P R O F E S S I O N A L . . . C O N T R O L L E R S
PROSPECTIVE . . CLIENT . . QUESTIONNAIRE
(instructions)
COMPLUS personnel are "Professional CFO/Controllers." We seek and serve clients (owners of "for-profit" businesses in the Chicagoland area – McHenry to Merrillville) which are too big for him/her to run with only a checkbook in the back pocket and too small to hire one of us full-time (generally 20-100 workers or $2-10 million sales). There should be at least one bookkeeper to supervise. We expect to be a key ally to the owner so he/she can run the business without "feeling blindfolded." For the stereotype of our "target market," necessary and appropriate "controller" work should take about one day per week.
Because we pledge alliance to our clients, we ask permission from current clients before attempting to serve new ones where there might be any conflict of interest. We will not attempt to serve a direct competitor of a current client nor any company to which a current client objects. There will be some companies which we cannot serve.
COMPLUS associates revenue share, and each of us spends our own earnings. What the client pays to COMPLUS may be split up to 3 ways: in year-one: Production – 2/3, Administration – 10%, Marketing – the balance. Whoever does the work gets the share. In year-two production gets 75%, and in year-three (and after) production gets 85%. Client development (production) over time earns some of the "marketing" share.
Associates are not recruited to sell, but we all can. Giving COMPLUS just a name and a phone number is not enough, though. That is asking someone else to make virtually a "cold call" which has very little value to COMPLUS. Substantially all the "warm-up" sales work is yet to do. Most of our "target market" prospects are already covered by the work of Professional Controllers, Inc. (Do take advantage of any familiarity that is already achieved.) Not all potentially good clients will respond to only one contact strategy.
To earn the marketing share an associate must supply a "warm" lead to COMPLUS. The definition of a warm lead is one whom the lead provider has influenced to be willing to interview one of our associates soon (usually within a few days) after the referral is provided. A good model for a "warm" lead is the result of the prospecting work of Dennis Waterman (Professional Controllers, Inc.). The following is a simplified, abbreviated summary of that procedure:
o… A "prospect" responds by telephone, reply card, or e-mail as directed by the material received.
o… Dennis "qualifies" the interest of the prospect and notifies COMPLUS when to arrange for an interview.
o… COMPLUS is supplied with substantial amounts of background material, usually most of what is suggested by the accompanying questionnaire.
o… The contact person is expecting a call to arrange for an interview appointment with the potential controller.
o… The potential controller reports progress of the interview process to COMPLUS, for example:
o… The provider of the lead tracks the progress toward "close" and gives advice and encouragement to the potential controller.
o… In general, a good lead will "close" quickly. History indicates that the harder we have to "work" to get a client, the less likely we are to be successful.
o… Over a long period of time (say, a year or two) it is reasonable to expect that almost ½ of leads provided this way should be "closeable."
It is true that not all the associates have closed ½ of the leads provided to them, but a few have done better. ("Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.")
send e-mail to:
complusgrp@aol.com