Prospecting Ain’t Easy: Staying Productive

Everyone knows and expects prospecting to be laborious. Often, we hear that it’s a “numbers game”.  Well … that is true. If you don’t put in the effort/activity, you won’t succeed no matter how good your strategy and skills are.

However, most salespeople still struggle juggling their time, being inefficient and less productive than they could be.

It’s no wonder that when I ask salespeople …” What part of your job does not get the attention needed”, 90% of the time they all say … “new business development”.

But why? It’s not because salespeople are “lazy or crazy” (although Sales Managers often think that). They all know that a consistently full pipeline will achieve long-term success. But … let’s be honest, new business development is the least fun and least gratifying short-term compared to other aspects of the job.

But … imagine your results if you put forth the necessary effort in an effective and productive way. Here’s how:

Schedule Your Business Development

An easy suggestion is to schedule, directly into your calendar, your recurring Business Development time. (E.g. allocating at minimum of 2 x 2-hour windows). But be sure, 80/20, you stick to your schedule, or move it to another window if/when necessary.  New business is all about momentum.

By putting it firmly into your calendar as a “meeting”, you are telling yourself and your team that you are busy and therefore, are less likely to allow yourself to get distracted.

Variety

Not only is it important to connect with your audience using various ways because they, as people, are all different, it’s equally important to use variety to changes things up and avoid too much repetition for yourself, which can be demotivating.  With your BD time allocated, use it for calls, emails, new connections or research on LinkedIN, finding related networking event, nurturing existing relationships, connecting with Centres of Influence, and on and on. 

Network

Network by getting involved in your industry/geographical business events, shows, conferences, etc.. Think of it like “speed dating”, with the aim of breaking the ice with new potential customers or referral sources/centres of influence.  Then be sure to follow them up by email, suggesting a date/time to have a prelim chat.  

Manage Your Road Time

While traveling to prospects and customers is a critical part of the sales process from many industries, being on the road is very expensive. Your car & gas are not the biggest cost. The average person can have 3 quality face to face meetings in a day while they could easily have 8-10 phone meetings of lower, but still high-quality dialogue.

What it does mean though is that travel should be typically reserved for qualified, meaningful meetings with an engaged audience & an agenda/purpose. And always try to fit in our face to face meetings when in that area.

Example: If I received an incoming lead; my 1st meeting would always be via phone to qualify the situation first.

Keep Control

We work so hard to get the prospect to respond the 1^st time.  From this point forward, use scheduled phone meetings (booked at the end of each interaction, with calendar invites and an agenda) to stay in the driver’s seat.

Leave Non-Selling Activities for Non-Selling Time

In every job, there are activities we need to do – reports, proposals, lead-gen research, developing templates, updating our industry knowledge.

All of these things are critical and necessary parts of the job for long-term success BUT they can be done anytime. 6:00 pm, over lunch, Sunday afternoon … Not in the middle of core-selling time.