How to Build a Comprehensive Prospect Profile (Part 2) by Pat Ryan

Posted on Oct 11, 2022 in Blog, Training and HR

What is the best way to build a comprehensive profile of your prospect? In our last blog post, we covered SPIN selling techniques, a framework used to gather valuable information from your prospects to assist in the sales process.

This week, in part two of this topic, we’ll dig deeper by sharing Question Guidelines designed to help you build a more comprehensive prospect profile to improve sales results. Ask your prospects the following questions to help them open up, allowing you to more quickly understand their situation and identify areas of potential need:

Question Guidelines

When speaking with prospects, employing these probing questions is one effective way to turn simple data (Contacts) into meaningful information (Prospects).  Use these questions as a checklist – to verify that you ask the right questions and discover the information required to understand your prospect’s needs. Modify these questions according to your specific industry or target account as needed.

1.       Business Drivers

  • What is the motivation to change?  Why are you undertaking this project?
  • Who is pushing this process?
  • What are the business problems that need to be solved?
  • What corporate objectives can we help you achieve?

2.       Needs/Payoffs

  • What benefits will your organization realize from this project?
  • What’s in it for the person we are talking to, or the person running the project?
  • How does the contact “Win” by implementing a solution like ours?

3.       Timing Imperatives

  • When does this project begin?
  • Is there a target decision date?
  • Are you putting out an RFP?  If so, when?  When are responses due?
  • Do you have a target “Go-Live” date?

4.       Technical Factors (if applicable)

  • Is there a particular technology standard in-house?
  • Is there a bias toward an in-house or an ASP solution?
  • Are there any bandwidth issues?
  • How much influence does IT have on the decision-making process?

5.       Threats

  • What other vendors are you considering?
  • Are you using any other solution provider today?
  • Is there anyone in the company who is resisting this project, or already has a preferred solution in mind?
  • Is doing NOTHING an option?
  • What happens if you choose to do nothing?

6.       Coach/Supporters/Right Level

  • Are we talking with the RIGHT person?
  • Who is running the project?
  • Who is making the final decision?
  • Is there anyone ELSE involved in making the final decision?
  • How is a final decision made?
  • Is there a committee involved in this process? If so, when is the committee making its recommendation?
  • Do we have a contact that can “coach” us through the process?

7.       Budget Funds

  • Is there an established budget for this project?  Amount?
  • If not, what is the process to establish a budget?  When?
  • Can you give us a ballpark figure of the approximate budget?
  • Who is involved?

We hope that you find both the SPIN Methodology and the Question Guidelines helpful in your prospecting efforts.  Employing these techniques will go a long way toward opening up your prospects, and providing you with important information required to match your solution offering to your client’s needs…  The result? A much-improved sales pipeline, with detailed information including the need, timing, and budget for a potential project.

Remember, if you are not marketing to enough prospects, the results of your efforts will be lacking!

Mentor Tech Group is the ONLY company that specializes in building and maintaining an ACCURATE, detailed market intelligence database of corporate training and HR decision-makers.  Each MTG database record includes contact name, title, area of responsibility, phone number (often a direct-dial number), email address, physical address, and often times sales notes (such as the admin’s contact information; buying cycle times; area of influence; etc.).

Click here to learn more about the unique benefits included when you work with MTG.

Be sure to also check out MTG’s:

  1. Client Testimonials to learn about others’ results in using Mentor Tech Group’s specialized database
  2. Case Studies to review creative marketing ideas others have used to put the MTG data to good use

For more information, please CALL us at: (651) 457-8600, Extension 1. We’re here to help you, whenever you’re ready!

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