If something can help you build your business you’ll want to do it. Effectively. If a system can help you do that, you’ll want to use it. Consistently.
Filling your ‘pipeline’ with qualified people who are best able to understand, value, desire and afford your problem-solving expertise, products, services and/or programs will have a direct and positive impact on your ‘bottom line’.
Prospecting is one of those mission-critical business functions that, done effectively and consistently, will contribute to your success. If you don’t do it, it will contribute to your demise just as surely.
Systems ensure that important outcomes are not left to chance.
Filling your pipeline (and, keeping it full) with new business opportunities requires a prospecting system.
A system, for prospecting, must address 4 issues:
- WHO . . . do you want to connect with through others?
- WHERE . . . do you find the people who can make these connections?
- HOW . . . do you make your sources productive?
- WHEN . . . do you do all the things you must to generate new opportunities?
Develop — and use — a system that addresses these four factors and you’ll find prospecting will be less of an issue and more productive for you than you think.
Key #1: WHO . . . do you want to connect with?
David Sandler used to say, “I’ll pay you a million bucks if you can bring me a Rippitz”. That’s a nice reward. Probably got your attention, fair? But then it hits you, “Whoa, what is a Rippitz, anyway?”. Ah, gotcha! You don’t know, do you? So how could anyone expect you, in spite of being motivated by a million dollars, to bring one back? It’s impossible.
And that’s exactly what happens when you’re UN-clear about WHO you want to meet through others. You can’t assume people will know WHO you want to meet. You have to be ready to tell them. In no uncertain terms.
You must be able to clearly communicate a description or profile of the kind of person you’re seeking to meet. Why? So you can share that profile with other people. Why? So they’ll know what a person-of-interest looks like to you.
More important, they’ll know immediately if they know anyone who matches your profile. Even more important, you’ll know if they know people who match your profile and, potentially, can introduce you to meet those people under favorable conditions.
One of my team members, Bill Doerr, recommends you create a profile based on four (4) characteristics that can be identified quickly and easily without burdening someone with the responsibility to know if someone has a need or interest in what you do for your clients. He calls it a CVS profile.
- 'C' stands for something that is common to your best clients.
- 'V' stands for something that is visible to the naked eye. No guessing needed.
- 'S' stands for situations that suggest your problem-solving expertise, services, products or programs may be helpful to someone.
One client, using this model, came up with these 4 CVS Profile characteristics:
- Commutes to work in NYC
- Has a live-in nanny for the kids
- Kids attend a private school
- Their ‘other’ car is a Lexus or Mercedes
Anyone who can satisfy even ONE of these CVS Characteristics ‘qualifies’’ as a person of interest to this client who's a financial planner in Fairfield County Connecticut.
What you want to AVOID . . . in your prospecting profile
Inbound referrals being made TO you are one thing. But outbound referrals . . . or, introductions being made FOR you . . . are quite different. How so? Well . . .
Someone is referred to you presumably has a need for what you can do . . . NOW. Someone you’re being introduced to usually doesn't need what you can do . . . TODAY.
Sooner or later though, assuming they match your profile, they are likely to develop a need you can address. When that happens, you’ll want to be known, liked and trusted by that person so they can find you and easily engage with you when the time is right.
Don’t require someone to know if there's a ‘need’ for your services! That’s your responsibility to determine. Your referrer’s responsibility is simply to help you identify and connect with their contacts by leveraging their existing relationship.
OK, that's it for WHO you want to meet. Build a profile based on CVS characteristics and don't require that a 'need' exist to qualify someone you should be meeting through the influence and prestige of someone you both know in common. That leaves . . .
Key #2: WHERE . . . can you go to generate new client opportunities?
You have a number of options and I'll recommend you focus on sources where you are 100% in control of the activity needed, by you, to produce a desirable result.
Key #3: HOW . . . do you generate referrals to qualified individuals?
You ask but not the way you may think. The secret here is, ironically, NOT to ask for referrals but to ask for introductions, instead. They're easier for you to request and more likely to be generated when you seek them out from people who know, like and trust you.
Key #4: WHEN . . . do you do all the things your prospecting system requires?
If you don't have a plan of action that guides you to do the right thing at the right time with the right person . . . you probably won't. So you'll need to plan your prospecting.
