Introduction to Sales - Finding Potential Buyers and Qualifying

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Finding Potential Buyers
The first stage of the sales process is finding potential buyers. This is also called prospecting. By taking the proper approach to this stage, sales professionals can save time and achieve greater market penetration.
And, here the inexperienced salespeople sometimes make the mistake of pursuing an overly wide customer base. While, it’s much more efficient to have a focused strategy that targets suitable customers, rather than taking a scattershot approach.
The Ideal Target Customer
A selling organization creates a profile of its ideal target customer based on the type of industry, the product, and the purchasing budget. Once this is complete, its sales personnel can then begin to prospect for potential buyers.
The key to finding new buyers is to look in the right places. For instance, if a telemarketer is selling snow chains for tires, there's no point calling customers who live in areas with warm climates.
Prospecting for Buyers
There are many ways to prospect for new buyers: searching the Internet, checking the phone book, buying leads lists, and getting referrals, to name just a few.
Consider this example of a company that produces industrial lubricant for machinery and how they find potential buyers. The company's sales department subscribes to various trade journals and magazines relating to manufacturing.
The salespeople then use these publications to identify customers who might be interested in their product. These publications often carry profiles of individuals such as supply chain managers and procurement managers from specific companies. This helps salespeople to build their leads lists.
Exercise - Finding Potential Buyers
So, which example represents the first stage in the sales process, finding potential buyers?
1 - A carpet seller attends an interior design convention to establish contacts.
2 - A salesperson for a rug company collaborates with the Marketing Department on a promotional strategy.
3 - An auto parts sales professional discovers that a company doesn't have the budget to support a purchase.
Option 1 is the correct option. Establishing contacts through networking is something that takes place in the finding potential buyers stage of the sales process. (...)

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