You want to create a simple, actionable strategy for increasing your share of the new industrial gas business.
You need a simple strategy for achieving your goal rapidly.
You can apply this simple 3 step process for identifying your new business potential on a customer level.
Step 1 – Classify Your Prospects
Step 2 – Create Prospect List
Step 3 – Fill in Your Best Estimate
Step 1 – Classify Your Prospects
A prospect is a company with a potential business that we have a plan to get in three months.
We’ll give priority to new projects at present industrial gas customers and new potential industrial gas consumers.
In competitor accounts, we are not interested at the moment because the sales cycle is potentially one year.
We’ll classify our prospects on attractiveness and the probability of obtaining the business
Attractiveness
You’ll evaluate the attractiveness of the customer by using these criteria
– the size of industrial gas consumption
– growth potential during the next three years
– value delivered during this year through our application consultancy:
e.g. decreased welding costs by 40%
Probability of Obtaining the Business
You’ll follow this checklist for finding out the probability of obtaining the business
– Your Company introduced
– Opportunity discovered
– Competitor Status known
– Existing Volumes known
– Current pricing/costs known
– Decision Makers identified
– User Needs defined
– Budget constraints identified
– Demonstration made
– Volume Potential analysed
– Needs/ Opportunities confirmed
– Proposal/ quotation made
– In-house references utilised
– Customer accepted financial improvement
– Customer committed to buy
– Verbal commitment received
– Contract / P.O. signed
2. Create Prospect List
You’ll discuss and create your prospect list with your salespeople.
First, you’ll create a long list of prospects.
Next, you’ll assess your long list by using the model from step one
Finally, you make a shortlist of prospects with the highest rating on attractiveness and probability of getting the business
Next, you’ll fill out your best estimate for each shortlisted prospect.
3. Fill in Your Best Estimate
Make a list for each customer which details:
– the estimated purchases by the customer
– the expected date when the customer will make a decision
– the scheduled start of deliveries
You can calculate from this date the additional revenue for the present year.
Each salesperson should also fill in his best estimate on the certainty that this will happen.
The salesperson is the only one that can give a reasonable estimate to which he is committed to achieving.
