Prospecting made easier

Winning in sales is all about your attitude!

And winning at prospecting or cold calling, whatever you call it , is all about attitude! The key to your financial success is your attitude towards prospecting.

If you don’t have the desire to prospect, or are afraid of it, you will find you are doing it less and less often. You will find your prospecting skills becoming weaker and your motivation will go down till prospecting becomes almost impossible.

Salespeople often fail or get stuck at a less than acceptable level performance because they are not motivated to prospect or have a fear of rejection. Both fear of rejection and lack of motivation are usually to blame. Either the lack of motivation causes the fear of rejection or the fear of rejection de-motivates them.

Here are some ideas on how to get motivated and stay motivated when prospecting or cold calling.

1. Prospecting works.

Prospecting over the phone or cold calling door-to-door is a very effective way to find qualified leads for your business. It works for millions of salespeople all over the world and it can work for you, too.

2. Discipline yourself.

Fear of rejection will lead to you feeling like quitting and/or procrastinating. The only way to discipline yourself is to keep prospecting. That means doing something that you don’t want to do. When you are staring at that name on your list or standing outside the prospects door – To borrow Nike's line - Just do it!

3. Prepare, prepare and prepare some more.

Top salespeople are prepared for every question, every objection and have regular phrases, statements and/or scripts they use to generate interest on the part of the prospect. This preparation comes from practice - practicing with co-workers or the sales manager and from making a lot of calls to prospects.

4. Control and conquer those bad feelings.

Try to understand why you fell sick to your stomach when you have to prospect. Or why you hate the phone and have the fear of rejection. Don’t let those feelings control you, you have to learn how to control them. Once you have control, you can convert the negative feelings into positive energy.

5. Don’t take rejection personally.

Your prospects are bombarded with salespeople each week. And they reject most, if not all of them. They are not rejecting you; they have rejected every other salesperson that has called them this week. So when you call, it is not you they are rejecting, they are rejecting another salesperson. Don’t feel so singled out.

6. Prospect regularly.

All salespeople say they are busy, and some say they are too busy to prospect. Top salespeople make a habit of allocating a certain percentage of their week to prospecting. Regardless of their workload, they put a priority on prospecting and do it regularly. It is your responsibility to make time to prospect and create this habit.

7. Qualify.

Don't waste your time making phone calls to companies and people who are not qualified to buy your product or service. Top salespeople have at least 100 qualified leads on their call list at all times. A qualified lead is defined as a prospect you know can use and pay for the products or services you offer or is currently using similar products or services offered by your competition.

8. Call Decision-Makers only.

Strong lead lists will have the name of the Prime Decision-Maker (PDM) for each lead. I often hear the MAN instead of PDM meaning the person with the Money, Authority and Need. Don't waste lots of time with anyone else.

9. Break up the day/session.

Even great prospectors get lots of rejection. It is sometimes difficult to take a lot of rejection for a long period of time. So I recommend breaking up your session into cycles like so.

• Make a particular number of calls to brand new prospects

• Then make some calls to prospects you have previously called on

• Then call some people for referrals

• Then take a short break.

What I have just described is one cycle.

The length of each cycle will depend on your commitment to prospecting, your work ethic and level of tenacity. In order to effectively prospect, you are going to have to repeat these cycles as often as possible in order to get results.

10. Build on successes.

Regardless of your experience level, you may occasionally hit a slump. To overcome this focus , practice regularly with referrals or previous accounts and keep at it. Little by little you will start to succeed and get their confidence back. As soon as you start to succeed throw in a couple of cold prospects and watch your confidence take over. Even if you are not in a slump, during a call session you may want to call on some older customers to keep your motivation and confidence level up.

11. Set goals.

Recently I was speaking with an experienced salesperson. For the past several years, he had a strong account base and did not have to make cold calls. He just started a new job with a company that does most of its business by telephone prospecting. He told me the main reason he has been more successful on the phone than most of the other new reps is because he sets goals for himself every week. He has goals for the number of times he dials the phone, the number of contacts he makes and the number of appointments he sets. Basically, he said he works as many hours as it takes to hit his goals. Now that’s commitment and desire!