Test Your Knowledge
- List the seven steps of the selling process.
- Why do salespeople qualify their leads before they call on them?
- When a customer says, “It’s too expensive,” that’s an example of which step in the selling process?
- True or false: After the sale is made, the salesperson’s job is done.
- Why is prospecting considered the foundation of the selling process?
- Describe the sales funnel.
- Describe the difference between a lead and a prospect.
- Identify at least three business directories or databases and journals that you can use to identify prospects.
- Why is cold calling effective for prospecting?
- What is a subject matter expert? How can being a subject matter expert help you prospect for leads?
- Prospecting and qualifying, preapproach, approach, presentation, handling objections, closing the sale, and follow-up.
- Qualifying helps save time so you don’t waste time calling on people who don’t have the money, need, access, or authority to purchase your product or service.
- Handling objections.
- False. The salesperson’s job really begins when the sale is closed.
- When prospecting is done correctly, the other steps in the selling process build upon it.
- The sales funnel is a helpful way to visualize the process of finding and qualifying new prospects and ultimately converting them to customers. Not all leads become prospects, and not all prospects become customers.
- A lead is a qualified prospect.
- There are several databases and directories, including Directory of Corporate Affiliations, Hoovers, and D&B Million Dollar Database. There are several business journals including Wall Street Journal, Business Journals (by city), Crain (by major city).
- Cold calling gives you an opportunity to talk to the prospect and learn more about his goals and how you can add value.
- Subject matter experts are people who are authorities in their field. Subject matter experts share their knowledge at trade shows, at industry events, on blogs, and in other online communities and social networks. Being a subject matter expert helps establish you as being a leader in a particular area. Prospects usually want to learn more from and do business with subject matter experts.
