The first step in growing new business is finding new businesses. Even the most established distributors with the most seasoned outside salespeople will learn something new about opportunities in their territory through customer prospecting. Effectively prospecting for new customers goes far beyond flipping through your local phone book.
Often it’s the little things that help retain business. Provided everything else meets customer expectations – parts orders are filled quickly, repair work is completed on-time and accurately – it’s the relationship that keeps customers coming back. Whether it’s asking about a customer’s spouse or children by name, a card or call on the customer’s birthday or inquiring if that slice was ever remedied from the golf swing, a little information can go a long way.
Information is equally vital in creating new customer relationships and can make cold calls much warmer.
An outside sales force armed with detailed information about the prospects in its territory stands a much greater chance of winning new business. Walking in the front door knowing the makes, models and size of the customer’s fleet, the engines they spec, their buying cycles and the vocations they operate in puts your salesperson at an advantage. You have taken the time to know more about that customer’s business, they may want to know more about your business.
Companies like Equipment Data Associates (owned by Randall-Reilly Publishing, publishers of Truck Parts & Service) and R.L. Polk & Co. can provide distributors with detailed information about companies running commercial vehicles: Thousands and thousands of companies representing millions of vehicles. The information can be tailored to build detailed prospecting lists and customized sales plans.
“When you knock on the door with your prospecting data, you know exactly what the company owns so you can have your proposal in hand,” says Gary Meteer, Polk’s account director for commercial vehicles. “You can say, ‘I know you’re running 15 Peterbilts. I know you’re running five day cabs and you have a total of 30 vehicles. Well, here’s a contract maintenance proposal for your 30 vehicles.’ ”
DEFINING THE OPPORTUNITY
Effective customer prospecting starts with knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your own business. If you don’t start there, any new business earned can be lost quickly.
A salesperson’s efforts are wasted if he’s calling on prospects for whom you don’t have a useful product or service, or who have a business model you can’t support.
“Customer prospecting on a very generic level is identifying a target base,” says Bill Ault, EDA president. “It is about finding people who should be using your products. Not a larger group of ‘maybe’s,’ but a good group of ‘should be’s.’ They should own equipment and products that directly relate to what you have to offer.”
It goes beyond just knowing what products and services they currently use or may need in the future. By knowing the type of business they are in – information that is gleaned from Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes – and the size of their fleet, you can better determine if your business is a good fit for theirs and vice versa. SIC codes are four-digit numerical classifications assigned by the government to identify the type of work a business performs. For instance, you may know a particular prospect is running a vocational fleet, but an SIC code can help determine if the company is hauling aggregate or lumber.
By evaluating the type of customers you serve most successfully, your prospect list will be more targeted. Subsequently, your marketing efforts to reach these prospects will be more effective.
“The more you know about your customers and who you’re trying to reach, the better our data gets,” Meteer says.
“You need to know with whom you’ve done the most and the best business. Then we can tell you how many other customers are out there in your area that meet that exact profile,” he adds.
CASTING THE NET
Once you know who you want and why you want them, work with a data collection company that specializes in the commercial vehicle industry. Generally, the data they collect can be sorted by many different criteria. The more specifically you define the parameters of the prospects, the better your list will be.
Among the criteria you’ll want to consider is the geographic area, the type of business, the makes and models of equipment, the size of the fleet and the age of the vehicles.
For instance, Ault says, an independent service provider likely will want to concentrate its efforts on companies with vehicles that are beyond the warranty period, since vehicles covered by warranty generally are serviced at the OEM dealership.
A well-defined list of prospects means marketing resources can be allocated more effectively. For the top prospects, you will want to take a personal approach and have a salesperson make a visit armed with a preliminary business proposal.
For prospects that may not warrant a personal visit, introduce your business to them through means that require less resources, such as a phone call or direct mail. With the data you have from your prospect list, even these more impersonal means of contact can become more personal.
“Because you have all of this information, you’re not advertising the wrong product or sending the wrong message,” Meteer says.
The more refined your prospect list, the more refined your marketing strategy. Promotions and marketing campaigns can be specialized to pique the interests of specific types of prospects. If the resources are available, sales flyers can be customized to appeal to vocational fleets or prospects running a particular nameplate.
Customer prospecting can help grow business during lean times or define opportunities prior to expansion or acquisition. It is called market intelligence with good reason. Companies market smarter and make better use of their resources when they better define their own business, and the business they want to capture.
Customer Prospecting Checklist
- Identify your growth objectives. Do you want to expand your contract maintenance business? Move a particular product? Become the one-stop shop for fleets in your area?
- Define the type of customer that best meets your business model.
- Map out your strengths and weaknesses for serving that type of customer.
- Use a database service that specializes in commercial vehicles. Work with that service to create specific criteria for the prospect names you want to capture: The geographic area, the type of equipment, the size of the fleet, the type of business, etc.
- Prioritize the prospect list by which companies you should be doing business with and consider the amount of resources and effort you want to put toward winning that business.
- Develop a plan specific to each top prospect for introducing your company to theirs. For your top choices, you’ll want the personal touch of a salesperson armed with a preliminary business proposal.
- For your second and third tier choices, market to them using less demanding resources, such as telemarketing or direct mail. Try to tailor the message to their business needs whenever possible.
