In the mid 1800’s over 300,000 people made their way to California in the hopes of finding gold. When they first arrived, some were able to use their hands to gather flakes of gold running in the rivers and streams! Others used the pans we associate with images of the era, squatting along the waterways, sifting through acres of water, gravel and dirt in search of nuggets. As the financial rewards increased, advanced techniques evolved to reach the source of the metal and involved diverting the water from streams and mining the river bottom. This was difficult, dangerous and back breaking work.
Today, sales prospectors are looking for qualified LEADS which will be converted to CLOSED SALES. While I think we can all agree that we have it easier than the gold prospectors, many business people still DREAD prospecting! Even though we are sitting in our warm/ cool, dry office with a phone, computer databases and all the modern technology known to man, many business people we work with still seem to think of sales prospecting as difficult, dangerous and if not backbreaking, definitely a pain in the neck.
And then they don’t DO IT.
As a result, their sales funnel dries up and their businesses flounder. We see this all the time and over the next few months, we will be addressing many of the reasons people don’t bother prospecting for sales. We will offer tips and suggestions you and your team can use to help YOU become a more effective prospector.
But first, a quick reminder WHY Prospecting needs to be a key part of your business plan.
1.No leads = no sales!
Without prospecting, we have no leads. And without leads, we have no sales.
2.It IS a numbers game.
It can take more than 8 – 12 calls to get a single appointment set. And appointments are how we close sales. So you do the math – how many appointments do YOU need to make, per week, meet YOUR goals? Multiply that by 8 – 12 to get the minimum number of calls you need to make per week.
Essentially, the answer to ‘why bother prospecting?’ is, to keep your business alive and growing!
Here are the top reasons we hear for why businesses don’t bother prospecting:
- They don’t enjoy it so they avoid doing it
- They are too busy with the work they already have
- It hasn’t been productive in the past, so they think of it as a waste of time
Over the next few weeks I will address each of these concerns and provide actionable solutions for each.
And for now, each time you dread picking up that phone to make a prospecting call, remember those dirty, sweaty guys, crouching along a stream in 1840’s California in the 100 degree sun and think to yourself, ‘well, at least I am cool and comfortable as I pan for my gold!’
And if you need help RIGHT NOW, give us a call at 908.879.2911, we LOVE cold calling and can take this dreaded task off your hands. Don’t let another day pass without prospecting calls being made on your behalf – call us TODAY to keep your sales funnel full and your business on track!
