Six Keys To Take You To The Next Level

The Gulf Coast troubadour, Jimmy Buffett, who grew up in nearby Mobile, Alabama, played a benefit concert for over 35,000 people in nearby Gulf Shores to promote tourism along the Gulf Coast. I wasn’t there but I did watch it live on CMT. What a show it was. First time I have seen a live [...]

Warning! This is a strong message meant for mature adults. If you are easily offended quit reading now. This month we had several people quit our Inner Circle Coaching program and cancel their subscription to our newsletter. Here are some of the lame excuses they gave for quitting… “I‘ve got lots going on and I [...]

Accountability The fifth chunk to increasing personal productivity is accountability. Accountability serves as a reality check to keep us on track and to help us stay grounded and focused. Unfortunately, less than two percent of the population has the ability to hold themselves accountable. So they usually need a mentor, a coach, or need to [...]

In the three previous posts we looked at the importance of habits, determining your core talents and skills and clarity of focus on personal productivity. In this post we look at the fourth chunk – personal productivity/time management. Time Management Most people overestimate how much of their day is productive.  Lee Iacocca was interviewed when [...]

In the two previous posts we talked about the importance of habits and determining your core talents and strengths. In this post we will explore the third chunk of clarity.  Lack of clarity or lack of clear purpose is a major reason for poor performance and a mediocre lifestyle. If you ask most salespeople “how [...]

Personal Effectiveness The second chunk of personal productivity is determining your core skills and strengths.  When you go through the sales training and sales management personal effectiveness worksheet you will identify all the different tasks that you do on a daily/weekly basis. When you analyze your results you will find out that those skills, the [...]

The second biggest question I get is ‘how can I become more productive?’ It’s not necessarily about time management, although time management is part of any personal productivity.  The only thing we can manage is our own behavior and what we do during the 24 hours of each day.  All of us have the same [...]

As I write this, 5000 barrels of oil are spewing into the Gulf of Mexico daily. Although, the cause of the Deep Water Horizon disaster is unknown, the finger-pointing has begun in earnest. The three players involved: British Petroleum, Haliburton and Trans Ocean are all trying to distance themselves from their responsibility in this environmental [...]

 

 Prospecting To Fill The Pipeline [58:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (393)

What Is The Purpose Of Prospecting? During the Gold Rush days in California, prospectors set up camp by a stream and patiently sifted through pan after pan of gravel and mud in the hopes of finding a gold nugget or two. It was hard, frustrating work, not unlike sales prospecting today. Perhaps the major difference [...]

 

 Prospecting To Fill The Pipeline [58:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (393)

What Is The Purpose Of Prospecting?

During the Gold Rush days in California, prospectors set up camp by a stream and patiently sifted through pan after pan of gravel and mud in the hopes of finding a gold nugget or two. It was hard, frustrating work, not unlike sales prospecting today. Perhaps the major difference between the gold prospector and the sales prospector is their attitude toward the process. Gold prospectors knew they’d have to go through a great deal of gravel and mud to find a nugget, while today’s salesperson seems frustrated with each call that doesn’t pan out.

Most sales people think that their job is to try and convince people to give them an appointment. They think if they can make enough appointments and talk to enough people then everything will work out fine. They also will tell you, as will most sales training professionals, that  “sales is a numbers game.” See enough people and make enough presentations and you will close enough deals. That is so old school sales training. That paradigm went out in the 1970’s. Unfortunately, most companies, and sales managers still believe and teach that approach.  That is why there is so much turnover and failure in the sales profession.

Think about it. If your goal in sales is to talk to x number of people and to set y number of appointments to close z number of deals, what happens when you fail to achieve that goal. You feel like a lousy, miserable failure. No matter how strong your ego you can only take so much.

So what should you do? Develop a new paradigm that prospecting is the culling out or disqualifying of suspects.  The objective of prospecting is to eliminate those who have no need, no urgency, or no money for your product or service. Most sales people try to qualify when what they should be doing is trying to disqualify as many suspects as they can.

Getting salespeople in front of qualified prospects is typically the number one issue of companies. The ability of the sales force to keep the pipeline full is key to success.

Without an effective prospecting system in place, the sales pipeline is weak, creating pressure to be more aggressive in selling to poorly qualified prospects. This leads to poor sales, deteriorating margins, frustrated salespeople and concerned management.

Funny thing is when you adopt this attitude you stop wasting time, become more relaxed and start getting more “Yeses”. It really is a paradox.

Please comment below and let us know if you like getting this free download. Also, please forward this link to any of your fellow sales professionals that may benefit from it.

As many of you know, I attended a two day Mastermind meeting in Baltimore with Bill Glazer on March 9th and 10th. This was significant for two reasons: one was the small group setting where there were only 7 of us sitting around a conference table engaged in and listening to advice from a multi-millionaire, [...]