Once you have completed your Prospect Scorecard, you can leverage your Virtual Buyer Persona and create a cutoff point to determine if your suspect is a high quality prospect. For example, if you have a prospect which is at least a 7 (out of a maximum score of 10), and has a buyer persona matching your criteria, you then know your prospect is an in profile prospect from a quantitative standpoint. If they score only a 3, they are obviously questionable. If they are a “3,” it doesn’t mean you can’t sell them your solution but it is less likely you will do so. With limited time and resources, you want to spend time with people who can and will buy.
If you are selling a very simple B2C solution over the Internet, your scorecard may only have three or four criteria. A simple survey, or a few well framed questions during the potential transaction, can help you determine who matches your criteria. Take the time to create your scorecard, it’s truly worthwhile no matter what type of business you run. Often helpful is including your partners, colleagues or even friends and family in your scorecard creation process. For instance, start writing down your client’s attributes on a white board or piece of paper, including industry, revenue size, employees, growth, geography, circumstances (growth, contraction, other), and the reasons they purchased. Whittle these attributes to the most important 10. Next, rank your current prospects against this profile to help you create your pipeline of “hot prospects,” or you may refer to these as “pipeline worthy” prospects. You’re likely to close business when you find a high prospect score and a match with your buyer persona.
But, how much time and effort should you expend on these tasks? An hour or two per week reviewing your prospects and pipeline is worthwhile for most entrepreneurs or small businesses. Spending more time with those likely to buy should be your virtual credo. Virtual sales efforts are fast and efficient, refine your process and look to optimize your prospect review if you’re spending more than 10 percent of your time on these types of tasks.