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Prospecting is never the most enjoyable activity in the world; I think all of us would rather just take incoming business, leads, and referrals.
However, the reality is, unless your career and position are to a level of development and maturity that support self-sustained perpetual growth, prospecting is the single most vital factor in determining your level of sales growth and ultimate success or failure.
Here are five keys steps to help you maximize and rock your prospecting results:
1. It starts with dedicating scheduled time for prospecting each day and then squeezing out the highest levels of strategic volume during that time.
During your dedicated prospecting time, stay 100% focused on prospecting. Don’t allow yourself any distractions. No multi-tasking, avoid chatting with co-workers and limit your bathroom breaks.
Do not keep track of your activity vs. your company metrics, just work as hard, and efficiently as you possibly can, and let the metrics take care of themselves.
Another valuable piece of advice here is, always look for micro-refinements in your activity that can further increase your prospecting volume. Every 5 minutes per day you save, compounds to 18 hours each year.
Here are Some Easy Efficiency Tips for You:
Don’t hang up your phone between calls. *this alone will save you between 18-36 hours per year*
Don’t take time to study a company BEFORE you call, and instead examine their website or Linkedin profile while the receptionist is connecting your call *High-level information will be more than enough to navigate through an initial conversation*
IF you do speak with a prospect, don’t stop your prospecting after your conversation to immediately send them your contact information. Remember, no distractions, and don’t multi-task. Efficiency is key, and dropping everything to immediately send your contact information at the end of the hour is not going make any difference or revolutionary impression on your prospect. *Sorry to crush your ego, but they are not holding their breath waiting for your email*
2. Use a diversified, multi-faceted approach that leverages all types of prospecting.
The only way to reach 100% of your potential prospects, is to use 100% of your available methods.
There are different groups of personalities within our target audience that will prefer particular types of prospecting engagement. Some customers prefer that you physically stop by, and drop off your business card, and some will throw you out of the building.
Don’t be naïve and think that cold-calling is dead and outdated, or that you are all slick with your social selling, and immediately lose any potential to win those prospects (22% of them) who prefer being cold-called over being messaged on Linkedin.
3. Don’t waste your first impression, voicemail, or 20 seconds on a cold call by sounding exactly like everyone else.
Using the first three sentences to say your name, company, and what you are selling is about as effective as saying, “Blah blah blah, I am a random sales person who wants your money, blah blah blah.”
When you start off soundly exactly like every random sales person, logically, you end up sounding like every random sales person, and that is all the prospect will hear.
Immediately set yourself apart by being creative, efficient, and experimental with testing unique ways to professionally catch your prospects attention.
4. Don’t worry about looking stupid or failing.
The worst thing that possibly happens while prospecting is a customer yelling at you, throwing you out of the building, or telling you that they think you are a waste of space on this planet.
So what?
So a random stranger does not like you, who cares. You are not prospecting to make friends, you are prospecting to find new customers that will appreciate your service and solution, and will reward you with their business.
Keep in mind, even if someone does yell at you, it is not personal, and it probably has nothing to do with you. The person might just be a jerk. Maybe they are having a bad day, they just stubbed their toe, spilled their coffee, and found out their dog does not love them.
That is my point, you have no idea what is going on in their world, and it does not matter. The only thing that matters is that you took the steps and action necessary to give yourself the opportunity to earn their business.
5. Proper and strategic follow-up.
First, you need to catch the attention of the prospect, next you need to earn their trust, uncover their need, and validate your solution as being their lowest risk, and highest benefiting option for resolving that need.
Most sales are not won on the first contact or conversation. These things take time.
During your first interaction with the prospect, understand their time-frame, and lay out a clearly defined and mutually agreed upon schedule for developing the opportunity and relationship.
Remember that the key to prospecting comes down to consistent, strategic action, and by using the five key steps above you will be able to remove any uncertainty or inefficiencies in your prospecting process.
If you have any questions or have found any additional steps and key strategies that have helped you be successful while prospecting, please be sure to comment below and share with our community.
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