What are the signals you’re sending to your team with regard to developing prospects?
I see far too many sales managers focused solely on the number of contacts, whether it be phone calls, emails or in-person visits, to determine how prospecting is going.
Your job as a sales leader is to set the prospecting tempo by focusing on things that matter.
I’m not saying the number of calls don’t matter, because they do. But too much fixation on them will quickly demotivate the team. One of the best things you can do to help set the tempo is ask your salespeople what prospects are telling them. Focus your effort on the conversations they’re having, not just on the numbers.
When you start asking your salespeople about specifics and engaging them in conversations, you will begin changing two things. First will be the added focus your team places on the questions they ask prospects and what they learn. Second will be that the prospecting tempo will change dramatically.
Now instead of just chasing numbers, your sales team will begin seeing prospecting as part of the sales culture, because you’re asking about it.
The ability to grow comes when better prospects are put into the sales funnel. When you change what you’re looking at and what you’re placing emphasis on, you’ll change what your sales team does and ultimately the results they achieve.
To find out more about equipping your team with the prospecting skills that build long-term success, check out my new book High-Profit Prospecting.
Copyright 2016, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price and High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.
