Talking all things motivational, entrepreneurial, blogging & travel. Pretty much anything other than "How to Make Money Online"! (Because when I blogged MMO I felt like a clone of the other 12 million people doing it)

Finding the Perfect Prospect Ice Breaker

5 October, 2007 - General Business - 3 Comments

Welcome StumbleUpon users! - It seems right now I’m receiving a lot of visitors from StumbleUpon. I wanted to extend my warm welcome to you all and invite you to look around my site and subscribe to my RSS feed. Here are a few posts you might be interested in: What Makes an Entrepreneur?, Keep Your Customers Informed, and The Exitement of a Business First.

We all know how hard it is to find the right time and reason to talk with a prospect about your products and services. Sometimes, the prospect just doesn’t have the time to stop and chat. Sometimes, they’re simply not interested to hear what you have to say. Other times, you might not even be able to pluck up the balls to chat with them.

I’ve been going through this problem for several months. As most of you will know, I do a lot of bowling. I’m usually at the lanes once or twice a week. The bowling house have had a Web site since they opened, but it wasn’t all that good a site. Large image file sizes. Poor design work etc.

I’ve been wanting to speak with them for a long time about a re-design but I could never find the right moment.

Well, last week the right moment came to me, rather than me going to the moment. It turns out the person who they were trusting to look after the Web site let their domain name expire, so they no longer had a Web site. I went down to the lanes earlier this week, and they were shocked when I told them their Web site address had expired and they no longer had a Web site.

Cue the Card

Out came my business card. Finally I had a chance to chat with them. So chat I did. Only for a few minutes, but just enough for them to understand what I did when I’m not at the lanes, and just enough for them to take my card.

You must keep your eyes open for these ice breakers. Look at the local media. Find out what special offers your prospect has. Anything that can be used to strike up a conversation that can benefit you.

Of course, I’m still waiting for a phone call from the bowling house. The fact is, when a prospect tells you they will call, chances are they never will. That’s why I’ll be following up with a phone call to them early next week. Persistence is key. Just don’t piss off the prospect while you’re being persistent!

Do you find it hard to strike up random conversations with prospects? Let us know how you deal with it.

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed!

Del.icio.us - Technorati - Digg This! - StumbleUpon
Posted on 5 October, 2007 by Jamie Harrop
Filed Under General Business |

RSS feed | Trackback URI

3 Comments »

Comment by Frank C

2007-11-04 00:02:02

Have you ever read How to Sell Anything to Anybody by Joe Girard? While some of it is outdated a lot of it still applies to today’s Internet driven business world.

Reply to this comment

Comment by Jamie Harrop

2007-11-04 00:23:30

Hi Frank,

Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I’ve just been looking at your site. Those are some pretty interesting goals you have set yourself. I’ll be following with interest.

I can’t say I’ve ever read that book, although I’ve just been looking at it on Amazon. It has some very positive reviews, that’s for sure. I’ll add it to my ever growing list of books to buy and review. Thanks Frank!

Reply to this comment

 

 

Pingback by My StumbleUpon Analysis - A Poor 500% Traffic Increase : Jamie Harrop | Young Entrepreneur | Video Blog

2007-11-05 15:27:09

[...] Page Stumbled: Finding the Perfect Prospect Ice Breaker [...]

Reply to this comment