During our sales class, we had discussed the idea of prospecting and how important it is to be able to prospect to potential customers and clients of the product you are trying to sell. The definition of prospecting is “a set of activities for identifying potential users of your product or service.” As a salesperson, this is crucial to be able to identify. The whole idea of sales is not to go out front and just sell, you need to be sure that you target the right market, allow them to provide input of what they think of your product, but only after you have asked questions and identified their needs. Then, you can present your idea to see what they think and whether they would be interested in this or not.
Now, to land the appointment, first, the salesperson needs to be able to start the first interaction naturally and more informally. The first thing they can do is engage the person, ask them what they do or where they are from. These are very simple, but universal, conversation starters. Asking the first few simple questions can go a long way in figuring out if they are a good fit for your product or not. Try and steer the conversation into the area that you are wanting to discuss with them. Make sure it is natural to the flow of the conversation and do not let the topic get away from you. In addition, make sure to cater to their pain points as it can give salespeople insight as to where they are coming from and if they would be a great fit or not. Also, this may help you pivot your product or idea so that it better fits potential customers with the problem you are trying to solve. The whole point is to create curiosity and have them explain more to how they answer some of the questions. Just get a feel of their perspective of the product. Then, and only then, you may ask them to set up an appointment, or a later meeting, to discuss your products and ideas more in depth if it seems to be piquing their interest.
BoweryJE22