Excerpts

Prospecting

Module Summary

The Secret To The System

Our experience tells us that in the world of direct selling, as with other professions, there is no secret that will guarantee your success, but there are principles that lead to your success.

A principle is defined as a fundamental law or code.

In selling, there is a law that if ignored, will deny you success.
There is a code that, if not understood and adhered to consistently, will stop you from achieving success.
There is a principle, which if not practiced, will significantly affect your ability to sell. That principle is simply:

“If You Don’t Have People To See, Nothing Else Really Matters”—Gary O’Sullivan

If sales counselors don’t prospect, they’ll never have enough people to see.
If a counselor won’t prospect, you need to know.

The Key To Success
In our profession, effective prospecting is the key to success. Effective prospecting is a mind‐set, almost a lifestyle. In the “Prospecting” module of The System, you will learn why people don’t prospect, how to engage them in the habit of prospecting, and how to teach them what they need to do every day to be successful.

Your sales counselors will learn all the techniques to place themselves in legitimate selling situation anytime they want, with anyone they choose. Not only are we going to teach you all the techniques, but we are also going to give you all the tools you need—tools that have been carefully produced to make sure you always have something valuable to talk about with potential clients. First, we’ll tell you about the 10 principles for effective prospecting, which you and your counselors need to learn and absorb.

Module Excerpts

10 PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE PROSPECTING (p. 3‐4)

Think about prospecting all the time: Obtaining new people to see is the lifeblood of direct selling. Think about your prospecting efforts and effectiveness all the time.
Prospecting requires a positive attitude: You must develop a positive attitude about prospecting. When it is something you want to do, rather than something you feel you have to do, you will be more willing to do it and will do it more effectively.
Think NEXT: Regardless of the results that you get at any door, on any call, or in any situation even if it is less than receptive, you must think NEXT. Thinking NEXT is a mentality that says, it was not this call but it will be the NEXT one or the NEXT one.
Become a master prospector: Of all the skills and competencies that we should learn, being masters of prospecting should be at the top of our list. If we fail to master this skill, we may never get the opportunity to use our other skills.
Remember, your purpose drives prospecting: We are on a mission to tell the pre‐need story, to help people secure peace of mind, and by doing this effectively we are building our future. If you clearly define why you are prospecting, it will empower you and give you the power to prospect
Prospecting must become a habit: It has been said that nearly 90% of what we do every day is habit. If we can make prospecting as much a habit as: eating, sleeping, watching our favorite programs, etc., we would never run out of people to see.
Become possessed about prospecting: When a person is obsessed with something, they think about it all the time. But when the idea gets a hold of them and they are possessed, they do it all the time.
Keeping score is critical: It is important to know how well you are doing at prospecting. How many new prospects do you get a day? How do you get them? What do you need to do to improve the process? Only by keeping score will you know how
effective you are.
You must learn to deal with rejection: Rejection is a part of the prospecting process. It is not people rejecting you that will stop you from succeeding; it is you and only you. You must learn to manage the rejection by understanding that people are not rejecting you; they are rejecting something they don’t fully understand.
You must have multiple approaches to the market: Referrals, walk‐ins and everything in between are important, but no lead type should be your only prospecting source. The more approaches you have to the marketplace, the more ways you will discover to find people. Some avenues will have a short lead to presentation cycle; others will have a longer cycle. Spending the correct amount of time dedicated to each aspect is important, and having more than one way to obtain new prospects is critical.

PRINCIPLES DON’T CHANGE, ONLY TECHNIQUE AND APPLICATION DO (p. 45‐46)
When you are making your sales presentation, it contains certain elements that make it successful. The principle of an effective presentation is that it is a sequence of thoughts that lead to an obvious conclusion. Principles don’t change. We are sharing the technique and applications that the principle of an effective presentation requires.

6 ELEMENTS OF A PROSPECTING SCRIPT
We believe that there are six major elements of a successful prospecting script.

Greeting – It is important to have a brief and welcoming greeting when you first meet your contact.
Identification – People are immediately reassured when you clearly announce your name and affiliation.
Justification – People want to know what you want.
Qualification – You want to discover if they are a prospect.
Offering – If they are a prospect, you want to offer them information of value so they will be willing to meet with you.
Agreement – This is the close. Here is where you get the contact to become a prospect and set an appointment to meet with you. Or to accomplish whatever goal for which this particular prospecting script was created.

IT’S A MINIPRESENTATION
Your prospecting script is in essence a mini‐presentation, a sequence of thoughts that lead to an obvious conclusion. The sequence of your prospecting presentation contains the six components that will lead you to an obvious conclusion. Here are the six components with actual language that illustrates their purpose.

Greeting – Simply say their name, “Hello Mr. Johnson.”
Identification – Let them know who you are and where you are from “My name is _________ with __________ Cemetery/Funeral Home. You may be familiar with our cemetery located at _________________.”
Justification – “The reason I am calling today it to tell you about a service we are offering families in our community that currently don’t own cemetery property/haven’t made their pre need funeral arrangements.”
Qualification “You don’t own cemetery property locally do you?” “You haven’t pre‐planned your funeral needs yet, have you?”
Offering “__________ is making available our exclusive Personal Planning Portfolio, which contains information on wills, social security benefits, and veterans’ benefits and alerts you to the important information that is required when the death of a loved one occurs.”
Agreement “________ makes this book available to families in our community at no cost or obligation. It is our desire to help families be better prepared and more informed. Would this Tuesday morning or Thursday afternoon work better for you?”

YOU WILL GET OBJECTIONS (p. 47‐48)
Overcoming Objections to Appointment Setting

Salespeople encounter objections in two major areas of the sales process. The obvious is during the presentation process, especially in the closing portion. The other place that we encounter objections is when we are “selling” the appointment.

It is normal and should be expected for people to be less than enthusiastic when initially talking to someone from the cemetery or funeral home. Think about it: why should anyone be interested in being sold cemetery property or funeral arrangements unless they already know what a benefit pre‐planning has been to them?

Key Points to Remember When Handling Objections to the Appointment:
People are naturally going to respond negatively to something they don’t understand.

Their first response is generally not their real feelings. It is just a common response they give about many things they encounter. In most cases it is an automatic response to try to end the encounter.
If you are pleasantly persistent, you can still gain agreement.

Their natural response is: “I’m not interested.” You should expect that response. But you should also know how to respond and manage this and other objections to get people willing to talk to you.

Here are two things to remember:

You can manage their objections.
You will get lots of people to talk with you.

“The person who deals with the most rejection obtains the most prospects.”

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