When you finally start a system of prospecting you expect everything to function like clockwork. You develop your wording and practice it until you know it cold. You determine how many calls you need to make per week and also when you will make them.
As you go about this process you also know that you will not always accomplish your goal with each prospect on that first contact but you know that now, with a system, your success rate will be a lot better than in the past.
Then you start out those first couple of weeks and find out that you aren't ready for retirement yet. Everyone is not buying your products as you expected them to.
You are disappointed and think about going back to your old way of prospecting which was probably "whenever it was convenient." But you keep on with your new systematic approach for a couple more weeks. Finally after a couple of months you decide to do an analysis to see if you are really any better off than before.
This is when you make the pleasant realization that your systematic approach to prospecting is a "zillion times" better than what you were doing before.
You see that the first benefit of your system is that you actually made all of the prospecting calls that you said you were going to do. That, in and of itself should be reason enough to stick with the system approach.
But another realization is that you have made a tremendous number of new contacts that will develop into business for you. Some of these people visited with you when you showed up for your prospecting call, others set an appointment for you to return, still others weren't ready right now but will be in the future.
You now realize that as long as you keep doing this you will have a virtually unlimited source of new customers. Now you realize that other parts of your system have great importance. Those are the tracking and follow up systems. You need to know who you called on and when to get back to them.
As you continue, you see that a simple system of making prospecting calls on a regular weekly basis, keeping good records of who you call on and when to follow up with them will yield tremendous returns.
It is about this time that you see that being successful in prospecting is really quite simple. In fact you almost feel a bit naive for not realizing this earlier in your career. However, you see that nearly all of the other sales professionals you know aren't aware of this, so you don't feel so bad after all.
Further analysis on your part brings new insights to the systematic prospecting process. The fact that you were not startlingly successful right from the start is not unique. Few people start off achieving the success they want.
The point is your average new customers will dramatically increase. But when you are determining averages you have to take in a fair period of time for determining that average. In most cases a few weeks isn't enough time, especially if you are just starting a new prospecting system. Fine tuning to some degree will probably be required. Even the best baseball players have lulls in their hitting. That is why averages are considered over long periods of time.
Now you can sit back and enjoy the prospecting process along with all of the other aspects of your job. Prospecting is simply another part of your activities, not the horrible thing it once was. As your friends see your new attitude they want to know what has happened. You quickly explain that it is a system for prospecting and the key is persistence at the start really pays off.
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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