Sales Prospecting Is a Dirty Business (or Why a Clean Desk Is Not a Good Sign)

Guest post by: Don Zihlman
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I Don’t Care About You - By Don Zihlman

In my former life as a sales manager for a broadcast company, we had hired a new salesman who had come from the retail world. He had an outgoing personality, a great handshake, a smile on his face, and the cleanest and most organized desk I had ever seen. Unfortunately his clean desk was a result from the fact that he couldn't bring himself to make prospecting sales calls.. he couldn't do it on the phone, and he couldn't get in the car and visit new prospective customers in person. Instead, he focused his energies into organizing his desk. His was the neatest and most organized desk not in the just the sales department, but throughout the entire broadcast company.
In the sales world we have the term "Call Reluctance", a person just can't bring him or herself to make the necessary sales call on a new prospective client. Everyone suffers from this to one degree or another, but any successful salesperson overcomes it.

I don't think there is a business in existence that doesn't require its sales people to prospect for sales to one degree or another. If you don't find new clients, the day will come where you may not have any, or just a few. Clients do come and go. Many may stay with you for years, but there will always be attrition. A valuable contact may leave a company, retire, be promoted, or the company itself may change directions, change suppliers, or possibly go out of business. For whatever reason change occurs, a good salesperson has to have a plan for finding new clients.

Why do so many sales people resist prospecting particularly cold calling? Rejection. We all hate rejection. Don't take it personally. I guess for some people that's easier said than done. Prospecting is just like any other skill, do it enough and it will become second nature. I have always thought of prospecting as the "down and dirty" part of sales. I don't mean this negatively. It's like digging out a foundation before you build your house. It's the dirty part of the job, but it has to be done. Build a poor foundation, and your house will come down around you.

So suck it up, tell yourself that prospecting is necessary. Set aside a time each day for prospecting, and do it. If you devote just 1 hour per day to prospecting, that's 5 hours per week, and 240 hours of prospecting per year. (I gave you four weeks of vacation...probably more than you deserve.)

Whatever happened to the guy with the clean desk? We learned that instead of making prospecting sales calls, he was going home everyday to watch the soaps, and he would return to the office about 4 in the afternoon. We quickly made it possible for him to watch daytime TV all day.

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I Don’t Care About You - By Don Zihlman

About the Author: Don Zihlman

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Don works with individuals and businesses that want to increase sales and grow revenue. He learned sales “on the street”, and through his StreetSmart Sellingtm sales training program ( www.streetsmartselling.com ) he takes his experience and turns it into practical ideas on sales and marketing. For over the past 30 years Don has been a consistent top-billing radio advertising rep, a radio sales manager, and for over 15 years, president of his own marketing and advertising agency. Today, He consults a variety of businesses on matters of marketing, advertising and sales. Now he takes this experience and translates it into an effective program of sales training for those who meet with clients on a direct face-to-face basis. Don is a member of the National Speakers Association, and the Maine Association of Professional Consultants. He can be reached at 1-877-DON-ZIHLMAN or don@streetsmartselling.com
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Sales Prospecting Is a Dirty Business (or Why a Clean Desk Is Not a Good Sign)

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