Prospecting and qualifying (find and qualify) are two recurring parts of the same step that help medical reps find new opportunities (locating new customers). This step of one of the most important in personal selling responsibility. Customers start out as “leads,” which is anything that identifies a potential buyer Salespeople (medical reps) acquire leads from many internal & external sources.
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External Prospecting Sources
- Direct Inquiries (Word of mouth from satisfied doctors).
- Referrals/ You can ask doctor to refer his peers.
- Trade Directories Like: doctor’s guide.
- Press (Newspapers/new open clinics or hospitals).
- Cold canvassing (Brush medical rep/survey).
- Personal observation while you are walking in the street.
- Non competing medical reps.
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Internal Prospecting Sources
- Company records (doctors list).
- Medical syndicates list.
Prospecting should be a continuous process that means you have to look for new prospects to compensate those you have lost to the competitors or to identify areas where you can develop your territory. Keep in mind that the market change continuously and the demand of doctors change frequently. Also doctors potentiality shift in positive and negative way. New researches are appeared, new diseases are discovered and new medicine is invented.
Leads become “prospects” by “qualifying” them. Qualifying a lead means to determine if they need further efforts to contact or need more sales calls or not. In other way visit or no visit.
The qualifying character depends on need; does the doctor need your product? Does he see patients suffering from the disease your product treat it? Does he prescribe competitors’ products? The second point of qualifying is the ability; does he have the ability to prescribe your product? Does he have any commitments with other competitors? Does he is price or brand oriented? Many leads do not qualify as prospects. So be careful in this step because if you choose wrong customer through bad prospecting you will lose all next steps in the sales cycle and waste your time.
