Success Circle Call #12: Aim For The Bull's Eye
Whether your sales career is just getting started or you're a seasoned pro, you're probably aware of the first rule of sales - “It's a numbers game.” This rule is based on the premise that you have to contact lots of prospects and get lots of “no's” before you can find someone to buy from you. And as you increase the number of “no's,” you also increase the number of “yes's.”
While it is certainly true that the more times you get the door slammed in your face, you'll increase the likelihood of finding the proverbial ‘low hanging fruit,' but it doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to suffer through rejection after bitter rejection before you enjoy the sweet taste of sales success.
Wouldn't it be better to knock on the right doors with the right message and go for quality of contacts instead of quantity? Whether you have thick skin or not, you have to admit that it's certainly less bruising to your ego.
Use the concept of Bull's Eye Marketing as the prelude to all prospecting efforts. Bull's Eye Marketing is all about the quality of your prospects, not the quantity. Visualize for a moment, a dart board. You have a round target with concentric circles. In the center is the Bull's Eye. Around the edge of the board you have points ranging from 1 to 50.
From a prospecting perspective, most companies and salespeople narrow their focus to their target market. A target market consists of those prospects that are most likely to need and use your product or service. Using the dart board as a reference, your target market would be anyone on the whole board. You have a chance of scoring anywhere between one and 50 points with each dart. While a target market is important, stopping there is not enough to get you out of playing the prospecting numbers game.
Bull's Eye Marketing, on the other hand, is determining which prospects in your target market are the absolute best prospects for you, your company and your service. With these prospects you'll earn 50 points each time you make a sale. Think about it; that's two and a half times more than the best of your regular target markets. And, if you aim for the Bull's Eye and miss, you're still more likely to hit something else than miss the board entirely. When you shoot darts for real, don't you aim for the most points? Then why not aim your marketing and sales “darts” at the Bull's Eye too? It's more effective and much more fun!
Bull's Eye Prospects are your best prospects for a number of reasons. Because they have the best fit with you, they will become your “raving” fans. That means they will tell others and refer more business to you. They also get more value from you, because the fit is so strong. Consequently, they are willing to pay higher fees and be less susceptible to a competitor's advances.
So instead of focusing on lots of prospects that will be marginally receptive to your service (tossing a handful of darts at the board and hoping you score), the idea behind Bull's Eye Marketing is to focus your prospecting efforts on those prospects who are most likely to understand and appreciate your value (throw one dart at a time with careful aim at the Bull's Eye). As you build your reputation as the expert in a particular Bull's Eye Market, you will actually attract more business without any extra effort. Now that's fun!
