The document discusses various aspects of prospecting in sales, including: 1. Prospecting involves systematically searching for potential customers, or prospects, who have a need for the salesperson's product and ability to pay. 2. The seven stages of the professional selling process are prospecting, planning, approaching, presenting, negotiating objections, closing, and following up. 3. Good prospects exhibit a need, ability to pay, authority to buy, and eligibility. Common prospecting methods include cold calling, referrals, and trade shows. 4. An effective prospecting plan involves setting objectives, allocating time, choosing techniques, and evaluating results on an ongoing basis. Prospecting is essential to finding new

1. Prospecting
Session-11

3. Selling is Hardwork…
� hardwork.mp4

5. Prospecting is…..
�A prospect is an Individual, a family, or an
organisation who needs the product or the
service a salesperson is selling and also has
the ability to pay.
�Its not a sales lead. Sales lead generates
the name of the person or organisation that
is a probable prospect.
�Hot, Warm and Cold

6. Selling is Connecting….
� connecting.mp4

7. The professional selling process is a continuous, interacting, and overlapping
cycle of seven stages:
Stages In the Selling Process
Prospecting and qualifying prospects
Planning the sales call (the preapproach)
Approaching the prospect
Making the sales presentation and demonstration
Negotiating prospect resistance and objections
Confirming and closing the sale
Following up and servicing the account
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

8. The Selling Process

9. The Importance of Prospecting
� Prospecting, the initial stage, is necessary for several reasons:
• Need to increase total sales.
• Customers switch to other suppliers.
• Customers’ businesses are taken over by another
company.
• Customers have only a one-time need for the product.
• Relationships with some customers deteriorate, and
they stop buying from you.
• Your buying contacts are promoted, demoted,
transferred, or fired, or they retire or resign.
• Customers move out of your territory.
• Customers go out of business.
• Customers die.

10. Prospecting for Leads
� Two basic ways to search for leads to qualify as prospects are:
Random
Searching
1 Selective
Searching
2

11. Looking for Leads

12. Looking for Leads

13. PROSPECTING
� Just as the prospector in case of mining explores with a
view to finding valuable mineral deposits, in the same way
the salesman looks for and explores valuable prospects,
that is, persons who are in need of his product.
� The need can be converted into want and the same may
finally be converted into purchases.
� Prospecting means finding out qualified and potential
customers.
� In other words, prospecting is the method of finding out the
prospects or likely customers.

14. � Actually selling process starts with prospecting.
� Regular and systematic prospecting is the foundation of all
selling.
� A salesman is constantly on the lookout for prospects,
which means he is looking out for Individuals, whom he can
ultimately convert into buyers.
� In this case, we must remember that prospecting is not a
wild goose chase.
� It is a systematic and continuous search of a potential
customer.
CONT:
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15. CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD
PROSPECT
� Prospecting is as wide as a desert; but it does not mean
that because it is desert, oil can be found everywhere.
� Prospects are too many, for that reason every human being
may be considered as a prospect.
� But this concept is wrong. It is not correct to consider
everyone to be a prospect without first determining whether
these individuals possess the necessary characteristics of a
good prospect.
� Thus it is most essential for an efficient salesman to know
the characteristics of a good prospect.

16. Qualifying: How a Lead Becomes a Prospect
� A lead points to a potential buyer
� Salespeople must qualify a lead in terms of 4 basic criteria that
can be remembered by the acronym NAME, as follows:
1. Need or want
2. Authority to buy
3. Money or ability to buy
4. Eligibility to buy
� Two other qualifying criteria are:
1. The accessibility of the individual
2. The potential profitability of the prospect over the long run

17. � In this connection the main characteristics of a good
prospect are as follows:
Does the Prospect Have a Need?
Does the Prospect have Ability to Pay?
Does the Prospect have Ability to Sacrifice?
Does the Prospect have the Authority to Buy?
Is the Prospect Approachable?
Is the Prospect Eligible to Buy?
CONT:
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18. 1) Does the Prospect Have a Need?
� The first and the foremost characteristic of a good prospect
is that he must have the need of the product.
� A need must exist which is capable of being converted into
a want and a want into purchase.
� In case the prospect does not have the need of the product
in question then it is the responsibility of the salesman to
see that the need is created by means of creative
salesmanship.

19. 2) Does the Prospect have Ability to Pay?
� The second characteristic of a good prospect is that he
should have the ability to pay. Because if wishes were
horses even beggars could ride them.
� Mere desire or want is not sufficient.
� It must be an effective want duly backed by the ability to
pay.
� Ability to pay means possessing enough financial resources
to make the payment.

20. 3) Does the Prospect have Ability to Sacrifice?
� Simply having a want and ability to pay is not enough; the
prospect should also have the ability to sacrifice.
� For instance, take the case of a miser.
� He possesses both, i.e. the want and the ability to pay but
the ability to sacrifice is lacking.
� Thus his desire or want cannot be converted into purchase.

21. 4) Does the Prospect have the Authority to Buy?
� The 4th characteristic of a good prospect is that he should
have the requisite authority to buy.
� For instance, the son of a rich businessman desires a car
but he does not have the requisite authority from his father
to buy a car.
� In this case the salesman should approach the father and
not the son for selling the car.

22. 5) Is the Prospect Approachable?
� Really speaking, a big gap exists between a high, executive
authority and the salesman, that of approachability.
� The salesman is required to cross many hurdles before
approaching the high executive.
� The salesman should take into consideration, the nature,
the status and the circle etc. of the high executive before
making any approach to him.

23. 6) Is the Prospect Eligible to Buy?
� The last but not the least important characteristic of a good
prospect is that he should be eligible to buy.
� For instance, certain goods can be sold only to a licence-
holder, such as gun or pistol, or at the recommendation of a
qualified doctor, such as medicine.
� From the above discussions, it is evident that a good
prospect is one who has the need to buy, has ability to pay,
is prepared to sacrifice, has authority to buy, and is
approachable and also eligible to buy.

24. METHODS OF PROSPECTING
OR
SEARCHING FOR THE PROSPECTS
� The salesmen from time to time for
prospecting or searching the prospects are
employing different methods.
� The important methods which are usually
employed for prospecting by the salesmen are as
follows:
Cold-Canvass Method.
Endless Chain or Family Tree Method.
Centre-of-influence Method.
Personal Observation Method.
Junior Salesmen and Bird Dog Method.
Trade Fairs, Exhibitions and Demonstrations.

25. 1) COLD-CANVASS METHOD
� The cold-canvass method or, as is popularly known in
America, „Cold-turkei calling‟ , is also resorted to by
salesmen to increase the number of their prospects.
� In this method a salesman prepares a list of individuals or
firms who are most likely to purchase his product on certain
presumptions.
� For instance, let us suppose that an office stationery
salesman assumes that wherever there is an office there is
the need for office stationery.
� Having prepared the complete list of all the offices that exist
in his sales territory, he starts converting each one of them
on a certain plan.

26. � His plan is to visit five such offices everyday and leave his
name and address behind. Within the course of a month he
wil have covered about 140-150 such offices.
� Later on, he will start making calls in those offices.It is likely
that some calls may be successful and some may not.
� In case of unsuccessful calls, he may continue to make
calls in the next month or on the appointee date and time
and so on.
� This method is most common now-a-days. Mostly those
salesmen who are hard working and untiring in energy
adopt this method.
CONT:
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27. 2) ENDLESS CHAIN
OR
FAMILY TREE METHOD
� Another method of increasing the number of prospects is
called “Endless Chain or Family Tree Method”.
� This is a term applied to the process of securing an endless
number of prospects.
� This is a very useful and popular method for securing new
customers.
� Under this method, when a salesman interviews any
customer, he secures the names of some prospects for
future interviews.

28. � For instance, he may ask the customer to give names of
two or three acquaintances, relatives or friends who may be
interested in what he is selling.
� Thus one prospect leads to another and an endless chain
of prospect is formed.
� The advantage of this method is that it is a continuous
process and an intelligent salesman would in this way
collect a mass of information about relatives friends and
associates etc. who may be potential customers in the near
future.
CONT:
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29. 3) CENTRE-OF-INFLUENCE
METHOD
� In this method, the salesman consults influential persons in
his locality or territory such as bankers, teachers, doctors,
leading politicians, business executives, club official etc.
about their acquaintances, relatives, friends etc. who may
turn out to be potential customers.
� This method is a modification of the endless chain method.

30. 4) PERSONAL OBSERVATION
METHOD
� This is also an important method of prospecting.
� Just as dogs are employed by the police to find out a culprit
who is guilty of some crime, similarly experienced salesmen
are employed to discover a good prospect.
� The personal observation of the salesman for a prospect is
not merely confined when he is on duty.
� He will remain constantly on lookout for bits of information
of value to him, whether on way to the work, in the office at
a dinner party or any social function.

31. 5) JUNIOR SALESMEN
AND
BIRD DOG METHOD
� It is also an important and popular
method used by the
salesman for identifying the prospects.
� In this method, junior salesmen are employed to call at the
door of every house in a particular locality of community,
inquire about the type of product which is being used, and
from the reactions obtained, an attempt is made to get an
appointment at a later time for the experienced salesman to
explain the features of their latest product.

32. � This method is usually applied for selling costly domestic
products, such as washing machines, grinding machines,
refrigerator or even automobiles etc.
� Bird dog' is a name given to water and electric meter
readers.
� In this method, the salesman contacts them whom, on
certain payment, give a clue as to kind of prospects
residing in a particular locality.
� On the basis of the clue the salesman picks out certain
person only and tries to sell his product to them.
CONT:
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33. 6) TRADE FAIRS, EXHIBITIONS
AND
DEMONSTRATIONS
� Participation in trade fairs and exhibitions
etc. is another
method of prospecting.
� Many companies display or demonstrate their products in
trade-fairs and exhibitions organized at state level, country
level or even world level.
� Care is taken to obtain names and addresses of individuals
and firms etc. who appear to be interested in the company's
products.

34. 7) MISCELLANEOUS
METHOD
� There are other miscellaneous methods of prospecting.
� They include inquiring on the telephone, use of direct mail
(sending of a circular letter enclosing a return card),
launching advertising campaign, using trade directories etc.

35. Data Mining Systems
� A procedure that uses statistical software
to mine volumes of data to identify
“hidden” interrelationships among buyers
and the products they purchase, along
with associated complementary products
� Can be used to identify leads, prospects,
and buying patterns
� Used by diverse firms such as Harrah’s
Entertainment and Wal-Mart
Royalty-Free, Photodisc/Getty Images

36. The Prospecting Plan
� To maximize prospecting activities, salespeople must develop
and execute a comprehensive prospecting plan, which has
several steps:
1. Set objectives for prospecting
2. Allocate time for prospecting
3. Become familiar with prospecting techniques
4. Choose one or more prospecting techniques
5. Systematize the prospecting plan
6. Evaluate the results (use Prospecting Methods
Evaluation Form)
Royalty-Free, Digital Vision/Getty Images

37. Sources and Methods of Prospecting
�Employer Leads
�Telephone Directories
�Trade and Professional
Directories
�Newspapers
�Commercial Lists
�Customer Referrals
�Cold Calls (Canvassing)

38. Prospecting Methods

39. Prospects: The Salesperson's Pot of Gold
� Without prospects, the personal selling process can’t begin
� Prospects are essential to the continuing health of any sales
organization
� An old maxim for salespeople is “Apply your ABP’s,” i.e.,
Always Be Prospecting
Royalty-Free, Digital Vision/Getty Images Royalty-Free, Digital Vision/Getty Images

40. Thank You &
Happy
Prospecting