Do you like prospecting for new business? Go on, be honest. If you’re like most of us you may well hate the thought of it.
But that means you’re missing out on lots of opportunities.
I’ll admit it, I don’t like prospecting. Sometimes I’ll do anything to avoid it. But that’s not useful when it comes to building our business.
Here’s why.
While we’d all love prospects to find us, the reality is that at any time say 3% to 5% of your prospects are actively looking for a solution. They find you, often by luck and get in touch.
But what about everyone else? Some of whom could be a good fit if only they knew you existed?
Which is where prospecting comes in.
Prospecting involves identifying potential clients, proactively reaching out and finding out if they have issues you can solve and gauging their level of interest.
Then moving into a sales conversation where you delve into their issues further, present a solution and get buy in.
All of which starts with getting focused. Setting aside time to actively prospect. Be it via the phone, email, LinkedIn or any other form of messaging.
But first, you must have a clear message. One that is meaningful to them. Not about what you sell, but the outcomes they want. So that you raise questions in their minds. Share information that gets that person thinking about the outcomes and the problems and the solutions that you could provide.
You need to develop a cadence. The most powerful words in sales and prospecting are found on a bottle of shampoo: rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. Just because somebody says no now, doesn’t mean forever. Some of our biggest clients have come from repeated phone calls, repeated contact, repeated conversations until they were ready to buy.
You have to go over this over and over again, day in and day out, if you want to find success for yourself.
Is this the easy path? Absolutely not. But it is the path trodden by every successful person in sales, be it you as the business owner or your salespeople.
Now there’s a lot more to successful prospecting than meets the eye. If you’d like help honing your message, role playing conversations, narrowing down exactly who to target and how to develop a conversation cadence which invites engagement, reach out.
We’ll work on your prospecting and sales skills so you close more high value business with less effort in a shorter timeframe.
Till next time, this is Rashid Kotwal.
