Last night I just returned from a trip to Japan. It has been over five years that I traveled last to Tokyo and it was good to be back there.
One thing (among others) that struck me again was the attitude of sales people in shops there. Even if they can't communicate with me, they will do their very best to find someone who can - even if that person speaks no more than 50 words of English - and try to serve me. It seemed to me that they almost felt guilty if they couldn't offer me what I was looking for and would try to compensate somehow for that by offering me something that could be of value to me.
This experience reminded me strongly of the need of any sales person to 'serve' to make the buying experience for the buyer as hassle-free and enjoyable as possible. The chances that they will buy if you display this attitude increase significantly in my experience.
Let's keep progressing!
Charlie Lang
Executive Coach and Founder of Progress-U Ltd.
Author of The Groupness Factor
Better Prospecting? Learn from the best fisherman, they say. By William Ho
For any business, whether it’s just starting, or it’s been around since the last ice age, PROSPECTING – generating LEADS - is the only way to grow, and survive until the next ice age.
Business people or salespersons who are not able to consistently add new prospects to their pipeline would probably not be successful in the long term. Top sales people know that Prospecting is the MOST important aspect of selling, and so do all business people.
Sure, you can rely solely on what you have - the existing customers, to generate enough business. Sure, you can rely solely on referrals from your existing customer base to generate new business.
That is, if your business belongs to that group, where customers have no other choice but to get products and services from you.
That is, if your business belongs to that group, where your customers will never change their buying needs – and you will never need to change also. And those customers will forever be there – and bring in others that are the same, too.
Well, for the rest, we have to admit that we have to go out and fetch the market.
… and there are a lot of us here.
So, how do we do it right? Prospecting?
Let’s define clearly what prospecting is: prospecting is simply discarding all the unqualified leads and retaining the "gold". Prospecting is finding qualified leads that may need your company’s products and/or services. Only after this process is complete, should the selling begin.
So, let’s learn this from the best fishermen, and understand how they do their fishing.
Why? Because fishermen are similar to us - they have to get brand new fish every time. As they get the fish out from the water, they have to find another one, and another one, and have to keep doing it. Otherwise, they have to look for another job.
And the only way they are considered to be successful in fishing is if they get the right fish and enough amount of fish from the water … just like prospecting.
How do they do it? Well, first of all, fishermen know that fishing is never a numbers game. The best fishermen are never those that spend most of their time doing the fishing - quality supersedes quantity.
Fishermen have to enjoy doing the fishing. Those that perform well are usually those that are having fun while competently doing so. Like prospecting, fishing can be really solitarily, boring, stressful and time consuming; sometimes very dejecting and frustrating too!
… and who said life as a fisher is a walk in the park?
The best fishermen choose the right time to go out to the water, with a plan. They know when the fish are hungry, and more importantly, they know what kind of feed they should be using to attract the fish. They know the migration path, foraging, habitat, and the fish’s behaviors & activities. They also know what kind of techniques they should use – hand gathering, netting, spearfishing, angling, or trapping. Shallow water, deep water fisheries are different. The size and the amount of the fish do matter too! The kind of equipment they use will all depend on what kind of fish they want to go after. They realize that understanding the fish is most important than maybe even skill and effort in fishing.
They also know better than to go where everyone goes. When all the fishermen are flogging together, you know that each load will not be a lot because of competition. Go where your target fish go, not where the other fishermen are going. Only those fish that match you in terms of your own tools and efforts will allow you - the fishermen - to become successful. Good fishermen understand their own strengths and limitations. They manage their resources accordingly. They do not go out into the deep ocean with a small sampan, and especially when there is a storm coming. They read the environment. They will equip according to the situation. Nevertheless, they will go all the way when the opportunities are there. They have a sense of timing - when they should go to get the load and the full load, instead of just going out to fish anytime.
Also, you may know that fishers are usually the most patient people in the world. They never fear rejection – when they don’t have any load that day. Even the most knowledgeable fishermen know that this is part of their life. They just come back again and again, learn from what has happened, and improve the way they do things, get over it, and do it again. They understand that fish can sometimes behave differently, and even the most seasoned fisherman cannot control this.
So there you go.
And now you know that prospecting sounds so much like fishing. You will never meet a salesperson or fisherman saying that s/he have too much prospects or fish to handle. And prospecting and fishing is a game of mind-setting, planning well and executing.
And the fish is out there for you to fetch.
Good prospecting, ah, fishing and “May the holes in your net be no larger than the fish in it.”
For more information related to Progress-U's Stop Selling! programs including our negotiation program, please click here.
The Author: Mr. William Ho, Executive Coach & Trainer
For more information about the author of this article, click here.
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With permission of William Ho, Executive Coach & Trainer of Progress-U Ltd
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The Author: Mr. William Ho, Executive Coach & Trainer
