Are,You,Throwing,Good,Time,Aft business, insurance Are You Throwing Good Time After Bad?

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We've all heard the old saying "throwing good money after bad"referring to losing more money on something rather than cuttingyour losses and moving on. Laura was doing the same thing inher business -- only it was time she was wasting.After two years in business, she was still networking with the wrongpeople. As a project management consultant, her ideal targetmarket consists of large corporations with a designated budgetfor managing the processes in their company. The problem is,she isn't talking to the right people."I feel absolutely defeated. I'm not sure I can do this anymore.Maybe I should be selling something completely different. Peopleeither want what I offer but don't want to pay for it or they don'tsee the value in what I offer. I meet prospects at networkingmeetings and call them to set up a meeting. Then I spend a dayresearching their industry, so that I can speak intelligently duringthe meeting. Then on the day of the meeting, I spend half a daydriving to and from their office. Within the next few days, I puttogether a proposal for them and send it off. Then I follow-upwith them every week to see if they want to move forward withthe project."I felt the need to jump in. "Okay, can I stop you for a minute? Itsounds like you're spending a lot of time up-front. Let's say it takesyou 3 hours to drive to/from and attend a networking event, 30minutes to follow-up with a prospect to set up a meeting, 4 hoursto research their industry to prepare for the meeting, 4 hours todrive to/from and attend the meeting, 3 hours to put together aproposal, and 1 hour to follow-up several times. That's 15 1/2 hourspursuing one prospect.""And the biggest issue here is that they may or may not end upbeing a qualified prospect because it doesn't sound like you spendany time during your initial conversation making sure they want yourservice, can afford your service and are the person to make thedecision to purchase your service."Laura was floored. "I never even thought about it that way. I justneed to get more business, so I feel like I need to be out theremeeting people and at least getting the chance to send them aproposal. I don't really have anything else to do at my officesometimes. If I wasn't doing this, what would I do all day?"Like Laura, many early-stage business owners feel better if theyare busy, making calls, going to networking events, meeting clients,doing proposals, etc. But if you're staying busy just to stay busy, youend up spending a lot more hours working for a lot less money whichusually results in feeling the need to put in even more hours to makethe business "work."To avoid spending time doing the wrong things with the wrongpeople, you have to take the time to evaluate your prospectingprocess. It's all about defining what makes a good prospect foryour business and qualifying your leads as quickly as possible beforethey get too far into your prospecting process. In Laura's case, if sheformulated just a few questions she could ask leads in order todetermine whether they were interested in her service, could affordher service, and were in a position to make the decision to buy herservice, she could save numerous hours.Depending on the complexity of her qualifying questions, she mightbe able to do this at the networking event itself or on the initialphone call she makes to follow-up. So, instead of the purpose ofthe phone call being to set up a meeting, the purpose now becomesto qualify whether or not this "lead" is a "qualified prospect."In evaluating Laura's prospecting process, there are several points atwhich she could potentially save time by:* networking with corporate decision-makers, not entry-level managers or small business owners* qualifying leads on the phone before she sets up meetings* allowing the prospect to educate her about their company by asking them questions* ensuring that the decision-maker is in the initial meeting* streamlining and automating her proposal process to include only what is required at this stageAfter overhauling her prospecting system, Laura has freed up 12-15hours/week to focus on improving the other elements of her salesprocess, marketing plan, skill development, etc. And, once the salesstart coming through, she'll have more time to allocate to billablework which will earn her more money while working fewer hours.So, ask yourself – are you throwing good time after bad? Haveyou ever actually written out your prospecting process? Do youknow what steps you go through once you meet someone whomight be a prospect?If not, take 15 minutes right now to write down exactly how youprocess your prospects. Start by writing down all of the ways inwhich you meet prospects, including ones that come to youas well as ones you seek out (i.e. networking meetings, tradeshows, web site, calling your office, cold calls, current clients).Now, follow each of these entry points through step-by-step tochart exactly what process you take a prospect through. Forexample, if you get a lead through your web site, the prospectmight receive information from you automatically via emailbefore you've ever spoken to them. But, when you meet aprospect in-person, you might not give them anything tangible.You might just verbally describe your business or services.After you have all versions of your process written down,review them one by one to identify any areas in which youare investing too much time, chasing unqualified leads, notproviding information that would convince the prospect tobuy, etc.Once you've identified these areas of opportunity, brainstormabout how you can re-vamp your prospecting processes touse your time more efficiently. The less time you waste onunqualified, underfunded, disinterested leads, the more timeyou'll have to invest in qualified, paying clients.To learn more about making more sales, download “10 WaysTo Lose Great Sales Opportunities" at: http://www.askthebizcoach.com/freebies.htm