I’ve found that there are 10 reasons that most prospecting plans do not work. As I dig into these further, I come to #7:
Not allocating the proper commitment of your time.
Prospecting is not something you do when you don’t have anything else to do. It’s not something you do when you suddenly find yourself without enough customers.
Prospecting must be something you do on a regular basis.
View prospecting the same way you do taking a shower. You take a shower daily. You should be prospecting daily. Failing to prospect on a regular basis is putting yourself in a situation where your sales will constantly be in a peak/valley syndrome.
Regardless of how successful you might be or how you don’t feel there is a need to prospect because your customers like you so much, the truth is that you MUST consistently prospect!
You must allocate time on your calendar, and this doesn’t mean just adding it to your list of things you want to get done. No, you must physically block the time on your calendar. Minimally, you block time each week; ideally, you block time every day.
Dedicated time built into your day is going to increase your probability of doing it. For too many salespeople, prospecting is the last thing they want to do because of how difficult it can be. This is why merely having it on your list of things to do is simply not good enough.
Next step in allocating time to prospect is actually doing it. Thinking about prospecting and preparing to prospect is NOT prospecting.
Too many salespeople will have an hour of time blocked on their calendar, only to spend the entire hour getting ready to do it but never actually doing it.
When you allocate time to prospect, include time to prepare to prospect. This means for most salespeople, you will need to set aside nearly twice as much time as you think. Doing so is going to help you increase significantly the number of contacts you make.
Your objective is simple: Arrange your calendar in a way you can block time each day or minimally each week to not just think about prospecting, but to actually do it.
For all the posts in this series on why most prospecting plans don’t work, check out:
Do You Rely on Email as Your Only Prospecting Tool?
Why You Must Segment Your Prospects
Not Enough Time to Follow Up with Prospects?
Do You Have TOO Many Prospects in Your Pipeline?
Are You Using the Same Prospecting Process for All of Your Prospects?
Do You Think Social Media is Your Answer?
Are You Committing Enough Time?
Your Prospects Really Don’t Care About You
Are Your Messages About the Prospect’s Needs?
The Telephone is Still a Great Prospecting Tool
Copyright 2015, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
