I love helping individual salespeople and sales teams become more proficient at prospecting almost as much as I love to laugh at the nonsense being preached by the “prospecting is dead” crowd.
And while most of the jokers peddling their quick fixes and supposed replacements for traditional prospecting have been quieted, there are still plenty out there telling us that we’re foolish to pick up the phone or proactively pursue prospects because we’ve evolved beyond such dinosaurish behavior.
Let me be as clear and direct as I’ve ever been with you. Prospecting still works. And as I’ve often written, I am more than happy to take you into my eclectic mix of clients in an amazing array of industries to show you the top producing sales hunters who are crushing it because they’ve mastered creating their own sales opportunities – many of these opportunities being generated from deploying traditional prospecting methodologies like Picking. Up. The. Phone.
The 3 Critical Beliefs of Salespeople Successfully Converting Prospecting Activity into Sales Opportunities:
- 1. They believe with absolute certainty that they will succeed at securing meetings with strategically selected target prospects
- 2. They anticipate resistance from the prospect and are mentally and emotionally prepared to respond
- 3. They know that they are actually building relationships with a percentage of prospects who have yet to respond to calls and emails, and they work to earn a call-back (and a meeting) with perseverance and creativity
So if you’re looking to secure more meetings with target prospects, I challenge you to ask yourself:
- Do you believe that prospecting works, or are you simply going through the motions?
- Do you expect to face resistance and are you ready to overcome it?
- Do you understand, like successful prospectors do, that you really can be building relationships with a portion of the people you’re pursuing even though they haven’t let you know that yet?
If you’re looking for help upping your prospecting game, I’d point you to Chapters 7 and 11 in Sales Truth and Chapter 9 in New Sales. Simplified.
One last thought: if you’re looking to improve at creating your own sales opportunities and filling your pipeline, instead of listening to the voices telling you that traditional methods are dead, try adopting the mindset (outlined above) of those who are succeeding using those very same methods. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes!
Salespeople: Stay tuned for a Year-End Special with the lowest price ever offered for the New Sales. Simplified. Video Coaching Series. If you’re looking for breakthrough success bringing in more new business in 2020, we are putting together a package that includes a special live online workshop with Mike on New Year’s Day! Details coming soon.
Sales Leaders Only: Check out this short video from The Porsche Experience Center with highlights from our last Supercharge Your Sales Leadership Event. If you’re looking to radically increase sales management effectiveness, the upcoming February session might be exactly what you’re looking for!
