If you are in B2B, and work in a type of business where sourcing prospects is necessary and essential, then it is always a challenge to find the qualified prospects.  It is even more difficult when you are Black. Prospecting is always a challenge, and you have become accustomed to dealing with it.

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I think one of the best ways of finding prospects that are willing and able is to bring the prospects to you.  Now, that is not as simple as it sounds.  It also means that you need to have a “hook”.  This hook will real them in so that you can spend social time with them.  In many cases, that is all you need to win them over.

I think that devising a strategy is important.  I am going to talk about a strategy that will work if used effectively.  This strategy will not totally replace telephone prospecting; yet will work if you know the names of buyers and some of their concerns or interest.

As was discussed in Black Sales Journal 2/21, Networking for the Black Sales Professional, networking is a powerful way to bring in prospects.  Today I want to focus on seminars, when done as networking, and the benefits of doing it correctly.

Sometimes you need some help to pull the prospect in.  This ‘hook’ can be a speaker, some libations, some valuable late-breaking information, or all of these items.  The hook is seldom if ever free, yet with some light analysis, you can determine a payback point, even if you don’t want to use quantitative analysis.

A Simple Example

Lets start with an example of a meeting that I’ve done before.  You want to get prospects of like nature together to sell them ‘widgets’.  They are all involved in the business of transportation services, and would all make good clients for your product.  They are from the same geographic area, and have many of the same concerns.

You engage a local expert, politician, or activist to speak to the group regarding changes in legislation, or regulation.  The cost will most likely be free, and the group can hear the expert talk on these issues at no charge.  Now, where you score is registration, where you get as much useful information as you can from each invitee, but also from casual interaction during the cocktail or social (this sounds better) hour.  Where you, as the vendor of your product or service gets an opportunity to speak to as many of the business owners as you can regarding your services, and who you would like to sell to them.

The Positive Results:

• A database of serious prospects to sell to.
• The movement of many ‘suspects’ to prospect.  Keeping in mind that you always knew they were there, you lock them in when you “touch” them.
• Notoriety as the person that got valuable information into their hands.
• They appreciate a professional showing interest and forethought about their industry
• You benefit from the efficiency of having them all together in the same place for the solicitation effort.

The Challenges:

• Making sure that you ‘touch’ each prospect.
• Building your rapport while working the crowd
• Financial issues – Those cocktails are not free
• Doing solid follow-up

There are challenges in everything that we do, and these are surmountable.

Make It Even Better

Using the same example above, you team with another sales professional in an industry that complements, not competes with yours.  Technology gives us an opportunity to consistently teach, train, and explain. The other sales professional markets a technology product for the transportation industry, and you provide a service to the transportation industry.  By teaming up as sales professionals you are able to do the following:

• Share prospect bases, in turn broadening your reach and increasing the penetration for the other sales professional as well.
• Split expenses which creates efficiency.
• More effectively cover the crowd

In this process, your objective is to meet as many prospects as you possibly can.  This objective can be realized easily if done correctly.  Costs generated by these activities should be monitored to determine:

• The cost per event in total
• The cost per prospect for the event
• The number of converted prospects (prospects to customers)
• The average amount of revenue generated in say 6 months to a year from the activity
• The total amount of revenue generated by the activity

Sharing the information about these metrics with the other sales professional allows you to determine effectiveness.  These can be done for any range of products.  Finding an individual who sells a complementary product is simple and splitting costs is efficient.

A Couple of Tips

These events can definitely be revenue generating, yet a couple of sales tips will help you:

• It does neither you, nor another sales professional any good to have prospects standing in a corner sipping your liquor while they converse.  As a matter of fact, it will only cost you money.  With this in mind, I would suggest that you, depending on the size of your group, have ample company personnel (inside sales assistants, sales managers, etc) to help you in corralling all of the prospects you can touch.
• Many of these people may know each other as they are in the same industry.  They will tend to gather and talk about industry issues.   A scheme or game where they have to mingle would be good.  Consider having them get a token from any meeting sponsor that is there.  It would make them eligible for a good door prize.  This can go a long way to keeping them moving and mixing.

A big key is to make sure that you keep a good database for your use, or to share with the other sales professional(s) in attendance.  You will be amazed as to how quickly the night will go while you are making sure you meet everyone.  Remember, it is your social hour; you deserve to meet them all.

Good Hunting.  We enjoy your Comments. You can reach me at Michael.Parker@blacksalesjournal.com.

Always conduct yourself ethically and conduct yourself as if someone is always watching, because they are!  Separate yourself  from the rest of the professionals.  Always, always do the right thing! Are You on the right side of this bright line?

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A few years ago I received a call from someone selling promotional items.

The call went like this:  “Mr. Parker this is Jim Carr from Midwest Promotional Products (I have changed the name).  When we last spoke, you advised me to call you back this October to discuss our organization providing you with some of your branded items for the upcoming year…”

I will stop here for a moment.  I knew right away that my organization did a great job of providing promotional items, and that was the only source that we used.  The fact is, that the opening line from this sales person was an simple unadulterated lie.

I responded, “Mr. Carr, I don’t remember having talked to you.  I would not have asked you to call me back as we are not in the market for branded material.  We buy from a central source within our organization.” He responded with lie number two, “Maybe it was not you but one of your managers that I talked to that referred me to you.  I just wanted to share with you our line of…”

I quickly dispatched of the call for one simple reason…if this sales ‘professional’ was going to start off this conversation with two lies and misrepresentations, when was the third going to happen?

Sales ethics is lacking overall in many  industries, and you have the ability to make sure that you do your part to make the sale profession ethical and honorable.   If you sell a product or a service, you must recognize the importance of ethics in your ability to not only have longevity in this fine occupation, but also to be successful and prosperous.   In the example above, the rep only needed to say that he wanted to find out my interest in his product.  Sales professionals consistently used that approach with me and got an audience.

The Bright Line of Ethics

Note an important fact: The distinction between ethical and unethical will appear as a ‘bright line’ once you internalize your desire to act ethically in all situations.

This rep did what was akin to attempting to ‘sneak through the back door’.  I would want to start a relationship with someone who would so quickly and comfortably start out with a lie.  This may not seem to be large, but think about it,

Ethics: The principles of conduct governing an individual or group (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

The need for ethics in sales is real, and will set you, as sales professional, apart from those who fail to recognize its importance.  Even more, it will allow you to sleep at night.

You will look to be fair, equitable, and transparent when you work with a customer.   Avoid exaggerations and untruths and communicate well, following up with correspondence.

Once you are there, the ‘smell test’ will become part of your quick review.  Once you internalize ethics, you will become sensitized to how everything affects not just the customer, but also all other parties (your employer included).  At that point you recognize that you work for an organization, but also are an advocate for your customer.  The customer has no other voice.  There is no doubt who pays you, but we need to make sure that your customers are treated ethically. Put yourself in the shoes of the customer, and articulate the situation to your organization.  If you were the customer you would want to be working with professionals who you have credibility, trustworthiness, and a desire to do right even when no one is looking.

Ask yourself these important questions:

• Do you feel lying is acceptable? (BSJ 6/30/11 - Telling the Truth – It works Wonders for a Relationship)
• Do you want credibility? (BSJ 3/31/11 Credibility – The Ultimate Goal of Black Sales Professional)
• Do you want the customer’s trust? (BSJ 5/26/11 – The Black Sales Professional – Closing Two Sales at Once)
• Can you hold yourself to a higher value?

These questions are simple but the impact is huge.

Even When No One is Looking!

I was once riding in a company vehicle with a sales rep and the customer to a business lunch in the Chicago area.  We were coming to a toll both and the rep reached into a bag and grabs a coin, which he deposited in the automatic toll basket and we were allowed to proceed.  At that time the toll was 25 cents.  On the way back from the successful lunch, he did the same.  As he did it, I looked at the bag, which must have had 200 or more coins and inquired as to how he got that many quarters.  He indicated that they were not quarters, but after a recent trip to Mexico he had a bag of centavos that were essentially worthless here.

Remember, this is in front of the customer.  Our customer heard him admit to using worthless foreign coins in the toll basket.  If you were the customer, how would you feel about this reps credibility?  What would you think about the organization that you were doing business with as you witnessed him doing it in front of his manager?

We had to terminate the rep (I refuse to call him a sales professional).  Let’s look at it from an employer’s view.  This unethical individual did the following:

• Sullied his image and the organization’s image in front of the customer creating doubt as to our ethics and credibility
• Engaged in a civil wrong which might have carried criminal penalties as well
• Committed expense fraud as he also received reimbursement for fraudulent expenses

I contacted the customer as I introduced the new sales rep.  I apologized for the fact that our representative did what he did, and explained that I had someone who was solid who would take care of him.  The customer said the following to me, “I really wondered about what organization would allow its employee to cheat like that.  I liked [him] but realized that I did not know him well enough to trust him.”  The customer was watching my response as much as he was watching the actions of the rep.

Rise Above It All!

As a Black sales professional you should demonstrate sound solid ethics, and be the advocate of the customer in making sure that your organization is fair with the customer.  With a sound ethics ‘compass’ you will be able to ‘feel’ whether what you are doing meets the ethics tests.

This stance and advocacy will help create the strongest of relationships.  Don’t miss the chance to do it.  It is a responsibility that may test you, but will also strengthen you and your relationship.

Be consistently ethical and you will be the best.

Your comments are welcome. You can reach me at Michael.Parker@BlackSalesJournal.com.