Prospecting Strategies

[bleys]

seems there are a lot of sales people here, more than I expected actually.. as we all know, there are a ton of strategies to prospecting.. Some of you may have very little of it to do (incoming sales), some may put food on the table with door to door, others may seek referrals only, some may sit on a phone for hours dialing for dollars, and others may receive accounts you just have to make happy..

recently I decided I was going to step up my door to door prospecting to businesses before it gets too hot out and I can enjoy the decent weather (lack of humidity) while it lasts.. always a solid approach to get out and find a few new accounts that I may never have found otherwise.

curious what approach some of you take (those of you who do this).. For instance, I think I may sign up for an account to receive new businesses within a month to 3 months of opening as a target.

One tip I received was to make friends with someone at a bank who has record of this information when they open a new account.. (I believe this would require a hush hush chat)

just curious what some of you may do to get an edge... besides offering hookers and blow.

[pstall]

what are you selling/trying to do?

[thefuzz]

Yea, whats the product or service.

[bleys]

Aflac.. no cost to the employer, expand benefit portfolio, easy to implement, #1 in the nation for cafeteria plans..

I have experience with maaaaany different avenues, from selling to people in various states over a computer (using an autodialer and gotomeeting.com) to more old school methods and hitting people door to door..

What I do is pretty straight forward and I have experience with it all.. just curious what people do in their industry that I may not have thought about..

I see people out there who seem to have more NEW clients coming in than they can handle.. Curious if any of you are one of those people and any homeruns you may have come up with.. talking to some of those people, it's pretty much as you expect: referrals are key and finding a CPA/broker-type is gold.. which only requires working out a deal. with what I do, new clients just mean I have more avenues that requires more order taking than selling, which is gravy...

my goal is to reach 200 accounts in the next 2 years, and then visit those watering holes when I get thirsty.. 200 may be too many to handle, but that puts me in a perfect situation for managing and helping recruits stay on their feet while still making me money.

[pstall]

how do you currently network? where do you fish?

[bleys]

I used to be involved in BNI.. like Chamber of Commerce, but sole purpose is strictly to gain referrals. I opted out of my last group and need to find another..

I started messing around on local networking sites that seem rather abundant now a days with the rise of social marketing.. they are free and much less focused, which isn't necessarily a good thing.. but honestly, if you don't screw around and know how to network, it's all the same. Find someone you click with and comes across a lot of prospects (like a CPA, lawyer, banker, etc) then find some common ground and work with each other...

I met a CPA through one of these and he's been a valuable asset...

My biggest form of networking has come from people I already know who are interested in making some extra dough and come across a lot of clients.. for instance, I'm meeting with a mom of my sister's friend tomorrow night to work something out. She deals mostly with PNC, so she should a good asset as well.

I may join the Chamber.. there are quite a few here. I used to shy away from it and other groups such as Leads groups because they seem much more social. I've reanalyzed my view of them though.

[thefuzz]

Who is your target "buyer"?

[bleys]

Who is your target "buyer"?

absolutely any company looking to offer employees (additional) benefits at no cost to the company, receive tax advantages, and administration is almost non-existent..

whether self-employed or have 5,000 employees, Aflac fits seamlessly and most plans are around $6 a week. Again, costing the company nada and a # most employees can manage very easily..

honestly, there isn't a company who wouldn't benefit from Aflac. (families are able to receive Aflac insurance as well)

[Anybodyhome]

Ever tried targeting non-profits with a paid staff? Most of them are very small when it comes to staff size and they have little or no buying power when it comes to providing benefits, so anything above and beyond what they can offer is a benefit.

I've seen some small businesses nearly cease providing health insurance coverage altogether and basically reimburse the employee a percentage of their premium. It's these type situations in this economy that you could probably draw new business from.

[pstall]

I would do some stuff, if you can afford it, like mixers, happy hours or some type of social event.

Partner up with a group like Habitat for Humanity etc, and see if you can do ad space or refreshments provided by____.

You can kill two birds with one rock. Find a way to give back to the community while at the same time building partnerships, getting your name out there or possible clients.

[thefuzz]

REAL ESTATE.

If it's cheap it could be a hit. Everyone in the industry is commission only, they don't have benefits, and normally no disability or workers comp. Most because of the cost have almost catastrophe insurance and nothing else.

Appeal to them, and lets be honest, people who sell for a living are the easiest sales.

[bleys]

Ever tried targeting non-profits with a paid staff? Most of them are very small when it comes to staff size and they have little or no buying power when it comes to providing benefits, so anything above and beyond what they can offer is a benefit.

I've seen some small businesses nearly cease providing health insurance coverage altogether and basically reimburse the employee a percentage of their premium. It's these type situations in this economy that you could probably draw new business from.

about the last paragraph, that's the way it should be.. You can target group insurance and typical copay plans as a MAJOR culprit in the affairs of health insurance today. Obviously, hospitals and doctors have part in this as well as insurance companies.. BUT, an instant (and huge) fix would be to convert all group plans to an HRA/HSA model.

I could write a novel on this, but will spare you all the grief.. whether someone likes Dubya Bush or not, the one decent thing he did was offer HRA's and HSA's which make a ton of more sense than a group plan or your standard copay plan..

matter of fact, if you like paying a copay, it's a false sense of security that actually screws you if you have to see the doctor more than 6 times a year..

:rant:

I'll look into targeting non-profits as well.. that's a good idea.. wouldn't hurt to target someone who deals primarily with non-profits..

[Tyler Durden]

by "meeting with a mom of my sister's friend" I hope you mean you're going to bang her...

[Panthro]

I do nothing but prospect right now. Phone to Phone sales is dead. No one picks up.

I utilize a site called Jigsaw which gives me phone #'s and emails of people. I also use Constant Contact to send out emails and invite people to webinars that we host. Once you have a list of people you can get them to subscribe to a newsletter and host monthly conference call and webinars.