Guerrilla Prospecting

From: http://www.gmarketing.com/articles/read/104/Guerrilla_Prospecting.html

Guerrilla Prospecting
by Bill Gallagher, Ph.D.

Back when a nickel bought an ice cream cone or a candy bar and I'd take my children to the park on weekends, I used to take a handful of change with me and drop it all over the areas where kids were playing. It was great fun watching the children discover the coins with such youthful glee.
Remembering this experience, a couple of years ago I suggested to a client, a real estate salesman working in Marin County, California the following prospecting technique.

As you approach the toll booth on the Golden Gate Bridge (or any interstate or turnpike toll booth, or parking lot attendant, for that matter), line yourself up in front of BMW's, Mercedes Benz's, Cadillac's and the like (folks who look like your ideal customer). Take some time to staple a few dollars to your business cards. And pay for the car behind you! You cannot imagine the reaction to having someone, some stranger, pay for your way across the bridge or whatever.

As the car behind you approaches the booth with his or her dollars ready, the attendant announces, "It's already been paid, that guy up there just paid for you, and here's his card." And all the way across the bridge this guy's waving at you, giving you the thumb's up and "okay" signals. When he gets back to the office, sometime that afternoon he gives you a call. "Say, I just wanted to thank you in person, paying for me across the bridge really made my day! I see you're in real estate, you know, I was just thinking of putting my home on the market..."

Talk about being a Guerrilla. Remember "Guerrilla" means doing the thing least expected, and most appreciated by your prospective customer. So what are the steps?

1. Step number one, go through your data and find out who your ideal customer is. This means are they mostly male or female, over or under 40, middle class or lower, college grads or not, and so on?

2. Go where they are. Do they belong to the country club? If so, you'd better get a membership. Do the live in the lower east side? Maybe you should spend more time there. Do they have facilities in the new industrial park? Spend some time there on Saturday mornings. (The "gatekeepers" are not working but the owner usually is.)

3. Use Unusual Approaches. Like the toll booth approach, or my client the CPA who now walks the entire length of the BART train, on his way to work, looking for two things: 1. An empty seat, with, 2. A friendly face. He'd then sit down with the opener, "Hi, my name's Don Winston. I'm a CPA in the city and I've figured out a way so that most of my clients pay very little income tax. Here's my card." Much conversation follows. And, voila', a new client. Or, my client who works the big new buildings in downtown Phoenix selling key-person insurance. He rides the elevators, making sure that he's the last one to board. Everyone else backs in facing front, he boards last and faces all, saying something like, "You're probably wondering why I called you all together this afternoon! You know, the price of everything is going up, but not insurance. Here's my card..."

4. Ask lots of "Content" type questions. They usually begin with "wh."

5. Use Your Guerrilla Listening HITS. See other columns on Guerrilla listening skills. You will increase your business dramatically using these skills.

And finally, the best approach to prospecting is to become fascinated with people. No kidding, when, for example I'm flying across the country and I have a lot of work to do, I introduce myself and say that I sell insurance policies. I get immediate sustained silence for hours. If I haven't much to do, I say that I'm a writer and start asking a few "wh" questions. Everyone that you meet has a novel (or two) inside of them. When you discover this your prospecting struggles are over, forever.