Is That Prospect REALLY a Prospect?

 

How do you know if a prospect is really a prospect, or if they are just yanking your chain? We’ve all had the prospects who seem to be engaged but turn out to be complete time-wasters.  They just cannot bring themselves to say “no thanks”.

They cost a ton in time and wasted effort, and advisers often kid themselves that they have a pipeline full of suitable future clients who are more often than not chain-yankers who never turn into clients at all.

Best thing to do is cut your losses as early as possible and give attention and effort to those who are truly engaged….but how can we tell which ones are for real, and which ones aren’t?

Well there is a simple and easy technique which revolves around one question that can be asked over the phone…and the answer will tell you straight away whether that prospect is the real deal, or someone you should just forget about….

Related: Zero Growth Is Your First Revenue Target

Transcript:

Hi welcome to Tony's quick tips.

Today I'd like to spend just a minute or so talking about how to qualify those people who are genuine prospects as opposed to those people who are just yanking your chain and wasting your time. . .

And you know the sort of people we're talking about it all had them where you've done all of the hard work and you're engaged in the process and you've been out to see them and then they say leave it with me and give me a call.

You do the follow-up call and what happens then they say I like a little bit more time so when would you like me to call you back and they come up with in a week or two anytime is fine.

Well let's put it in our calendars are you able to put it in an hour would you want me to send you a calendar invite for the phone call.

At this point if they agree to go through the process of putting it in their diary where you sending them a calendar invite.

Whatever the case may be they are thereal deal they're worth spending time.

If however we get to the point where they're going on or putting in the calendar or I don't need that or no I don't work with a camera forget about them they're going to waste your time forever.

This taps into that principle of commitment one of the big six principles of influence making small commitments leads to bigger commitments but it shows that they are committed to the process and it qualifies the prospect they are genuine.

So if you're not sure when you're dealing with the prospect whether or not they're yanking your chain or whether they're genuine.

Simply put it on to put the next phone call in the calendar not the next meeting just the next phone call because if they won't make that small commitment to allocating a time for you to talk about it they're not genuine throw them away.

That's a quick tip for today.