Black Sales Journal

This is a topic that many sales professionals wrestle with, although some get adept with deceiving themselves.  Prospecting is at the foundation of many sales positions, and you cannot avoid it when in those positions.  Take a moment to read this and remember that everyone’s metrics are different based on their effectiveness. You don’t as much have to be scientific, but you do need to be formulaic.

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There is no magic to prospecting, just some real hard work, some simple tactics and gambits, and a realization that the only way to win is volume.  That is volume of calls, volume of appointments, and volume of proposals.  Without that, you will not have a volume of sales. Sales professionals who have done this long enough know that your best effort, even when well directed will still result in a certain amount of rejection and wasted time.  The key to dealing with the rejection is to make enough calls that the rejections don’t bother you and the feelings of wasted time are eclipsed by the successes that you generate. As was discussed in Black Sales Journal, 9 Prospecting Tips For The Black Sales Professional (2/10/2011), this is the most necessary of your activities, even if you are having a banner year.

What is the Definition of a Prospect?

A prospect is a potential customer that you are attempting to take to the next stage of the buying relationship.  Once they buy, they can remain a prospect, even though they are a customer for one of your products or services.  This definition will keep it simple for this discussion.

How Many Prospects Do You Really Have?

You must take an honest accounting.   How many of your prospects truly have an opportunity to move to the next level?  If there is doubt as to their potential, then they fall a “grade”. If you don’t use a system already to grade your prospects, then consider this one: Divide your prospects into 4 groups -

Grade A – High Probability, based on your relationship with the buyer, a match between buyer needs and your product.  Spend adequate time to test these prospects.

Grade B – Better than Average Probability, based on access to the decision maker, buyer needs and your product.  Spend adequate time on these as well.

Grade C – Average Probability, good match of product features and benefits.  These deserve time to develop, and should be reduced to Ds if they do not allow contact or show promise.

Grade D – Lower than Average Probability, based on difficulty with buyer access.

Kiss the Grade Ds Goodbye

Your distribution of “prospects” in the grades is important.  That is why you must be very honest with yourself.  Honest with yourself in a way that you are not honest when discussing your sales funnel with your manager.  This brutal honesty is required because you cannot succeed if you do not have the requisite number of prospects. The first thing I suggest you do is to trade off your D accounts!  If you cannot trade them to another sales professional, then I would suggest you shelve them, as they will only hurt you if you spend time or other resources on them.  D accounts may be a D because of no chance of a relationship, or because of some evidence of preference or prejudice.  Whatever it is, if it is rated a “D”, I would suggest you don’t touch it.

How Many Prospects Do You Need? – Know Your Ratios!

This depends on your goals, and the kind of sales that you are involved in.  To an even greater extent, that is dependent on you, and your sales abilities and effectiveness.  If you are still learning and honing your skills, you possibly will need more than someone who is a consummate veteran. Review your sales records, and calculate your sales ratios. Know these items:

• How many telephone calls you require to get an appointment on average?
• How many appointments it takes to get a proposal?
• How many proposals it takes to get an order?

You can get this from your records if you have been selling for a while.  It will help you construct your ratios.  Your ratios are important because they reflect your selling styles and abilities.  It makes for a good exercise. If you are successful in getting an appointment 1 out of 5 phone calls on average, you know a valuable variable.  If you also know that it takes you 2 appointments on average get 1 proposal, you know another key variable.  The combination of these builds a large part of the equation.

Now if you determine that you get an order on 1 out of every 5 proposals for a hit ratio on proposals of 20%, you know some good information. In the example above, you will note that:

In the example above, you will note that:

Successful Sales –       1

Proposals –                   5

Appointments –           10

Calls Required –          50

Your Ratios are YOUR Ratios!

You must know and respect your ratios.  They will not be exact, yet the longer that you are involved in sales, the ratios will begin to have their own rolling history.  You need to believe them as they only respect the historical, yet you also can change them. If you annual sales goal for new customers is $250,000 and the average sales of the product your company sells is $50,000, you need 5 (average) sales to reach goal. Your ratios would require the following amounts of activity:

Calls Required -            250

Appointments –              50            (1 in 5 phone calls yields an appointment)

Proposals –                     25            (2 appointments gets 1 proposals)

Sales –                               5             (20% of the proposals end in sales)

Meets goal –                  $250,000 in new customer sales

So if you take your goals, and include YOUR ratios, as opposed to the company ratios, you will get a clearer picture of what you need to do.  Remember, as a Black sales professional, your product as well as your receptiveness by the buyer affect your ratios.  There is still racial preference and racial prejudice that will weave its way into the equation.  Be prepared for it, and stock your prospect base in preparation for it. We are talking about averages so be careful.  You may need more or less.  This will serve as a starting point.

A Couple of Tips

Before I close I will drop a couple of tips regarding the impact of your activities.  In any sales job, no matter what they are called, there are activity standards (such as prospecting and quoting), and there are production standards (such as number of sales and dollars of sales.) If you are successful in getting the production standard, you will probably have a job for the next round, yet if you fail in getting your activity standard, and also fall short of your production standard, you are probably in trouble.  Be aware of your goals for both activity and results.  If you are successful in getting your activity through prospecting, and incorporate your ratios, you have a chance to reach your results Good luck and good prospecting.

Entertaining your clients can be both fun and productive.  It can be used as a tool to strengthen relationships, and at the very least increase your familiarity with the customer’s key people.  Used incorrectly, it can reveal things, right or wrong, about you and or your company in regard to your class, morals, and standing that will be indelibly etched in your customer’s and co-employee’s memory.

Be Smart and Practical

In the universe of entertainment options your choices should be safe and time proven.  Fine dining, spectator-sporting events, golf and other sporting events are time proven.  Relaxing activities such as spas, manicure/pedicures, makeovers, and other activities are making a strong showing as well.

There is, of course, some areas best left out.  Engaging the customer at gentlemen’s clubs, also known as ‘strip clubs’, is totally off limits!  It lacks class, and is far from harmless.  There is no activity, which is in poorer taste than this, whether you are supporting (paying for) the activity or you have the gall to have your company pay for it.  For the most part it is in violation of most expense policies (see Black Sales Journal 4/4/11 Business Entertainment – Some Do’s and Don’ts).

Stand for Something!

Black professionals beware: Company expense policies should be observed, and the letter of the law in an expense policy is important, but more important is understanding the intent.  The intent should be followed without fail.  In establishing and retaining credibility sales professionals don’t need to run afoul of what is, or what should be, socially acceptable.

Gone are the days when sales professionals and executives can entertain at gentlemen’s clubs without scrutiny.  Everyone should be held accountable for relationship building that is socially acceptable and open to both genders, all ethnic groups, and all sexual orientations.

Even if your customer asks to participate in one of these activities, you should show an unwavering stance and say that it is not something that you want to do.  I think that you should have the confidence to say, “No, but I have something else that we can do that will be great.”  That effort to redirect will probably be accepted, but even if rejected, I think you will have shown your character.

Stand up for yourself in this.  A mentor of mine told me once, “If you don’t stand for something, you don’t stand for s—!”  Think about it.  What do you stand for?

The Real Costs!

When men get together and consider the gentlemen’s club option, just think how offensive and exclusionary that is, or can be, to female customers, or co-employees.  It is discriminatory, and totally unfair!  You lose your integrity, your credibility, and respect.  Hmmm!  I am not sure you have much left that is considered universally of value.

The same is true for female sales professionals.  Taking clients to an ‘all men’ review is equally poor in taste.  Protect your image as well.

I am not sure which would be worse, to leave your female counterparts or customers behind, or to be as ridiculous as to ask them to attend.  Show your character and avoid mindless activities.  Keep everyone engaged an involved.  Treasure everyone’s feelings in the process.

A Personal Example

I was once a regional sales manager in the Michigan/Ohio market.  This market is dominated by the auto industry, but also focused in southeastern Michigan, basically Detroit.  I enjoyed the 6 year stint there, but was continually asked to go either to 8 Mile, an area replete with gentleman’s clubs, or to Windsor, Canada, another area brimming with strip clubs and other attractions.

An executive vice-president of my organization visited our office with one of his direct reports, a senior vice president, in tow.  After the requisite meeting they ask me to take them to Windsor.  I will be honest, I felt some pressure as this was two steps up from my manager, an important company officer, and very influential.

I said to them, “I will not be going there, but you can use my vehicle to go if you are sure that is what you want to do.” It was met with the quick reply, “Come on, we are going to talk business with you!  You need to be there for us to talk about this stuff.”  The Senior VP then said, “Don’t give me this s— that you don’t go to strip clubs….”  I retorted, “You don’t want to hear it, but I don’t go to strip clubs.”

They smirked, but found someone else to take them.  I always wondered whether it would affect my career, but it did not do any long-term damage, although it was known in the short term that I was not one of the ‘boys”.  Remember, you have to stand for something!

Stand Tall

Find comfort in standing tall in situations like this. Don’t do anything because the ‘crowd’ thinks you should.  Whether you are male or female, Black or white, gay or straight, be you and eventually you will be appreciated for your stance.  If you partake of these activities currently, you should consider your image and take this opportunity to change.  See the light!

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