two things: numbers and time.

And those two things often go hand-in-hand — while we and our team are racing to hit quota against that clock. But we can save time and maximize our numbers by investing in the right planning, processes, activities, and skills.

The truth is, sales is changing — quickly. As sales conversations grow even more buyer-focused, sales reps have begun developing their hacks, techniques, and processes for prospecting.

Prospecting allows you to identify good-fit customers for your business. This means finding leads who truly need your product or service to solve their challenges and pain points.

As a professional sales leader for the last 32 years, I am astounded to see how many of sales reps do not have a well-developed customer list or any customer list at all. It’s a shame. It is like going to the battlefield unarmed, with no plans what so ever…to face defeat and humiliation.

Customer lists vary greatly from company to company and what information you track about your customers will be different depending on your priorities.

With that said, there are at least 4 types of data that every customer list should contain.

1. Your Customer’s Name
2. Your Customer’s Address
3. Your Customer’s Mobile Number
4. Your Customer’s Email Address

Make the time to collect this complete set of data and watch your business grow exponentially.

GOlD MINE

An accurate and complete customer list could be a goldmine for you as well as your company. It provides leads for sales and focus groups for testing new products. This list should be updated regularly so that it remains current and as effective as possible. Staying on top of your client and customer list can help you more than you initially realise. Some benefits of a customer list besides reaching out to new customers, include the following:

• You can use your customer list to provide information about new products to previous customers. You could build anticipation for the product by reaching out before it goes on sale and by detailing why your new product could provide additional benefits, even to previous customers.
• Similarly, these lists provide the opportunity for you to find sales leads from those who have already purchased from your company. Even if you do not have a new product hitting the market, you may have the ability to market already existing products or services that a previous customer may need but did not purchase before.
• The customer database stores information like personal details, buying habits, last interaction with the firm, contact information etc. Such databases help the firms to understand the customers buying pattern which is used to design products and decide on prices.

No matter the industry you work within, the demographics of your target market, or the kinds of goods/services you provide, you know that collecting data about your customers helps you to improve nearly every aspect of your business.

Data Provides a Deeper Understanding of Your Market

How To Prospect? 

Unproductive prospecting is a huge time-waster.

1. Research:

Effective prospecting begins by further researching the prospects whom we’ve determined are generally a good fit. Our goal during this phase is to determine the quality of the prospect.

Research the prospect on following parameters:

*GOALS: Determine the prospect’s quantitative goals.

*PLANS: Find out what the prospect has done in the past and what they plan to achieve their goals.

*CHALLENGES: Define prospect’s pain points and whether you have resources to tackle this issue.

*TIMELINE: Assess whether the prospect wants to buy now or in the near future.

*BUDGET: Evaluate whether the prospect has enough cash to close the deal.

*AUTHORITY: If our contact is not the buyer, we need to get the decision maker on board.

2. Prioritize:

Prioritizing our prospects can save us time and ensure we’re dedicating our strongest efforts to prospects that are most likely to become customers.

3. Classify prospects with ratings:

Qualitatively classify prospects by rating them on a spectrum from high, medium, and low suitability.

Remember, your market context is not static. It keeps on changing and is very dynamic in nature. Continuous understanding of your market requires continuous scanning of the market. So, you are required to update your customer list on a regular basis. When you are prepared with an updated customer list, it will give you a greater understanding about the opportunities that exist.

Sales people that win are well planned and the man who is prepared and has planned well has his battle half won. Proper planning prepares you towards your targets and give you a direction. A thoughtfully planned customer list will give you more confidence when you make calls and lead you to the road to success.

“IF YOU DO NOT PREPARE OR PLAN TO SUCCEED, YOU ARE PLANNING TO FAIL.”