Prospect Management |
Prospect Management - It’s not just for campaigns anymore. In fact, it’s a continual process. Leads are cultivated, solicited, and monitored, and then the cycle starts all over again.
Find the prospects, qualify, cultivate, solicit, close and monitor. If only it were that easy to make sure that it gets done. You must have one focus – hitting your campaign goals.
One key is to make sure you have the right number of qualified prospects in your database. If you have too many prospects at the lower end of the spectrum – your sales team will be overwhelmed by quantity and will miss out on the quality!
What if you don’t have enough qualified prospects? Research! Research! Research! Prospect management and research should work hand in hand. It should be a two-way flow of information. Everyone can help dig up new leads. Peer screening and electronic screening can also help you gather additional names for research.
You need to have one person dedicated to your prospects – not only to manage your lists, but make sure that information is reported back - and entered into your database. If the information does not get reported to the appropriate people, then you may as well not have gathered the information at all.
This Keeper must hold the sales team accountable for their prospects, progress, visits, and next steps. That way, information can flow seamlessly and in a timely manner with one person keeping everything streamlined. Further prioritizing of your prospects based on similarity and capability will only further your capabilities.
Manage your prospects with multiple lists:
- Who was already solicited, and what is the action plan
- Who needs to be solicited in the next 90 days
- Who needs an additional contact before solicitation – and what is the action plan
- Who needs to be contacted right away – within the next 30 days?
While the sales teams are out cultivating and soliciting, they should also be making monitoring visits. These visits should be celebratory, informational, and thankful. You do not want to skimp on these visits – it could impede future closed deals.
You hit the goal, now what? First you celebrate! Then you monitor all of your prospects appropriately! At the same time, you probably will have new initiatives and programs in development; or, you may have uncompleted goals from the current campaign – and you need to keep the momentum going.
Consequently, you have prospects that you cultivated that weren’t quite ready to close before the intiative ended. Likewise, you have to answer the question of who will be your prospects for the future.
Truthfully, every action you take after the campaign sets yourself up for the next one. Even if your quiet season, you need to think about lead generation towards your next campaign. You also may have some intermediate projects that require attention – so it’s important to keep a fresh list of prospects at all times. You finished a successful campaign. You are now in the middle of a strategic planning process, and of course, with every strategic plan come new initiatives – and with every new initiative come another opportunity.
You were unable to see all of your major prospects – didn’t close a vast majority of them. But they are still viable leads. Plus, many of the “too small for us opportunities” could grow into major prospects in the next couple of months or years – those are definitely ones to keep an eye on and develop now.
By following these steps, you should be well positioned for any future campaign, and will have carried over the effectiveness of previous successful campaigns:
- First, treat all prospects appropriately.
- Second, make sure the annual leads generated sustains and grows
- Third, actively do prospect research on prospects with potential to grow into major customers.
- Fourth, keep all prospects engaged, so campaign effectiveness doesn’t fade.
- Seventh, treat all prospects appropriately.
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LATEST NEWS |
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February 27, 2008:
Mosaic joins in the Anti Tech Tax Rally in Annapolis, MD. Principal Scott Samborn is interviewed by WBAL Radio. |
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December 1, 2007:
Mosaic's Principal, Jason Bach published in SmartCEO Magazine for December 2007. |
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July 1, 2007:
Mosaic selected to build multi-lingual content management system for Mistral Group of Bethesda. |
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March 15, 2007:
Mosaic chosen to support Montgomery County Homeland Security Department on new technology revitalization initiatives. |
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