When we consider all the things we have to do in our sales careers, taking on the "chore" of Prospecting on a regular basis digs up a lot of bad feelings in the minds of most of us.
Probably the first thing most of you think about is the nuisance of having to add another activity to your workload. Plus, of all the things to have to do, Prospecting to most sales people is about as much fun as a root canal, anesthesia or not.
But, Prospecting is the life blood for all of us, so we should do it on a regular basis.
When we teach our BLITZ CALL® System for Prospecting, we cover everything from the words to say to the follow up methods. If you are the least bit reluctant to prospect, our training might give you all of the excuses you need to NOT begin a regular system of Prospecting.
Therefore, we have an idea for those of you who will never participate in one of our workshops or study our Prospecting System, but still need to Prospect. And that is, simply do the next step to get started. Don't worry about the ending, just begin.
In most cases this requires you to have just two sets of information. The first is a prepared, reliable, rehearsed, and repeatable initial Prospecting statement that you can use every time you make a Prospecting call either in person or on the phone.
Yes, I mean memorized, known well, and able to be presented honestly. You know, like Charlton Heston would do it. Well rehearsed, worded perfectly and a statement that makes sense.
I have been in the field with a lot of veteran sales professionals and their attempts at Prospecting were terrible. Yet when we initially talked about a prepared statement they were emphatically against memorizing. So they prospected extemporaneously. You can almost always expect off the cuff Prospecting to be weak.
That is probably why Charlton Heston makes millions, all of his mistakes are corrected before he gets in front of the "Prospects." Too often sales people practice on the Prospects, we don't recommend that.
The cycle is almost always the same. Extemporaneous Prospecting usually isn't very pleasant, so you don't feel good Prospecting, which creates negative feelings about Prospecting, so you avoid it whenever possible.
The second thing you need to have is a list of Prospects to call on or a territory to go after. It sure would be sad to prepare and rehearse great wording and then have no where to use it. So find your Prospects and go after them.
When you think about it, all you can ever do in any endeavor is the next thing. It is amazing what you can accomplish slowly and methodically like this.
Relating this to my triathlon adventures, I seem to be doing just the next thing all the time. This is a much larger project than I imagined. Simply learning how to prepare and then participate in these events is a challenge. For example, swimming in a mass is something I had never done before. The first couple of times I swam at the pace of faster swimmers got into oxygen debt and suffered throughout the race. I was worrying about the end not how I would get there.
I didn't use the wisdom of others. But I really want to do these things, so I will just do the next thing necessary and learn to perform at my own level of development.
You can do the same thing with your Prospecting. Don't try to perform at anyone else's pace, do it at your own. But you really have to DO it.
After you have started, you will need to develop a follow up system because you will create a lot of activities, a tracking system, and also determine how many times you should Prospect per week. But that is getting ahead of our premise.
You see starting the Prospecting process is really pretty simple, just do the next thing, don't worry about the end now.
Sell Well and Often
Bill Truax
Bill@BlitzCall.com
© Copyright 2006 WJ Truax
Bill Truax is a Sales Management and Field Operations Consultant living in Cleveland, Oh. He conducts Sales Team Assessments, Management and Leadership programs, and works with Field Sales Professionals and Managers both in the field and in workshops. He has written 3 books and recorded 2 CD's on Prospecting and Making Cold Calls and conducts a variety of skill based seminars, workshops, and train the trainer programs.
Bill has spent literally thousands of hours in the field making cold calls with sales professionals to teach his BLITZ CALL System. When Bill is in the field he actually makes many of the BLITZ CALLs himself, regardless of the industry. This is to demonstrate that anyone can prospect you just need to know how.
Bill writes a Free weekly Prospecting Succes Tip for subscribers at his website http://www.BlitzCall.com The site also details all the materials and programs Trufield offers.
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