IF IT’S A TURKEY, KILL IT! - Four Tips for Identifying Loser Prospects

You may not be able to control the menu items served during all your holiday gatherings, but you can definitely control the turkeys on your prospect list. Unfortunately, eliminating turkey prospects is a task that many of us business development types really hate to do mainly because positive thinking is in our DNA. 
It is easy for us to develop an emotional attachment to decision-makers we have been pursuing for a long time, especially when they keep hinting that they will make a commitment to us one day. But sometimes we need to face facts and accept that a marriage is never going to happen no matter how much we like them and they seem to like us. This isn’t always easy to do, but it is absolutely necessary. If you spend more energy on prospects that are never going to pay off than you do on building up a pipeline of new, qualified prospects, lots of great opportunities could be passing you by.

So, how do you decide whether or not your prospect is a turkey? Here are a few tips to help you discover when a prospect is gobbling up too much of your time;

1. Is this a butterball or a dried out drumstick? Reevaluate your prospect’s qualifications.

If you have any sense at all, you already qualified your prospect before you made that first call or had that first meeting with them. You determined that they met all of the necessary criteria; the company is the right size, it's located in the target region, it's in the desired category, has the right budget, etc. 

You managed to get the door open and have developed a relationship with the correct decision-maker. However, if you have been pursuing them for a while and have not yet closed a deal, you may also have uncovered some things that make them not quite as qualified as you thought they were. Even so, the idea of abandoning them makes you feel queasy because you have invested so much time in them already, like them personally, and you hate the idea of giving up.

STOP IT!  If they are less qualified than you believed them to be initially, it’s time to take that turkey "friend" off your prospect list. I know it hurts, but it must be done.

2. Is this a turkey in business person's clothing?Test your prospect’s credibility.

Let’s suppose winning a pitch for a coveted prospect would be like a dream come true. This prospect is big and juicy and would make a great high-profile account. This prospect looks so succulent you have decided to invest more than usual to win them over and the boss agrees it could be worth it.

Let’s also say you have pitched several different ideas and strategies to your contact over several months, put together a few proposals that took a lot of brain work, pushed your team to give more and more, and still there is no signed contract - not even for a test or starter project. Uh Oh! You might have to admit that you have been fooled into thinking this prospect is real when he is really a turkey in disguise. 

There are two types of turkeys in disguise. The first type wants to hire you but can’t. This is because he is not really the decision maker but likes thinking he is. The second type never really wanted to hire you, but pretended he did because he enjoys getting all the free work you are giving him and he has been using your ideas to impress his boss and co-workers. Essentially, you and your team have been doing his work for him.

There is a very simple way to find out if your prospect is hiding turkey feathers under his business clothes. The next time he asks you for a proposal, consultation, idea session, etc., put a price on it. Calculate the hours it will take to move forward and present him with an estimate to sign. If he agrees to your terms, congratulations are in order. You helped him get out the stewing pot and make a decision. Your investment may not have been in vain because it is now more likely now that the relationship can eventually become profitable.

If he cannot recognize that you and your company have invested a lot already and isn’t willing to pay for more of your efforts moving forward, that prospect is not only a turkey, he is a big, ugly, yucky turkey that will just taste worse and worse no matter how much gravy you pour over it. You need to throw that turkey out right away. Don’t feel too bad. The best of us get fooled by these expert masqueraders from time to time.

3. Do I have the right fixings? Determine if you have the necessary internal support you need to win.

In this scenario, you have been trying to get a prospect to open the door for a long time and the needle has finally moved. You and your company have been invited to participate in an agency review or RFP.  Before you invest any more of your time, make absolutely sure your company has enough resources to properly compete and that your internal key stakeholders are enthusiastic about the prospect.  

You may believe the prospect is delicious, but if upper management is unwilling to give you the necessary resources to win, you are going to fail miserably.  If you have the right resources, but your supervisor or boss is lukewarm about moving forward and is publicly skeptical about the chances of winning, you will not get the support of your team. If you move forward anyway, rest assured that they will do the least amount of work that they can get away with because they are not going to give a pitch their all if they perceive the boss is not really behind that effort.

In this case, the prospect is magically transformed into a turkey by others and there is nothing you can do about it. Pursuing it any further will only cause you heartache. Let it go and hunt for the prey that you have a better chance of catching because your team is really hungry for it.

4. Stop stuffing a rotten bird!  Determine how much pitching the prospect is actually costing your company. 

Be honest with yourself. If it seems like a prospect is taking too long to close, calculate how much time you and your team have spent pitching this prospect so far and put a dollar amount to it. If they have exceeded your new business investment budget or are costing more than the realistic revenue potential they might provide, it is time to cut them loose. 

This turkey might look OK from the outside but it has been dead for a while and is starting to decay. Unless a miracle occurs, it cannot be resurrected - but if it were, it would be a zombie turkey that everyone at your agency would run away from anyway, so stop praying.

GOLDEN EGGS ARE BETTER THAN TURKEYS.
Hopefully, these four tips can help you figure out what prospects are turkeys so you can replace them with shiny, new golden eggs. Don’t delay. This is a good time to get rid of turkeys and revamp your prospect list so you can hit the ground running once the New Year hits.

By Laureen Peck