On your marks. Get set. Prospect!
Prospecting is the oxygen that fuels the sales fire. It is the ignition point that allows us to get in front of prospective buyers. Great sales people like great athletes do not leave prospecting to chance. They make sure that making prospecting sales calls features regularly in their weekly sales activities. Many experienced sales people make sure they do two or three 2 hour blocks of prospecting every week: calling on both new and existing accounts looking for new business opportunities. By doing this they make sure that they always have viable, ready-to-buy-now prospects to talk to.
We would like to propose that you create your own Sales Prospecting event: the 100 metre Prospecting Sprint – Get as many appointments as you can in 1-2 hours – run this event 2-3 times over the next 10 days to two weeks.
To get yourself ready for the 100 metre Prospecting Sprint event you will need the following:
- Prospecting List: company names, contact names and phone numbers of new and existing accounts you want to work with / sell to / do business with
- Call Objective: the WHY you want to call them; what you hope to gain by contacting them i.e. an appointment, referral, etc.
- Compelling Business Reason (CBR): what you are going to say to your prospect; how you will engage the prospect and get them talking to you; what will be of interest to them?
- Honourable Retreat: not everyone will be ready to speak to you so you need to know how to make an honourable retreat so that you can come back another time
- Score board: keep a score board about how you and your team members went: how many calls were made; how many people did you each get through to; how many appointments were made; how many new opportunities were uncovered; etc.
- Celebrate: celebrate any wins and make this a regular part of your sales week.
Author: Sue Barrett, www.salesessentials.com