Your time,



your organization's resources and your revenue forecasts must reflect your

interactions with various people in very different business relationship

categories. In order to fully identify your organization's sales process, you

must understand these five groups.

 

·                    



Suspects:

Generally speaking, suspects are individuals or organizations who fit some

pre-qualification filter or list of criteria.

 

·                    



Prospects:

These are the individuals or companies who you've already contacted by some

method and who comply with the criteria necessary to become suspects.

 

·                    



Customers:

They currently buy from you. The key word here is "currently." Effective CEOs

know that a customer is someone who is providing contributions to the top line

right now.

 

·                    



Business

partners:

They not only buy from you currently, but also prosper from their relationship

with you in a way that clearly surpasses what your product, service or solution

does for them. That means, for instance, that you might share critical

knowledge, strategic resources, leads, prospects or even customers for mutually

beneficial reasons.

 

·                    



Distributors:

These are individuals or organizations that take your products, services and/or

solutions, add some kind of direct or indirect value, and then resell them.

It might be

a good idea to stop reading and take a moment to list the who's who of your own

selling process. What are your different categories of potential business

relationships? Who are the most important members of each category?