As you may know, rather than trying to take on all customers for your business, it’s best to only take on ones that are a good fit for what you offer. Although it is not always easy to let go of a potential customer that may not be a good fit, by focusing on the best prospects, you use your time most efficiently and help to ensure that your customers will be satisfied. In this article, we discuss how to identify prospects that may not be the right fit.

Pricing is Not a Fit

Although some negotiation on price may be possible, if what you offer is very much out of the price range for a prospect, they will probably not be a good long-term fit. Even getting on a call with such a prospect may not be a good use of your time. Using an online form, you can prequalify prospects even before you get on a call with them by asking them some questions about their current revenue, goals, and budget.

They Are Not Your Target Audience

It’s important to be specific about who your target customers are. In some cases, it may work to have customers who are not part of your target audience, but in other cases it may not. Trying to accommodate customers who are not part of your target audience can end up costing you a lot of time and money. For example, you may want to take on a customer who is larger than the type of customers that you usually work with, but this could mean having to spend a lot of time building out new systems.

Lack of Engagement

Lack of engagement is one of the reasons that may cause you to disqualify a prospect. If you have made a good effort to engage with a prospect through methods such as email and phone, or even doing a presentation, but they are not responsive, it may be time to move on so that you can focus on responsive prospects. It may also be time to move on if a prospect does not see the value of what you offer, even after you have clearly explained it, or if it seems that the prospect would be difficult to work with.

Before moving on, you may try contacting other decision makers at a company. Also, make sure to use software that allows you to analyze how people are interacting with your outreach efforts. This will also help you to prioritize your prospects.

They Show No Readiness to Purchase

A prospect that is not ready to purchase may not have an urgent need. They may just be casually gathering information for a possible purchase in the future. When this is the case, you can ask them when they believe they will be ready to buy. You can follow up with the prospect from time to time to see if they are ready to purchase-if you are not busy with prospects that are a higher priority. You might also just decide to send the unready prospects automated messages to remind them of what you offer.

A coach can help you to optimize your prospecting process. Get in touch today!