Who are your top business prospects for the next 12 months? Most prospects can be categorized as an A, B, or C. Prioritizing your top prospects is vital to do before the chase begins otherwise your team may be expending A resources for an ‘unqualified’ lead. If your team has not defined the criteria a prospect needs to meet for each of these categories, consider this as a priority for your next sales meeting. Some ideas for qualifying prospects include:
A – Prospect
- Time to close – within 3 months.
- Price is not the main criteria.
- Willing to introduce you to all of the buyers and influencers.
B – Prospect
- Time to close is important, but not urgent.
- Looks for value and somewhat price conscious.
- Open to introducing you to users.
C – Prospect
- iPrice is most important… be prepared to negotiate.
- Multiple suppliers for the same opportunity.
- Decision making is distributed and made during committee meeting.
Once you have categorized your prospects it is imperative that you do not make the mistake of letting your C – Prospects fall to the wayside. Anyone with more than a few years of experience knows that magic can happen when a C – Client thrives. When their suppliers gave them great customer service in the beginning, loyalty is natural and they will continue to work with them when they too become an A – Client!
