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1.  Make it a planned part of your schedule. 

Prospecting should be done with the same regularity as brushing your teeth. If you’re only prospecting when your work is running out, you are not facing the fact that prospecting is a fact of your business life.   Set aside one hour per day, or one day per week and make the calls.  You’re gathering information all the time and meeting people wherever you go.  When your scheduled prospecting slot comes up, you should be primed with names to call.

2.  Keep your prospecting calls short.

You’re not going to win the client in the first shot.  So beware of “telling everything you know” when you get someone live, or if you get voicemail.  Be short and sweet and direct.  Prospecting is a process, not a one-shot deal. If you’ve done your homework, you’ll be prepared with your message and a good question or two, should you connect.  Respect their time, and they may give you some of it.

3. Know how many calls or meetings you need to make to create closable opportunities. 

Are you doing enough prospecting to bring in the amount of business you need?  How do you know?  Well, think about what is the amount of revenue you need to make, and how much is your average sale?   Then work backwards.  It’s surprising how frequently we talk with sales people who don’t really know what their call averages are. Know your average ratio of dials to leads, and of leads to deals.  Then make sure you’re hitting those numbers consistently – and the sales will come.

4.Get through the wall of voicemail and gatekeepers by delivering information and value at every attempt. 

Does your message or opening sound like every other sales person?  Are you repeating the same message over and over, and wonder why no one is calling you back?  Develop strong, important, customer-focused USPs (unique selling propositions) and then dole them out one at a time, as you move through the cycle to get a live connection.  This gives you the ability to add something new to every contact you make to get the meeting.  This is much more intriguing to a prospect than hearing the same “salesy” message repeatedly.

5.  Don’t stop.  

This is key.  Prospect when business is bad, when business is good, and when business is great.  Starting over from scratch during a cash crunch is a business and morale killer.  Prospecting well and effectively takes practice, consistency, creativity, and patience.  Most marketing and sales efforts do not bring immediate results – they take an investment of your time.  The minute you stop, you make it that much harder to get the engine of your business going again.

By Lisa Dennis

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