You know that prospecting is important. Without new opportunities, sales don’t happen. And yet, somehow, prospecting activity often falls by the wayside. There are simply not enough hours in the day. Sometimes all you have are a few minutes for your prospecting activities. So, then the question becomes: How can you leverage the time that you do have?
1. Become more efficient.
Efficiency requires systems. When you have a step-by-step system it’s possible to get more done, more quickly. Winging it is very time consuming. The choices are:
a.) Create your own systems
b.) Come to one of our classes and learn our systems
c.) Find someone else’s system that you like.
What you must do is follow a system.
2. Get more effective when speaking with prospects.
Every time a prospect asks you to call them back at some point in the future… and you do so, you have just doubled your workload. Every time a prospect asks you to send information… and you do so, you have just doubled your workload as it is likely that you will need to call them back. Every time a prospect tells you they are working with someone and you do not have an effective response to get the appointment, you’ve just lost an opportunity.
Prospecting is very predictable. We know that if prospects do not immediately say, “yes” to scheduling an appointment they are likely to say one of the above standard objections.
If you have a great introduction you will hear far fewer objections. And then you need to know how to handle the objections that you do hear. The really good news is that this is a communication skill and it can be learned.
3. Use the proper tools.
I continue to be amazed that in 2019 there are still sales organizations that do not use any kind of software to manage prospecting activity. You cannot do this well on paper or an Excel spreadsheet. There are a number of software products made specifically for telephone prospecting that leverage your time. (You can see The Queen’s recommendations in the Wendy Recommends section below.) Find one. Use it.
