Prospecting is a Recipe.
When I say prospecting is a recipe I don’t mean that you need to be a chef to prospect. What I’m referring to is a recipe has multiple ingredients.
I see a lot of Ads on LinkedIn that state cold calling is dead. I disagree. That said, I wouldn’t solely rely on cold calling as the only ingredient of prospecting. I believe prospecting should include many activities in order to get results. Variation of activities will also prevent monotony, discouragement and increase the fun factor. Back in the day, as a junior sales rep, I created a Sales Experiment; a test to see what the outcome was based on multiple prospecting activities. So to kick start my fourth quarter, I publically declared (to my manager and my now wife) that I would cold call 40 businesses every day, door knock 20 businesses every day, attend 1 networking event every week, and mail out (yes, I said mail out) 500 letters every week for the entire month. What were the results for the month? Did I blow my sales targets out of the water? No, I did not, if I recall correctly, I achieved approximately 75% of my target. But the following month was a huge success, so much, that my overall sales represented 50% of the entire team’s results (based on 15 sales people).
I encourage every sales professional to engage is multiple prospecting activities to achieve your goals. I also recommend declaring them in an effort to hold yourself accountable. The present day now offers many ways to prospect, including:
- Cold Calling
- Door Knocking
- Networking
- Social Selling
- Referrals
- Direct Mail
- Individual Advertising
What other prospecting activities do you do? Please share below so we all can become better prospecting chefs!
Robbie