Prospect Factory details the system I created as a small business owner to achieve success in sales through sales prospecting. I am an entrepreneur and a marketer but, my area of expertise is prospecting. I excel at finding currently interested prospects for the products my company sells. I have become adept at connecting with potential buyers and “pulling interested prospects out of the void.” In the wide majority (over 95%), my prospects started out as cold prospects with whom I had no prior relationship. Neither was I referred to these prospects by any common acquaintance.
The environment in which I worked when I developed and wrote Prospect Factory was a business to business sales environment. As such, I was permitted to make outbound telemarketing calls as a part of my daily activities. I wrote Prospect Factory in its original form to record “how I did it” for future generations to see. My prospecting system became so well developed, I felt it shouldn’t just end with me. Because I had seen so many people have a difficult time with prospecting in the past, I felt I had a duty to share my prospecting system with others.
Building the First Prospect Factory
In a brief review, the Prospect Factory system got started in the world of outbound telemarketing. Oddly enough, I was a very nervous, and reluctant telemarketer at first. But, out of necessity, I forced myself to face and overcome my fear of calling because it was the only way I could survive in the beginning. I saw quickly that I could not control how many referrals I got, how many appointments I held, or how many sales I made. The only thing I could actually control was the number of times I dialed the telephone. So, I set a high goal for calling, and I charged forward.
To shorten this story, I’ll just say that in time, I became an expert on the phone. But, it wasn’t being an expert on the phone that made my world change – though it did set the stage for it. Instead, a breakout moment occurred that I did not expect or anticipate. It came when I started fulfilling requests from prospects to “send information through the mail.” In telemarketing, in those days, agreeing to such a request was perceived as a kind of defeat. But, one day I just decided to let go. I decided to stop fighting these requests and say, “Sure, I’ll send you something.”
The First One Pagers
I developed my first marketing piece for a direct mail which became the grandfather of the “One Pager.” I pre-printed 500 copies, and I started sending them out to folks who asked for information to be sent by mail. I received a high response percentage from this mail, and I took notice. The mail generated leads were exciting to see. They weren’t costing me much and they would show up randomly on any given day. No extra calling required. I could be taking the day off, playing golf, on vacation, etc. and these leads would show up at the door (or later, through the fax machine). At the time, it was rather exhilarating to be honest – somewhat like finding gold.
My mailings were working so well, I tried to think of ways to turn up the volume. A key recognition was that I was only sending mail to prospects who had been pre-qualified by phone. I knew I needed to maintain a certain level of quality in the people I mailed to in order to keep achieving successful results. The modalities of (1) a high volume of calls, (2) attempting to identify and keep track of better quality sales leads and (3) the combination of these efforts with direct mail outreach, turned out to be a potent mix.
Creating a Perfect Storm
The final element that threw these items into a frenzy was that all of this activity occurred during the widespread growth of computers and database technology. By adding the power of database management to the system, the combined effect created a perfect storm. Fast forward ten years, and I had developed a powerful proprietary system for prospecting.
Further, I had cultivated and developed a prospect list that was just short of incredible. These were prospects who now knew me and my company very well. They were receptive and professional in both demeanor and discourse. Prospecting as an issue for my business was completely resolved. No longer a danger or a threat, prospecting was now an powerful asset. Game, set, match. I had created success in sales, via success with sales prospecting.
Finding a Breakout
The biggest breakout moment occurred when I broke through the barrier between telemarketing and direct mail. This is a barrier that most marketers never seem to see through. Direct mail alone cannot provide much feedback – yet telemarketing is great for it. Starting with a large list, using calls to pre-qualify and build bridges with prospects, coupled with systematic direct outreach and data management, plus time – bingo! Sweeping all the leads together from the various sources consistently produced a substantial number of leads over time. Further, the “developed” list over the years became, for me, as solid as a rock. There is no going back.
People wouldn’t say “cold calling doesn’t work,” if they knew my story. In fact, I have found that it is referred lead prospecting that often is the weaker of the two horses. In many cases, it is too slow compared to my system. It is inconsistent and depends on too many fickle circumstances that are out the salesperson’s control. And, the reality is, it can be just as painful to get rejected asking for referrals as it is to get rejected while making calls.
What’s more, referred lead prospecting is generally not current interest focused. Just because I am “referred” to you has no bearing on whether you have any current interest in what I sell. My system, on the other hand, is all about current interest. My prospects only make a connection with me when they are currently interested. Ultimately, this is good for them, and it’s good for me.
Maybe This Book Is Not For You!
While there is plenty of help for most folks here at the Prospect Factory website,
- If you are in a business that is incompatible with outbound phone calls such as a restaurant, a bakery, a convenience store or many other retail types of businesses, Prospect Factory (first edition), may not be compatible with your marketing plan because it relies heavily on outbound calling.
- Many business to consumer markets may not work well with the book either because business to consumer markets insist upon calling consumers, and the consumer market for calling has been badly damaged due to do-not-call restrictions (especially small, local businesses have been hurt the most).
- Lastly, if you just can’t handle making phone calls to prospects – though I provide good information to help you get past any call reluctance you may have – Prospect Factory may not be for you. Though I can provide instructions on “how to call without pain” that are as clear as crystal, some folks will just never allow themselves to be comfortable with calling. If this is you, maybe I can’t help you.
Having given these warnings, the book is an accurate account of “how I did it” in succeeding with prospecting. It is an excellent survey of my prospecting system and was written to be non-industry specific so that folks from many different industries might have an opportunity to benefit. I should say also, that even if I was transformed tomorrow into a business-to-consumer marketer, I would still want to know the information in Prospect Factory (i.e. especially the parts about data collection, One Pagers and systematic outreach). But, I’ll leave that decision up to you.
Still With Me?
If I didn’t scare you off by being too honest above, here then is the sales “pitch” for Prospect Factory:
Prospect Factory teaches a proven prospecting system successfully used by the author for many years to generate large numbers of qualified and interested prospects. It does this by spelling out how to approach your market from the top-down rather than from the relationship-up. It illustrates how to identify and cultivate a large list of high-quality prospects and how to approach those prospects using professional and cost-effective methods that yield results.
With Prospect Factory you’ll learn:
- How to successfully find new sales leads without calling on people you know or pressing current customers for referrals to people they know.
- How to define the market for your goods and services and how to approach that market directly.
- How to unlock the value of your higher-potential prospects by approaching them with proactive direct response materials that get results without costing you a fortune.
- How to write one-pagers – powerful and proactive prospecting letters.
- How to make telephone calls to pre-qualify your prospects and how to make those calls without pain.
- How to set up a dedicated prospecting database and make productive use of the information in it.
- How to organize follow-up with prospects – and more!
This book (hardcover, 164 pages) shows you how to find large numbers of qualified sales leads without calling on people you know, without depending on referred leads and without having a strong natural market of contacts. Great for business-to-business sales.
As always, best of luck to you with your prospecting!
Sincerely,
Ted Stevenot
