If it’s true that change is an unavoidable part of life that happens every day, then your potential customers are affected by this as well.
“How so?” you ask.
Well, to be more specific, your prospects may be at risk when their existing vendor is either acquired, merges with another company, or goes through any other type of significant change. And if that’s the case, then as a professional salesperson, it makes sense to have a process in place to take advantage of these changes.
In other words, in order to make these changes work in your favor, you’ll need to track down the name of the vendor your prospect currently buys from, monitor any changes that have an impact on the vendor, and then be able to sort your database accordingly and make an effective call.
With that said, here are the steps to making this happen:
- Stay up to date on any changes that your main competitors go through.
- Set up a Current Vendor field that is searchable in your contact management system. Then, find out which vendor your prospects are buying from at the moment. And from here, you simply do a quick sort of all the prospects who have the competitor’s name in the field and plan timely contacts whenever changes make it worthwhile for you to do so.
- When calling your prospects, pique interest with your opening statements by hinting at value, and then be prepared to ask questions that get them to reveal the problems and pains they might be going through as a result of the change.
For instance, let’s say that you’re a wholesale distributor of plumbing supplies, and your prospects are home improvement retailers. Here’s an example of what you’d say:
“Hi Gene, this is Fred Peters from ABC Plumbing Supply. I called you last month, and we spoke about how I might be able to help eliminate some of the extra shipping costs you’re paying and the sales you’re missing out on as a result of making rush orders for specific items that you don’t have in stock.”
“At the time, you mentioned that you were with XYZ Plumbing Supply, and that making a change didn’t seem appropriate. With the recent acquisition of XYZ, though, I’ve heard that some of their customers have experienced delays in getting their orders delivered.”
“If this is a problem for you as well, we have a few options that could possibly be a good fit for you, and with just a few questions we can see if it’d be worth it for you to take a look at them.”
Again, by keeping an eye on any trigger events and taking advantage of them, you turn a person from someone who’d never purchase from you into a prospect who’s likely to buy from you now.