Prospecting Success
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Prospecting Success
I spent my formative years in ballet class. While other kids went out to play, I went to ballet class. In high school while others attended after-school activities or hung out together, I went to ballet class. By my mid-teens I was taking class five or six times a week or maybe even more. This was a habit that continued till injuries sidelined my professional dancing career.
This habit of taking a ballet class every day was not mine alone. Every dancer, professional or those seeking to become professional, takes class every day. It’s a habit, it’s a reality, it goes with the job. It is impossible to dance professionally without taking class. Even the stars, Barishnykov, for example, take class every day.
In my late teens I had some personal crises that stopped me from going to class everyday. At one of my rare appearances in class, my teacher asked where I had been. I told her what was going on in my life. She said to me, “That’s no reason not to take class. You have to take class everyday, no matter what.”
Sounds harsh doesn’t it? But she was right. Not taking class only gave me something else to feel bad about.
When I started my sales training business, I used that same “no matter what” approach to prospecting. I prospected every day. I started out with absolutely no corporate connections. I was a ballet dancer, I only knew other ballet dancers. I did, however, know how to prospect. On and off for years my “day job” had been telemarketing. I began to prospect the same way I learned to take class, every day, no matter what. Five years later I have a thriving business. Even today I continue to prospect every day, while perhaps not for as many hours. Every day brings some prospecting activity, no matter what.
So how does the busy entrepreneur, busy owner or sales professional find the time to prospect every day no matter what? The answer is simple, put it in your calendar. Schedule time in your calendar every day for prospecting activity. At the scheduled time put aside what you are doing and prospect. Do not take other calls, do not work on other projects, do not allow interruptions. Simply prospect. When the time you have scheduled is over, stop prospecting and go on with your other tasks.
Schedule appointments with yourself to prospect and keep those appointments. We get angry and upset when prospects miss appointments. Ask yourself: Why is it all right to miss an appointment with yourself?
Prospecting success (just like learning to dance) comes over time. In order to keep your sales funnel full you must constantly be on the lookout for leads and prospects. By keeping your funnel full you avoid the boom and bust cycles that so many entrepreneurs and sales professionals experience.
To be successful you must engage in some prospecting activity everyday, no matter what. It’s a habit, it’s a reality, it goes with the job.
© 2005 Wendy Weiss
Prospecting Success - To learn more about this author, visit Wendy Weiss's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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