Business owners consistently tell us that the number one problem they face year after year is consistently finding, engaging and closing new business AND they know that nothing separates the sales pretenders from the sales professionals more quickly than ability to effectively prospect. But prospecting is more than just a natural skill, it is also a combination of behavior, attitude and technique that allows sales professionals to prosper in the markets that sales pretenders simply never manage to conquer.
The first key to effective prospecting is Behavior. Athletes know this, athletes know that doing something only when they have time or when they feel like it, will never produce a superb result. They know that to achieve great things they must exercise and practice on a consistent and regular basis. They have daily workouts and practices, they track the workouts and practices and they do the workouts and practices regardless of what they think or feel about the workouts or practices on that day.
The second key to effective prospecting is Attitude. Now before you veer into Positive Mental Attitude stop, please just stop. Attitude is not positive or negative, attitude is the supportive belief system that compels you to keep working. It is the philosophy that drives your actions, not the feelings that make you smile and frown. Great prospectors know that they control their outcomes based on behavior and they develop the belief systems that support doing the right things, the right way and checking and revising their results honestly.
Finally, the third key to effective prospecting is Technique. Great prospectors tell stories and ask questions. They never assume that they have the solution. They prepare, rehearse, role play and revise lists of questions and talk tracks designed to aid in discovering what their clients want to accomplish or avoid. Without awareness of what they are trying to accomplish they would have no way of knowing when things had gone wrong on a sales call.
Great prospectors build systems that allow them to prepare, require them to perform and lead them to a predictable end. Sadly, these three keys to success are very simple but not very easy. Our clients learn to hire, train, supervise and coach their people. Increasing prospecting effectiveness can take time, but no other activity from your sales team has greater return on investment.
Looking to find new clients and grow revenue, we should talk. Matt Nettleton Sandler Training DTB, 317-678-8800 or matt.nettleton@sandler.com
