Every entrepreneur has as their ultimate goal a desire to sell their products or services. Often we can miss the opportunity to close a sale by not knowing how to handle the sales process or not having a precise closing strategy.

In this article we will show you how to identify new sales opportunities and avoid your prospects moving away without closing the deal.

What does a sales opportunity mean?

Imagine that you are starting a new business and a few interested prospects begin to contact you. You have to maintain their interest in your products, because they are the one who can become your customers.

Those interested prospects are your first sales opportunity. When contacting you, asking for your products, requesting quotes, details for payments, etc., they show an interest in completing the process by purchasing from you.

Ignoring them means losing them

Knowing how to identify these opportunities and manage them efficiently can result in success no matter how large or small, new or established company you are.

Once you have determined that you have an opportunity it’s time to continue with the process. Contact stakeholders and maintain communication with them. Figure out what they want and influence your prospects to convince them to become your loyal customers.

In marketing, the process from initial contact to follow-up and sale, through communication with the prospects, offer submission, and closing is known as a sales funnel.

How to recognize a prospect?

As we mentioned before a prospect is a possible client. Be careful to handle the initial phase in the most efficient way.

Not everyone who has heard of your product or service are prospects. The way to identify them is to get in touch with them, ascertain their interest and evaluate the best to address them.

These initial potential prospects may be found in your close environment (family, friends, and acquaintances) or any other network you access. Once they have heard about your business venture make sure to contact with them. Remember you are now in business, so treat them as business customers. Your other relationship cannot define your business relationship.

How to capture the prospects?

It is advisable to keep track of who contacts you. Use a simple contact database to start with.

Developing your contact list is the first step, then initiate communication through calls, emails or personal meetings will allow you to create profiles. Define their needs, qualify and define what will work with your prospects.

The more prospects you have the more chances you have to get new customers. It’s a number game. Not all of them will close the sale (remember the sales funnel).

You should always find a way to convince them. One of the ways is to include continuous information about your products, news and other relevant deals.

What are the advantages that a good prospect will give you?

Knowing how to identify prospects provides an opportunity for your business to grow.

When contacting your prospects think of the benefits you will get from them. Will they help you grow professionally; will they get you more projects and attract more contacts?

How to enforce a sales opportunity?

As you develop your strategies to increase sales you will realize what strategy works the best and what approach to use.

No matter how good salesmen you are, there will always be someone who will say “no” to your offer. Identify why and how to prevent this from happening.

Follow the next 6 tips for converting an opportunity into something valuable that will benefit both the customer and your business:

 1. Define the optimum profile of the prospect you seek. Having direct communication with the prospect plays a fundamental role for your business success

2. Understand the need to offer a solution to your prospects’ needs.

3. Provide your availability, have time to meet and understand your customers. The more personal your communication is the more chance of success you will have.

4. Make sure that your offer meets your prospect’s or customer’s needs. They will let you know the benefits they expect.

5. Make clear deals. Leaving unresolved questions can cause you to lose sales opportunity. Define topics such as price, delivery times and characteristics of the service or product you offer in advance.

6. Always evaluate each process to correct possible errors, determine strengths and better leverage your next sales opportunity.