Serial Prospects Kill Your Pipeline
The Serial Prospect (SP) can impact a company in many ways. Before we go any further, let me define what they look like. The market has changed in our 21st Century. Some of the changes would be the advancement of technology in business, our expanding global marketplace, internet based purchasing, as well as education and access to product information, etc.
How does the SP act?
They will take a call from you. Those initial calls can be brief which leads to a meeting or can be lengthy with the SP asking more of the questions than you!
They will set an appointment to meet and are happy to spend time with you.
They will ask you for a detailed proposal as they will need it to get approval for the sale.
They will say they have the budget and then….
DROP OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH!
They will never return your calls, OR tell you things have changed and they no longer need your services, OR found your product/service online at a lower cost, OR took your precious information that you provided them with every meeting and proposal to DO-IT-THEMSELVES.
How do you uncover them?
Ask for a definitive decision timetable in writing.
Find out how many other firms are competing for the business. How do you do this, ASK? If you can’t find out by asking, use your network to find out including networks like LinkedIn.
Determine who the final decision maker is – never assume it is the owner. Decision makers do not always have “C” or “VP” attached to their names. Ask them early on in the process how decisions of this size and impact are typically made. You would be surprised at how many deals are lost using an ineffective strategy in this BD step.
How do you clean your current pipeline?
Determine what your ideal BD process really looks like. How do your prospects buy you and how do you sell to them? Map this out using a flowchart.
Don’t accept countless meetings – each time you are giving away free advice – never mind wasting precious billable hours. Be selfish with your expenses – do not wine and dine them.
Protect your proposal with “all ideas contained in this proposal are the property of (your company).”
Look at your pipeline and determine how many times you have met with each prospect. Each time you meet with a SP is an appointment time you might have been able to meet with a real prospect.
Again, look at your pipeline and determine what stage are they in on the BD flowchart. Are they stuck in a certain stage? Why? That is a classic symptom of a SP.
Look at your notes from each call and evaluate whether there is really a commitment to buy. Do you have the necessary ingredients such as: an understanding of their buying process, the list of (real) decision makers and have you met with each of them, determined the budget, have hard deadlines that both of you agree to meet and have met to date, received all necessary documentation and information from the company etc.? If there are gaps in any of these, you might have a SP clogging up your pipeline and costing you time, money, and resources that could be spent elsewhere.
Recall how much information you have shared without a commitment. If you were the prospect, could you have the necessary information along with data from other resources to think you could fix the problem?
Have you really determined that they have the budget to fix the problem? There is a lot of due diligence you can do both inside the prospect’s firm as well as online resources that can help you determine the health of the firm financially.
Have you done a needs and problems analysis to determine the “size” of their issues as well as determine their willingness to do something about the problem? Sometimes, the BD professional sees the elephant in the room and spends precious time trying to convince a SP that it’s there.
And finally, take the prospects to a “NO” and cut your losses. This will help you determine who’s real and who’s not.
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