There is something that every sales professional has to do – love it or hate it.
Prospecting.
You have a choice – are you committed to prospecting each week, or are you making excuses?
We’re already a few weeks into the 90-day Sales Prospecting Blitz and hopefully creating a consistent habit of prospecting each week. Are you coming up with excuses or focused on high profit prospecting?
What is your Prospecting Mindset when you have blocked time to prospect? Are you diligent in following through or are you creating excuses like these?
I simply don’t have time. I’m too busy to make these calls today.
I have an urgent client request.
I have too many emails in my inbox that I need to respond to first.
I’ll prospect tomorrow. I’ll have more time then to create a better sales process.
I’m not in the right mood to prospect.
No one is going to respond to my emails.
It’s too early to call or email them; I don’t want to irritate them by calling too early.
I’m not sure who to call; I haven’t started my list or research.
I’ll just make a few calls/emails and if I don’t get any success, I’ll start something else.
I have a meeting to attend.
Sound all too familiar?
Here’s a little secret –
The biggest excuse is YOU!
I’ll admit, these excuses fill my head most times I start to prospect. It’s a major battle of prospect or procrastination that goes on in my head – and I LIKE to prospect and realize the ABSOLUTE IMPORTANCE of this quintessential sale habit.
That’s why I’m writing this for you (and me, too!).
Let’s look at what we want to proactively attract in prospecting:
Larger clients
Meetings with the right decision makers
Prospects who want to hear from us and are genuinely interested in our solutions that will help their business
Calls and emails that turn into scheduled 30-60 minute meetings – people who make the time for us!
Prospects who respond to emails and/or return our calls
Remembering the results we want to achieve is good. But there’s something even more powerful.
Mindset.
Thinking and saying strong pro-active statements to ourselves can be a significant confidence booster.
Here are some examples that I often use:
I will be brave and make those 10 calls & emails every day/week to attract the bigger customers.
I will prepare my list in advance to be ready to pro-actively make my calls to receive at least three responses and meetings.
When I commit to prospecting, I turn prospects into customers within three months.
I will be confident, concise and customize the right message to the right decision maker who will say yes to a meeting and will then say yes to our solutions.
We have the best solutions in the marketplace; companies need our help to solve their biggest challenge and I need to prospect to create this awareness and need.
Do you have a habit of letting your mindset hold you back? How are you working to overcome it? Share your methods and tips below.
About the Author:
Lisa Leitch, CSP2
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.