Let’s go from London to Manchester and blow £1500 of company money
It doesn’t sound like a great idea I know but it does highlight something that I see all too often when I visit prospects – a lack of clarity in the target marketplace.
I don’t have anything against Manchester, it’s just that a friend of mine told me a story that I’d like to share that highlights the ‘real’ cost of poor qualification and poor prospecting.
The story goes that he had a client who sold ‘big ticket’ technology solutions to wealthy private individuals and despite most of their clients being in the London/South East area, a lead had come into the office that sounded great although it was slightly different to a normal lead – the prospect was north of Manchester.
The Sales Administrator took the lead, and then handed it to a Sales Consultant who, because they had a space in his diary (and was probably behind target) booked the meeting. Upon speaking to the prospect the Consultant realised that the meeting may be a little more technical than first thought and called his Pre Sales colleague who was travelling, on their way back from a conference.
Due to a lack of clear criteria and the fact that they were unable to get together before the 9:30 meeting, the Sales Administrator was asked to book 2 rooms at a Premier Inn as close to the morning meeting as possible. That evening they rendezvoused in the bar and planned their approach, which they subsequently did over their meal and a couple of pints.
After having their morning ‘Full English’ washed down with more coffee than necessary they met the prospect, and having turned down even more coffee, in favour of ‘just a glass of water’ they sat down for business, as follows;
Prospect (looking at the business card) – ‘Blimey, you’ve had a long trek ?’
Sales Consultant – ‘Oh it’s not so bad, we left yesterday afternoon and stopped over last night’
Prospect – ‘I did explain over the phone that I already have another quote, didn’t I?’
Sales Consultant – ‘Absolutely, but I’m confident we can be competitive’
Prospect – ‘Well it’ll have to be unbelievably competitive because if you look out of that window you can see your competitors office’
I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you what the outcome of the sale was, nor the repercussions back in London when the MD found out about the ‘Northern Adventure’ and the amount of unproductive time and expenses that were racked up.
Yes, it sounds absurd that 2 highly paid resources would put it upon themselves to spend hard earned company money on what most of us would classify as a ‘punt’ but the harsh reality is that it happens more than you think.
To make sure something of this type never happens in your business I would strongly recommend sitting down and concisely documenting (not just verbally communicating) what really constitutes a lead and a prospect. From experience it’s also really good to compliment this with documenting what you definitely don’t want. If you don’t have a ‘Lead Criteria’ form, I guarantee it will prevent you from wasting hard earned cash – your cash !!