7 Ways to Stop Procrastinating, Start Prospecting

Why do salespeople hesitate making the call?

For some reason, we’re quick to rationalize away why we shouldn’t call a prospect.

We can’t close the sale if we don’t have a conversation first.

This blog is brought to you by an episode of The Sales Hunter Podcast. Find it wherever you stream podcasts!

1. Get your head in the game.

At times we don’t believe we can make a difference. Other times we delay with the excuse of needing a little more preparation.

These are giant cop outs. I believe the reason we don’t make the call is because of these two big reasons: One, our headspace, and two, the perception that we don’t have anything to say.

Our mindset as salespeople must be that if we know we can help the prospect, we feel it’s our responsibility to reach out.

2. Silence the negative voices.

I get it. Sales is hard.

Too many salespeople allow themselves to hang out with negative people. When you hang out with negative people, guess what? You get negative voices.

I encourage you to listen to podcasts that educate and lift you up. You have to surround yourself with positive people who help you believe you can do it, and you can make a difference.

via The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on GIPHY

3. Celebrate your successes.

Celebrate all of the things that you’ve done right for customers. Make a list, write these down and keep them with you at all times.

If you are ever going through a funk, you pull that list out. There may be testimonials that customers have given you. There may be other videos that customers have sent you or reviews—whatever it might be—keep those handy. Keep those with you because it’s designed to reinforce in your mind that yes, what you do matters, and you can make a difference.

4. You don’t need to do more homework.

It drives me crazy because people will sit there and say, “Well, if I just do a little more homework.” It becomes this habit of believing just a little bit more, a little bit more. I’ll make the call tomorrow. I’ll make the call tomorrow. Delay after delay. It’s just procrastination.

5. The time to call is now!

Prospecting calls are time-sensitive. The longer you wait, the longer it is that the prospect has potential to hear from somebody else. Or, the prospect has the ability to come up with a different solution or just go in a different direction.

The time to strike is right now.

via General Hospital on GIPHY

6. Prospecting within your ICP gives confidence.

We prospect within our ICP, our ideal customer profile because it allows us to have information that we can share.

When I have information of value to a prospect, it’s amazing how much more confident I am.The call goes that much better.

Take a couple minutes and think through all the things that you could share with a prospect that would help them in their business or in their life.

What are the questions you can ask?

And the way you do that is you go back to that list that you created of how you’ve helped other customers succeed, and you begin to pull that together.

7. Make an appointment with yourself.

You literally set your timer. Block the time.

Read these 7 Tips to Maximize Time for Prospecting

It is amazing that if you have to catch a flight, you will be on that flight. Even if you don’t want to travel, you’ve got to be on that flight.

Make that appointment with yourself that you’re going to make that call at 8:00 AM or 9:00 AM, 10:00 AM. You notice I said early because I always believe that I want to have accomplished something significant before 10:00 AM. It’s my 10:00 a.m. rule.