Saturday, January 28, 2012

FINDING NEW PROSPECTS

Hardly a week goes by that I don't have one or more BSCs ask me where they can find good prospects. I always discuss the standard ways such as the local chamber of commerce, business mixers, friends, referrals,BOMA and IFMA directories and the like.

The next step is making sure they are linked to the social media sites such as facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc.

I then proceed to provide them with some of the other sources I found extremely helpful in developing our business. Keeping in mind our emphasis was on manufacturing, medical, and education (not public), I mention the following,

1. Manufacturers News Directory- This provides all manufacturing facilities in each state, their size, number of employees and the contact names etc. You can purchase a directory for each state or all states. This became our source for manufacturing prospects and it worked very well.

2. Higher Education Directory- This provided us with all the colleges and universities in the United States along with their location, enrollment, contact names, etc. etc. We could then pick and choose which ones we wanted to place in our data base for follow up. I chose only those institutions that were not public as we did not want to go through the politics usually associated with public run institutions. We wanted an opportunity to SELL NOT BID.
Of course, we also worked at tracking down all private K-12 schools again avoiding public schools. Having said that, one of the best accounts we had for 10 plus years was a public school that was more or less negotiated and not bid each year. Great people to work with.

3. The National Medical Management Association-This provided us with the medical facilities in our areas of service. We did not do major hospitals but focused on clinics and one day surgery centers.

There are other sources such as Dun and Bradstreet, Black's Guide, etc. but we focused mostly on the three mentioned above.

After I have given them this information I provide them with what I believe is the best source of prospects and that is the one you build yourself and then focus on them. For example, determine which accounts in your area you REALLY WANT TO SERVICE and then find out everything you can about them and make them your "hit list" for the next year and focus your mailings in a specialized form to them.

Now what do I mean by specialized mailings? Let me give you two examples

A. While not all of your prospects are avid sports fans, most of them have heard of and at least have a passing interest in the NCAA men's ad women's basketball tournaments in March of each year called "March Madness".
You can purchase a plastic backboard with rim and net and basketball that fits on an office trash can. On the backboard you can imprint your company name, logo, web site address, phone number and the words, OUR CLEANING TEAM IS NUMBER 1. Then include a brochure in the mailing with the following message,

"March madness, what does that mean to you? Enjoying the NCAA women's and men's basketball tournament or "madness" and frustration over the unacceptable performance of your current contract cleaning provider? Call the #1 team. We have a team of trained champions ready to provide NUMBER 1 CUSTOMER SATISFACTION for you. Call today at ___________or visit our web site at _______________. DO IT NOW...We'll go overtime to satisfy you.

B. A miniature trash can is perfect for our industry. We purchased small metal trash cans that stood about 6 inches high.
Inside the trash can we placed, along with a business card, a crumpled up 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper with our logo and the words

"Feeling down in the dumps(ter)? Do your current cleaners miss trash and other tasks and then give you a bunch of garbage excuses? At _______________we don't sit on our can. We work hard at being a valued supplier and provide a 24/7 communication system so you're never out of touch---and we clean great too."
NO TRASH TALK, JUST THE STRAIGHT SCOOP! We want to
Dump your trash
Clean your restrooms
Vacuum your carpets
and do your dusting.
Call us at _______________or visit our web site at _________________. We'll both be glad you did.

These were just a couple of the successful focused mailings we sent to those customers we REALLY WANTED TO SERVICE. We usually sent 4-6 per year and the list changed from time to time. Oh yes, and we closed many of these "hit list" prospects.

Hopefully I am helpful to those BSC's that have contacted me and hopefully this information will be helpful to you as well.

HAPPY SELLING.


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