Imagine you have 100 new prospects standing in front of you.
Some of them are going to buy what you sell.
Some will do it this week.
Some will do it six months from now.
Some may take two years.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could put all 100 people through a sensor…and the ones who were going to buy would glow bright green?
That would be a real advantage. :)
Unfortunately, a name, an email address, and a phone number don’t reveal very much.
You can’t look at the list and tell who just had a tree fall on their fence.
You can’t see who has been vacationing in Longboat Key for ten years and is finally ready to buy a condo.
You can’t identify who downloaded your kitchen cabinet catalog because they’re renovating next month…and who simply enjoys looking at beautiful kitchens.
That’s why we need to create our own sensor.
The five-star prospect process does exactly that.
I think about it like the staging lights at a drag race.
The first light comes on: they’re willing to engage in a dialogue.
The second: they’re friendly and cooperative.
The third: they know what they want.
The fourth: they know when they want it.
And the fifth: they would like us to help them.
Now we have a five-star prospect.
The important thing is that we don’t try to light all five lights at once.
We start at the top.
Are they willing to engage?
If they are, we can discover in the first 30 seconds whether they’re friendly and cooperative.
Then, through a real conversation, we can learn what they’re thinking about doing and when they hope to do it.
Only after we understand those things are we in a position to ask whether they’d like our help.
Most sales processes work backwards.
They begin with the assumption that everyone should buy, everyone should buy from us, and everyone should buy right now.
But we don’t need to force all 100 prospects through the finish line.
We need to patiently discover which ones are already moving in our direction.
You may not be able to make the buyers glow bright green.
But if you create opportunities for people to engage, every conversation turns on another light.
But if you create opportunities for people to engage, every conversation turns on another light.