There are more sales prospecting methods than I suspect there are salespeople.
The reason I know this is it seems that everyone has sent theirs to me. It’s time to step back and assess. I recently shared with you in this blog what I saw as the big 9 sales prospecting tools.
Let’s drill down on the list of 9 tools and talk specifically about #5: Focus, focus, focus.
The biggest mistake made by salespeople is they fail to remain focused on prospecting. They spend their time doing everything but what I call the truly high-value activity that will make a difference.
High-value is what I refer to as communicating directly with qualified prospects. It’s not “getting ready to talk,” it’s not “organizing files;” it’s actually doing it.
I’ll be drilling down more in the weeks to come with what exactly I see as the best prospecting process, but before I do, I need to stress the importance of focusing.
Set up a spreadsheet that tracks exactly how you are spending your time when it comes to prospecting. Break the categories down very specifically. Don’t just say “telephone,” as that is far too broad. Tighten it up even more with things such as no answer, left voicemail, talked live, bad number, etc.
Your objective is to be able to accurately measure how you’re spending your time. Don’t forget to include in things you track the actual outcomes — the results of the activities.
Just to be clear, I’m not saying to spend all of your time doing nothing but tracking what you do. What I’m talking about is you need to easily get a handle on what it is you’re doing, so you can be more focused.
Your objective from this process is to be able to benchmark your existing sales prospecting methods to allow you to objectively measure the impact of changes you’ll be making as I share more in the weeks to come.
Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
