Are prospecting and keeping your pipeline full the toughest parts of your job? If so, you are not alone. I recently conducted a survey of salespeople and found about half of the respondents cited keeping their pipeline full as their top sales challenge.

If you have read my blog for awhile, you know that I reinforce this point a lot: prospecting is a year-round effort on which you have to be relentless. It’s also the one that can serve up the hardest hit on your sales motivation if you become easily discouraged and do it half-heartedly.

To be better…to sell more… and to never have an empty pipeline, you have to entrench yourself in healthy prospecting habits. For one, don’t spend the first 30 minutes of your day getting ready for your day. Spend the first 30 minutes of your day making at least 3 phone calls to potential customers. This one habit will radically change your sales motivation and set you on a course for that year-round prospecting effort I’m talking about.

More to come on prospecting and keeping your pipeline full. Just remember — your sales motivation is worth the healthy habits that only you can develop. No one else can choose to do them for you.