Getting the Most of Your Prospect Face Time

Do you have prospects that waste your time? Or prospects want to spend time on the phone with you just to "pick your brain." I often get the question "Can we schedule a conference call?" ... the truth of my answer is "No", however, I tend to explain it like this ...

"There are two ways you can have a call (1) as an initial consultation or (2) as a service to my GOLD members after 3 months of membership. Both ways require an investment and give you 15-minutes without interruptions -- you understand time is money, especially when it's mine."

Now what is the lesson for your business ... you can't be to available. I'm busy with clients, I just can't do calls, a contact is a consultation. Your business may not yet be so busy.

However, when clients and prospects schedule time to meet with you, it gives you a focused interaction necessary to build a dialog around the clients needs.

Many sales professionals run into the desperate problem of jumping up to meet with any prospect that breaths. I've seen sales folks jump up from their "busy" desk, complaining of piles of paperwork and the poor economy, to leap over their chairs and out the door when they got a "hot one" on the phone.

It's just bad practice to be too available. If what you offer is such a commodity that if the truly qualified prospect could call someone else when they couldn't reach you, then you've got a marketing problem, not an availability problem.

I charge for my consultation time, your organization might be different, you should consider that same. There's probably a service you could offer that would help prepare prospects. For most technical services, just the act of discovery provides answers to prospects that they wouldn't have discovered without you.

Because I'm very busy with clients, I don't "just do calls", a contact is a consultation. You decide what is right for you and your business objectives. What many clients have found is that this method provides so much extra value.

When asked this question, I follow with my guarantee and consultation credit program (applying the consultation fee to our first assignment.) If you want details about these programs, then sign up for an initial consultation or to become a GOLD member.

Ask yourself ... instead of just meeting with customers, is there something of value you can provide for pay that would help your prospect while qualifying them to purchase your product or service? What could you do to make face time more productive with every prospect?

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