How to spot a bad prospect

Welcome back to the podcast.

Lovely to have you with me again for this week.

And if you're new to the podcast, hello and great to have you here.

My name is James White and I help people like you get brilliant sales results.

So thanks for listening.

But this week we're going to talk about, I've talked a lot in the past around how to, you know, to get things right in a sales situation.

But this week I'm going to do something different, which is how to spot a bad prospect.

Why is this important?

Well, you should also know why it's important is because you do not want to be wasting your time.

Your time is the most precious asset you have and you do not want to be wasting your time chasing people that are never going to go anywhere.

So one of the key things that I talk about in sales, and I've said this a number of times, is no's are not bad.

Yeses are great.

We all want yeses, everyone to say yes to our deals and move things forward.

No's are not bad though.

No's enable us to move forward and to pick on the next person that we want to engage with.

What's worse are maybes.

And one of the things that I want to talk through today is how you can try and spot some of the bad prospects.

And the reason those may bes are challenging is because you put time and effort into them.

And the reality is you put time and effort into people and then you get your emotions up because you want to work with them and you get all excited thinking there's going to be some business there and then it doesn't turn to anything.

And I want you to avoid being in that position where you don't do that and when you don't have that, that challenge.

So look, I'm going to talk to you about a couple of things to spot a bad prospect.

And these are maybe some of them is a bit controversial.

Some of them maybe you might have a comment on it.

If you have reach out to me on social media, James White, sales on all channels and let me know what your thoughts are.

But one of the things that I, these are some things that I think are generally make a challenging prospect and you should look out for.

And the phrase that I sometimes use in situations like this are red flags.

I look out for red flags.

Things that make me go, okay, something here that's just making me a little bit nervous or, or concerned around something.

And the things for you to consider in your, in your, your process.

So point number one is this they are really, they don't have any urgency, I guess, around your solution.

So there is literally a, you know, for want of a better phrase, people are really chilled about the problem.

Now, again, I've always talked in other podcasts around the four types of people, so I'm not saying that just because someone isn't, you know, extroverted that you shouldn't take them seriously.

But when someone's really chilled or laid back or a bit ambivalent about a problem, then I think that should send a bit of a warning signal to you, especially if they're the key decision maker in the process.

I've sometimes had conversations with people where I've, I've talked to them about, you know, how important is it for you to get this resolved?

And they've gone, yeah, yeah, it's pretty important.

But yeah, it's not something, you know, one of those things.

And it's made me go, ooh, okay.

They've just not got that urgency to do things and to move things forward.

And I guess this is relative to us as human beings in general.

But now I always say to people, if someone said to you you were going to die in the next three months, would you lose a stone?

The honest answer is, I bet you would.

Because if someone said to me you were going to die, unless, you know, you got on the scales in a three months time and you were one stone lighter, you would, you would take action.

Or most people would because you, you want to change and you want to stay alive.

Whereas, you know, and I look at myself, by the way, in the mirror, if someone said that to me and said, james, you've got to lose a stone in the next three months or even the next month, I would be like, right, I'm cutting out these things because I want to stay alive.

If I knew I was going to die.

But the reality is, because we don't, we sort of live our lifestyles and we carry on and then it doesn't become as urgent for us.

So, you know, if you look at a scale of a problem between 1 to 10, if someone's got a 9 or a 10 out of 10 problem, that's the sort of prospect you want to be engaging with.

Because they're going to want to find a solution, whether it's your company or someone else's, they have to get the problem resolved.

Whether it's a one, they're a bit like, well, actually, this isn't that big of an issue for me.

So the first question I think you've got to look out for a prospect is how, you know, where maybe it's not how laid back and normally that comes through in the way they are.

So people that have got a key problem are like, no, we need to get this fixed, we need to move this forward.

You can tell this and sense the way they are with it.

Whereas, whether.

But yeah, it's a nice to have, you know, it's a great to have be a bit more concerned about it.

So look out for the urgency or the concern they've got around the problem itself.

So point number two, this is another really interesting one, is no clear budget or expectation on budget.

And why is this a concern?

Most people, when they want to solve a problem, know that there's a figure that they've got to put in mind for that.

Now, some people don't know.

Some people don't know what the figure should be.

Some people have a figure in their mind, what they think it should be and literally don't, you know, they're miles off.

I was talking to my dad the other day, bless him, he was coming up to his 80th birthday and wanted to get a new kitchen and literally in his house and was like, you know, I think, you know, it's going to cost a couple of thousand pounds.

I was like, you're not going to get a cupboard for a thousand pound, dad.

Two thousand pounds, let alone a new kitchen for that.

I mean.

And he was basing his figures on what he remember having 20 years ago or maybe 15 years ago when he was, you know, when he last had his kitchen done.

So I was like, yeah, that's not going to work.

So some people's expectation around budget is a bit old and out of date.

But the reality is, if they've got no budget or clear understanding of budget or no element of what they even think it's worth investing in, then it's a real challenge.

And I think that that's going to give you some concerns.

It's going to delay you because if they don't know what, especially if they're in a company situation, they don't know what the budget is, they're then going to maybe have to go and find that budget from somewhere, which means they've then got to approach other people, approach finance, approach, you know, other leaders, and that can take time and, you know, whereas if there's a clear, specific problem and they're on the game and they know what the problem is and they know the impact problem, what out measures it's hurting in the business, they can go and say, look, this problem is costing us this I want to bring in a solution that's going to cost y in order to get that.

And most, you know, especially as you go through larger companies, there are people will put together business cases that will say, okay, we're prepared to invest 50,000 now in order to be able to save 300,000 over the course of the next couple years.

And people put together a plan for that.

And most companies, most businesses know they've got to invest in certain areas in order to get the return in time.

If you're not sure, head on over to www.ineedasalesplan.com, take my scorecard and it'll tell you whether your chance of achieving success are going to happen or not.

Provide the details, I'll tell you whether you're going to get success and then we can see if you're not what plans we have to put in place to get you on the right track.

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Now back to the podcast.

So if your prospect hasn't got a clue about budgets or is unreal, you know, I say unrealistic about budgets but doesn't even know what it's going to, you know, cost, then I think you should be concerned.

Unless, of course, you're stealing into Amazon.

Because I always remember that funny quote that Jeremy Clarkson asked the Amazon guys when Top Gear moved to Amazon and apparently said to Jeff Bezos, what's the budget for the program?

And Jeff Bezos said, what's the budget?

But that's because Jeff Bezos is the sort of person that can spend billions of dollars on things without sort of worrying.

But, you know, unless or maybe if you're sell to those in the Middle east where money is maybe not an object, but most cases you want the person to know what sort of figure they're putting aside to solve the issue or have a number in mind that they're thinking is is in place for this and if they can't tell you that or if they won't share some information.

And by the way, we all know if you ask the question what is your budget?

You will not get the right answer.

You need to be asking questions such as how much is this issue costing you?

Or typically, people we work with are investing this to this, how does that fit with your plans or, or when you've invested in similar projects in the past, what sort of figures have you put aside for this?

So you've got to try and make sure you're asking those other questions to find that budget.

And if you do that, you can get some, some indications.

If you can't get that, maybe be a bit nervous about that prospect.

So another key concern about in terms of spotting a bad prospect is unrealistic expectations.

So going back to what I just said about my dad, bless him around the kitchen, you know, a prospect that's got unrealistic expectations.

So again, I have a.

In South Africa, where we pick up the phone and speak to people.

Well, I had a person the other day say, oh, well, I want to generate 50 leads a month.

And I was like, from cool cold outreach.

And they're like, yes.

I'm like, I don't think that's possible.

And they were like, of course it is, of course it is, because it is what we need to be doing.

I'm like, okay, well, I don't think we can help you with that because being realistic, unless your product is so unique and so special, trying to generate 50 opportunities from cold from nothing, I think is just unrealistic.

People might tell me I'm wrong, tell me I'm wrong if you feel like I'm wrong.

But, you know, if they'd come back and said, you know, looking for 10 and they'd, you know, five to 10, I'd have gone, okay, that seems realistic and maybe adding to it over time.

But when someone's got unrealistic expectations, it's.

It's what I call a hot curry customer.

You don't really want them because even though they might taste the right, when you, you know, taste them initially, they hurt like hell the other end.

So you don't want to be in a position where you've got hot curry customers and people with unrealistic expectations.

Or as my good friend Matt Garman always says, you know, BMWs, bitches, moaners and whiners, you don' want BMWs in your business because those are the people that are going to be difficult to work with and they're going to.

That have unrealistic expectations, and you're always going to feel like you're failing.

So we want to be careful about people that are in, in that position.

And another prospect to look out for are those that don't want to engage with you, that don't want to share information with you that don't.

That, you know, there's a, there's a, you know, saying that, you know, you, which is getting blood out of a stone.

And there are some people.

And again, that's not about people being introverted because, you know, some people are introverted.

But if you start talking to them and having conversations, they'll tell you stuff.

But you sometimes have people that are just don't want to give you answers to things.

And I remember, you know, I always talk a lot about how sales is like dating.

And I remember once going on a date with someone and you know, we'd agree to meet on the date and every com, every, you know, conversation was like one word answers.

And I remember thinking, wow, if it's this hard work now, what's it going to be like to go out with you?

So it was like, thanks very much, this isn't going to work.

But if you've got a prospect that, and I get why prospects do it because they protect themselves and they don't want to be taken advantage of.

But if you can utilize the, you know, the phrase that I've talked about before, you know, I want to help you solve the solution, whether it's with us or with someone else.

Talk me through what you want to achieve, talk me through the challenges, or I see other people in your position have got these challenges.

Tell me how that's affecting you.

If they don't want to give you information, if they don't want to share information, if they don't want to talk about their scenario or their situation and just one word answers and expect you to miraculously, you know, figure something out, then I'd be nervous about them, I'd be worried about them.

They're going to waste a lot of time and you'll be spending huge amounts of times trying to second guess them and what they're doing in certain ways.

Another prospect that I'd be really nervous about is if they keep basically missing meetings or keep missing conversations with you.

And again, this probably links into the priority conversation.

But if you're always having a conversation or trying to arrange a conversation with someone, but they keep on basically turning you down or not turning up to a meeting, then ultimately just be a bit careful about it.

And of course again, it's related to their priority.

It may well be this isn't a priority, in which case you're better off to ask them, hey, where does this fit within your priority list at the moment with five being really important and one not being important.

If they give come up with a two or three or one, then be aware that they may well decide then not to turn up to meetings.

But when people are continually not turning up, I think it shows a lack of respect.

I think, and I don't think sales is about subservience.

I think it's about making sure that they are, you know, committed to the project.

You know, the job of sales is to solve a problem or solve a desire is to help them achieve something.

You can't make something happen on their own.

And why I think that you've got to be really careful around that commitment part is if they're not committed to turning up at meetings and committing to the project and, and invested in your solution, most of the time when you're implementing services, you need the customer to work with you to make it a success.

And if that person is hard work initially, then the chances are when you're then implementing the solution, they're going to be hard work to work with, which means you might fail, which in time means you won't get the result and you end up getting bad press or publicity for that deal.

So you do want people, of course they're going to be a little bit guarded, but you want people that are committed to the process, that are involved, that want to actually find a solution and are open to sharing details around that.

Another example of a bad prospect, and this is again something I've seen on a regular basis, are people that are just in your wheel arc when it comes to the service that you offer.

So, for example, I had someone, you know, message me the other day and, and talk around a solution that they wanted and they wanted a customer service and marketing offering.

And whilst we can provide it, I was like, this is, you know, we're not, I'm not a marketing agency.

There are plenty of people out there that are marketing agencies and that's great, but I'm not.

Do I want to be?

No, it's not core to what I do.

So therefore, even though I, you know, keen and looked at the business and looked at the revenue, thought, be great, it was actually, is this a good fit?

And very often you're just not a good fit for certain type of people.

And you've got to remember that if you're not a good fit, you better to own up and share that and say, look, you're looking for this, this and this, we can do that, but I'd rather, you know, not try and waste your time and provide you an opportunity to, to work and suggest someone else than try and take the business and do the work and then find that you end up creating, you know, a further problem later down the line when you're, you're then having to, to pick up and learn a service that you can't deliver or can't do.

So just be aware of being able to be that right fit.

And one of the things that I provide people or I encourage people to have is what I call a sales qualification criteria, which is a little document or a little quiz, not quiz, but a scorecard.

And I basically say to people, to create, write down on the left hand side the 10 or so criteria for your perfect company or for your perfect customer.

So for example, in my business, it's people that want to scale and grow, that have turnover of, you know, over 2 to 3 million pounds, who already have a couple of people in sales role itself.

And write down the people that make your perfect criteria.

And then on the right hand side, write some questions that you can ask to find that information out.

And what you can do is when you're having conversations with them, you don't need to do it, live with them.

But literally on a notepad you can start to go ask these questions and go, okay, do I get a one or a zero?

And it can be, you know, do they, do they give me a good answer on this?

They want to do it or not?

And if you continually get loads of no's and no's of wrong answers, then you can basically see with the scoring that we, you know, you have that that person's not really a good fit for you.

And again, you know, taking on business that's not a great fit can create more problems down the line.

So it's a great way to assess and score people to see whether they're a good fit to work with.

So sorry to interrupt the podcast, but if you've got a sales issue at the moment that's really hacking you off, challenge me, I'll help you solve it.

Reach out to me.

Drop an email at hello Amesworth Business and I will help you solve your sales challenge.

There's not one I don't think I can't handle.

There's no sales issue that I can't resolve.

I've seen them all over my career.

I want to help you solve yours.

So reach out to me.

Let's make sure we handle your sales challenges and fix them so you can get back to smiling again.

Now back to the podcast and I guess, you know, the, the other element around, you know, talking about sort of things to avoid and things to be careful about are just people that are just full of excuses.

You know, I, I always go back to, you know, challenges I face with most difficult, you know, people I've worked with.

And there was always a problem, there was always an excuse, there was always an issue, there was always a challenge.

And it was like, it just got a bit boring in the end.

It just made like it was always someone else's fault.

I guess I link this into accountability.

So really just try and focus on, you know, people that want to take ownership.

And again, that's so important.

Not just because of the sale part initially, but your job as a salesperson or business person is not just to sell that deal in, but to get it delivered so it delivers a great result.

And the problem is if they're, if they're, if they're not willing to commit and not want to take ownership of things and expect it all to be done by the customer, sorry, by the supplier, then the chances are you're going to create a further problem down the line which could hurt you and your brand.

So look, these are just some of the signals that I look forward in spotting bad prospects.

There are some other things that you can look for as well.

I look for lack of respect and courtesy has been one thing that makes me concerned.

I look at people who literally are disrespectful and rude to others as an example of someone that's a bad prospect.

I look at people that a bit being honest up there and ask Mike Michalovich, who I did a podcast interview a number of years ago, used to talk about, you know, doesn't work with dicks.

And a lot of time if, you know, you know, if you're working with a company of people that are just rude or, you know, pretty horrible at that, you're not going to give your best.

So these are signals and signs of spot and the challenge in sales.

Of course we want to work with people, we want to do business with people, we want to win everything that we engage with.

But sometimes it just isn't a fit and we're better off to cancel that and not spend, you know, to know that early than to spend our time chasing people that are going to go nowhere but basically waste our time, let you know what's working.

You know, like I always say, sales, like dating something.

Sometimes you go and meet people and you're just not a fit.

Hey, it's nothing personal.

Move on from it and then focus on the people you are a good fit for rather than trying to chase everyone.

So I hope that's helped you understand the elements around how to spot a bad prospect.

That's just my views, though.

What, what views?

What are the signals and signs that you use that have made it critical for you?

How do you know when someone's sort of pulling the line with you and not giving you the.

What you want?

Love to know your thoughts.

Let me know what those are and, and, you know, if you've got some other ideas and share on me on social media and we can, we can go from there.

But as I always do, I finish the pod with an inspirational story and I this week I'm going to share with you a story of a guy called Christian Budney.

And Christian Budney is an American young man.

He was in at the age of 17.

He was paralyzed from the chest down due to a snowboarding accident.

But he became, you know, had a passion for, for working with children and decided that he wasn't going to stop his accident, let his accident stop him from achieving what he wanted to.

He wanted to become a social worker.

He wanted to help children in Pennsylvania.

And even though he had that challenge, even though life threw him a curveball that he didn't like, he decided he wasn't going to let that affect him.

So I really want to use that as an, as a story, as an example of someone that we can all look up to.

You know, Christian had that issue and many people would have gone into it, become a hermit, and decided that life wasn't worth living.

He decided to take the opposite approach and still make an impact on the world.

So as I always say, there's always someone going through some tough times at the moment and challenges, and if that's happening, then, yeah, take inspiration from Christian and the other people we share on the podcast and make sure you can use it to, to, to ensure you achieve what you want to and use it as motivation to, and fuel to, to drive your plans and goals.

So that's it for me on the podcast.

As ever, thank you so much for listening.

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I grateful I know you have plenty of time and other things to do, but that you've given me.

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But up until and that's it for this week.

Thank you so much again for listening and take care.

Have a brilliant week and I'll see you soon.

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