Warm-Fuzzy Prospecting and the Cable Guy

Today we’re going to talk about profiling your prospects. But first, as promised, the second story of how I discovered warm-fuzzy-prospecting. This happened to me better than 20 years ago. In the old days before cable was popular people would sell it door-to-door. Some of these people were beyond aggressive. Many times they’d break-up into A and B teams of two and gang up on the consumer to hard sell them into purchasing cable. If the consumer didn’t purchase the B team would hit you the next day.

At the time I worked nights and one morning around nine(ish). I woke to a serious banging on my apartment door. Normally I’d stay in bed and out-wait the knocker. This time it didn’t work and eventually I just had to get up.

Barely half awake I opened the door and before I could say anything these two guys tag-teamed me beating me up to purchase cable. A verbal fight ensued and I finally out lasted these two annoying people. I’m sure nothing like that has ever happened to you.

Admittedly I forgot all about it over the years but here’s the lesson. Roughly two weeks after being accosted by these two cable-sellers I received a postcard in the mail from the same company trying to sell me cable.

I put the card aside for still another week. But, after reviewing the postcard I ended up purchasing cable.

Here’s the lesson: Cold-hard-prospecting is “interruption type” marketing. All you do is disturb your prospect and annoy him/her. I realize you can play the devil’s advocate and argue that it does work. Heck I door-knocked for several years and had a lot of success. But it wasn’t easy and physically and mentally demanding.

Think about it. I read the cable postcard at my convenience, called the cable company at my convenience. The postcard did all the work for the cable company. How hard was that? Wouldn’t you like to prospect the warm-fuzzy-easy-way?

So, how do you know who to mail to?

Profile your customers by determining the commonalities. This is a great reason to niche your market. Perhaps you were an accountant in a previous life. Maybe you belong to an organization, association, or civic group. Or, go back through your files and find commonalities in your customers. You have a natural affinity with a niche group of people. This is why I encourage you to Mine Your Natural Market^TM

All of us have leverage with our contacts, our backyard of referrals. Birds of a feather really do flock together. Sit down and take a few minutes to work through a profile of likely customers. Find the three or four commonalities. Develop a sales letter and begin to mail. Your goal is to put together a list of about 1000 you can mail to regularly.

This list will tie into your “stay-in-touch” program. This brings up another tip. What do you do with your turn-downs (folks you presented to who did not purchase for whatever reason). Things have a way of changing. Ever thought about mailing a newsletter to these folks in order to stay in touch? Next time we’ll talk about staying in touch and the best approach to it.

I’m testing the website mentor/coaching program. I’ll email you with details. If you haven’t signed up for FREE emails (by the way, I email stuff not posted on this site) my question to you is WHY NOT?

Heck, it’s free. Just put your name and email in the box on the top right of the blog site. Have a great week and until next time…Happy Selling!