If you have considered the kind of customers that you would like to have, from a loyal to an interactive customer, then you have probably already identified areas where positive customer behavior could increase your business success. However, this is not all your business needs to be successful. It also needs to engage with savvy prospects, who are valuable and ready to increase your business income, whether by buying or by partnering with you. Naturally, like with most people, savvy prospects have specific expectations that your business needs to meet to earn their trust. Let’s dive into the mind of a prospect to better understand what they expect from your business: Matching their needs is the best way to make a success out of your prospect meeting.
It is not uncommon for businesses that sell services – such as marketing agencies, for example – to be inviting to an official meeting with your prospect. This will give you the possibility to present your strategy for their needs. As a rule of the thumb, it’s the kind of meeting for which your business will be given one to two weeks preparation so that you can present your pitch. But you will need a little more to convince. You’ll need to present your prospect with a token of your interest. There is no need for bribery. Instead, you could arrange to buy flash drives for your business so that you can conclude your presentation by giving USB sticks packed with information to the attendees. Most people prefer USB sticks that are easy to deploy. But some businesses have high-security gates and will prefer printed documentation instead. Make sure to ask well in advance to plan for the meeting.
Prospects expect you to have done your research about their business and their activities. This is part of a standard meeting: You should have a clue who you are talking to and what they are likely to need. This means that you need to read about their industry sector, their latest news and their big competitors to gain a healthy understanding of your prospect’s situation. Additionally, this will also place you in a better situation if questions arise concerning future projects or partnership. So, go the extra mile and review their business, their strategy, their market and the obstacles that are likely to disturb their growth. You might find opportunities for further projects with them, but more importantly, you will find material for an open and constructive business conversation.
There is no need meeting new prospects if you don’t have any growth statistics and case studies to present. People needs the comforting scientific approach of statistics to believe in the quality of your services. They don’t care that you have acquired over 100 clients in the previous period. They are more interested in knowing that you’ve improved their ROI by over 30%, that the sale turnover has doubled, and that 55% of customers have become loyal advocates. As business conversations have evolved to a universe of trust based on figures, it’s essential that you join the game and prepare your best stats for your prospects.
There’s one thing that all prospects agree on: They don’t like pushy salespeople. This is a common behavior in the business world to guarantee that a prospect has not forgotten about your offer. However, you don’t need to get in touch every day to ask them if they’ve considered your offer. It’s the best way to make them run away! Pushy selling strategies, even if they may be considered active and positive tricks of the trade, are putting prospects under unnecessary pressure. Prospects prefer respectful and helpful salespeople, who they can trust to help with their issues.
One of the first rules of networking is to get to know each other. This begins with what is called small talks. Small talks matter in the business world as they help you to establish trust between parties. They are also helpful to break the ice when you first meet prospects, and to establish a few handful clues for future conversations. For example, getting to know that a potential buyer has a pair of kittens seem irrelevant at first. But it’s exactly the kind of detail that you can fall back on when you get back in touch. Talking about a topic that they like helps to release pressure and to build an atmosphere of confidence between you and your prospect. Thus, they’ll be more likely to trust your services too.
Black and Latinx Founders featured in 'Founding in Color'