You’re familiar with the concept of prospects and customers. Today I’m going to introduce you to the “prospect-customer.” You have prospect-customers and in quantities greater than you want to acknowledge. You’ve just never given them a name.

The Prospect-Customer
A prospect-customer is a company that may or may not buy from you and has one or more of the following attributes:

They like you very much. In fact, you’ve taken them out to lunch on numerous occasions. Everyone in their office knows and likes you. Heck, you like them too. They’re almost family. There’s only one big problem; they never buy.  Anything.

Even though they are a big company and use significant quantities of your products and/or services, their orders are infrequent and small. They’ve been your customer for a very long time. You keep thinking that someday they’ll become one of your best accounts if you can stay the course.

The person you sell to is a silo. All that’s missing is the corn. Oh sure, the buyer will throw you an order now and then, but there are six other departments in the company you could be selling to. The problem is that your contact is blocking you from interacting with other potential buyers at his or her company.

Ever feel like a fruit tree? Sometimes you are. When companies only buy products or services from you that they can’t source anywhere else, it’s called cherry picking. They need you, but only for what they can’t find somewhere else.

You know what they say about coming in second. The view never changes. When a company positions you as a secondary or tertiary supplier they’re saying, “Stand on the sidelines in case we might need you someday.” They just want you to stand there and wait and wait and wait.

The prospect-customer has a way of never blossoming and wastes your time with little to no ROI (Return on Investment). It’s a “they’re not that into you” scenario. However, this doesn’t always have to be the case.

Prospect-Customers, Kill Them Or Heal Them
When it comes to prospect-customers, you must take strong and deliberate action. If you don’t, these companies will loiter on your account list like perverts at a bus stop. The sales tips below are draconian; they need to be. Either make something of your prospect-customers or get rid of them. Make room for customers that are normal.

1. “The we-love-you-but-never-buy-from-you prospect-customer.” Point out to them that love is wonderful, but you need to feed your family. Your boss is wondering why you’re not getting any business from them. You’ll soon find out how much they really love you when you press the issue. The normal prognosis for this type of prospect-customer is not good. They love you less than you think.

2. “The never ending small order prospect-customer.” They think you’re happy with their order volume and you’ve gotten into the bad habit of not asking for more. Get assertive with them and educate them regarding the other products and services you sell. Let them know that sourcing more products from one trusted supplier makes their buying more efficient. The prognosis for this type of prospect-customer is good. It’s a matter of breaking some habits on the part of both the customer and the sales professional.

3. “The you-can’t-sell-to-anyone-else-in-this-company prospect-customer.” Ensure that you tell your contact at this company in advance that you will be contacting other department heads. Once you’ve informed him or her of this, then start contacting. What do you have to lose? The prognosis is good for this kind of prospect-customer. Usually you’ll find the “blocker” you’ve been waltzing around all this time has no fangs.

4. “The cherry picking prospect-customer.” See “The never ending small order prospect-customer” above.

5. “The you’re-on-hold prospect-customer.” This type of prospect-customer is easy to deal with. Simply give them your version of the following, “I’m not going to be able to keep in contact with you and act as an ongoing backup if you never buy anything from me. I understand I’m number two, but we need to establish our relationship through, at a minimum, some small transactions.” The prognosis for this type of prospect-customer can be very good once they realize you don’t intend to stand by forever.

Sales Blog Epilogue
Why do we have prospect-customers? We have them because we’re afraid to upset the status quo. “Maybe someday something will happen.” No, it won’t. Make something happen or fire these time consuming, resource wasting parasites.

Further reading:

• Always Being Nice Is Not A Good Sales Strategy

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Tags: assertive, customers, habits, prospects

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