A recent study by ValueSelling Associates and Selling Power, B2B Prospecting Challenges from the Front Lines, found that: “By a wide margin, the most effective method of reaching prospects was client referrals followed by cold calls.”
Some other significant findings include:
The number one challenge that salespeople face when trying to set up an initial meeting is reaching the prospect.
Consistently making cold calls was the skill that scored the lowest with 25% of average reps marked as poor.
More than half (54%) of initial meetings required more than five touch points to secure the meeting.
Reps are not spending enough time on prospecting. Only 18% of sales reps spent nine hours or more on prospecting each week.
Organization, consistency, and persistence are foundational skills for effective prospecting.
Repeated, incremental training on prospecting and setting up initial meetings is essential for success.
We here at salesology.com recently sent a survey to our readers asking the question, “Did you or members of your sales team hit your 2018 sales goals?” Only 20% of those who responded said that they did. That means a whopping 80% did not achieve their sales goals last year.
Prospecting is foundational to sales success. Without prospecting there are no opportunities to sell.
The ray of sunshine in all of this is that prospecting is a communication skill that can be learned and improved on. In the 25+ years that I have been conducting prospecting and sales training, I have seen over and over again that once sales people learn these skills and an easy to follow process, generally call reluctance disappears, appointments are scheduled and sales happen.
If you are a business owner or sales professional who is prospecting and/or you manage a team of sales professionals who are prospecting and you are not having the success that you envision… if you know that prospecting is of vital importance and that it’s time to master this critical skill set, then let’s have a conversation about options to make that happen. Simply click on this link, give me some background and your best phone number and times to reach you and we’ll talk. I look forward to it.
