The Secrets of Predictable Prospecting - Wisdom From Marylou Tyler

Tony Hughes

Marylou Tyler co-authored Predictable Revenue with Aaron Ross and after discovering her most recent co-authored book, Predictable Prospecting, we caught-up for a podcast interview. Marylou is, without doubt, one of the best people on the face of the planet when it comes to thought leadership on sales process. She's the real deal and knows the power of sales organizations walking in the shoes of their potential customers and existing clients.

The Predictable Prospecting book explodes the myth that lead-generation is some sort of dark art and instead provides the science and framework to design and execute a pipeline building process that actually works. Here are some of the highlights from the book to consider.

"Getting started well is half the battle" Marylou Tyler

Part one of the book explains how to craft a value narrative for your carefully targeted market segments where you have the highest probability of success. Like Anthony Iannarino, Mike Weinberg and other sales luminaries, Mary knows the importance of profiling your ideal prospect and the buyer personas that need to be covered. Mary makes the important point that...

"planning is cheap and execution is expensive" Marylou Tyler

There is no point getting busy with prospecting if your value narrative misses the mark. The approach recommended is based on the principle that we must first provide value in the conversation before seeking to position the value of what we are selling. This is because proactive outbound prospecting, by definition, means that the other party is unlikely to have awareness of their need or a desire for your 'solution'. They are typically blissfully ignorant or at best, mildly uncomfortable. Marylou also makes the important point that we don't know if the 'leads' we are targeting are really a good fit for what we offer. The priority should therefore be to show positive intent in exploring whether our intelligent (researched) hypothesis of value is actually valid for them. If not, we don't seek to push or 'sell'.

I agree with Marylou 100% and in my opinion, there is no shortage of available market, just limited hours in the day to execute with the right people. Qualifying out is important because it stops us wasting our time and the time of the other person. Seeking alignment is more powerful and trying to 'resurrect the dead'.

The most valuable aspect of the book is the practical way in which you can implement the excellent. Predictable Prospecting provides guidelines, recommendations and templates for e-mail campaigns as well as for phone calls. The last third of the book covers the issues and challenges associated with building, managing and growing an organization with a healthy lead machine that fills the sales funnel month after month.

Marylou combines timeless principles of intelligent analysis, disciplined process, value creation and effective communication with modern techniques for breaking through with hard to reach people. The screenshot below if of a Video mail that Marylou sent me after I shared another blog post that referenced her. She practices what she preaches.

Buy the Predictable Prospecting book... It's brilliant!

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Tony Hughes is ranked as the #1 influencer on professional selling in Asia-Pacific and is a keynote speaker and best selling author. This article was originally published on LinkedIn where you can also follow Tony's award-winning blog. Also, visit Tony's keynote speaker website at www.TonyHughes.com.au or his sales methodology website at http://www.rsvpselling.com/.

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