fanatical prospecting by jeb blount prospecting is the most important part of sales but it can also be difficult and uncomfortable so many salespeople avoid it many people feel awkward and anxious interrupting prospects out of the blue but it is key to generating leads sales people who do not seek out prospects almost always underperform the most effective way to achieve success is by building up a strong pipeline of prospects there are many different methods and tools when it comes to prospecting including in-person networking email social media and phone calls top performing sales people utilize all the
tools at their disposal but they are also aware that there is no substitute to reaching out via the telephone even in the digital age of social media succinctly and straightforwardly making a persuasive pitch to prospective clients over the phone has a higher rate of success than any other sales alternative therefore the most effective sales people prioritize cold calling and arrange their contact lists according to the prospective pyramid which helps them determine which contacts are the highest priority prospecting is an essential activity sales is an essential part of the business no matter the industry no business
can be successful without sales however sales is not easy and it is often misunderstood even experts who claim to have all the answers all too often are selling ineffective shortcuts that will not lead to long-term success while the easy solution sells because people are drawn to the idea of achieving their goals without putting in long hours of work it is unfortunately often not the case in real life salespeople who try to find shortcuts and take the easy way out will find that they ultimately fall short of their goals no success will happen overnight and salespeople
who want to achieve success will have to be ready to put in the work while some raw talent can be beneficial ultimately nothing makes up for simply putting in hard work sales people have to put in long hours and be dedicated to closing deals any number of talented and charismatic salespeople will eventually fall flat if they only rely on their talent not their work ethic to achieve success truly successful people work harder especially when it comes to prospecting or proactively seeking out potential new clients prospecting means chasing down leads which will turn into future sales
by any means necessary this could mean working overtime making extra calls sending out more emails or even knocking on doors successful prospectors use all avenues at their disposal to discover and network with potential leads from email and social media to in-person contacts they are focusing on keeping their pipeline full at one end of the pipeline are all a salesperson's potential new clients which are the essential step to closing sales deals at the other end of the pipeline whatever sales people put at one end of the pipeline is what will come out of the other end
fanatical prospectors don't let rejection hold them back while prospecting is essential that doesn't mean it's always enjoyable it can be time consuming difficult and frustrating it requires contacting potential clients out of the blue which can be awkward and a salesperson can never be sure how their contact will respond to their message cold prospecting means interrupting a prospect in some cases the prospect may respond with annoyance or outright rejection and rejection is never fun however fear of rejection is exactly what holds back many salespeople underperforming is often caused by sales teams who resist picking up the
phone and reaching out to their prospects and instead make all kinds of excuses to avoid cold calling the possibility of rejection makes most people nervous so they would do anything they can to avoid it however there is no true substitute for cold calling while some companies may implement strategies to draw customers to them rather than having to seek prospects out the resulting sales are almost never as high as companies who actively seek out their customers the most lucrative customers are already being actively solicited by other salespeople so by not actively reaching out to them these
companies are missing out on some potentially very big accounts sitting around waiting rarely brings in the big box fanatical prospectors know this so they know they have to go out and actively seek out their prospects no matter how uncomfortable it may be initially they know how to push past their fear get out of their comfort zone and start proactively reaching out to their prospects the most effective prospecting calls contain just five simple steps first the salesperson should get their recipients attention by addressing them directly and then follow up by introducing themselves next they should clearly
state their reason for calling such as expressing their desire to arrange a meeting and should provide a business reason for explaining why this meeting would be beneficial for both of them once they have clearly stated their business reason they should directly ask for what they want for example if their goal for calling was to set up a meeting they should ask if a specific day and time will work and then allow the prospect to respond telephone calls should be succinct to the point and should not waste the prospect's time how to pitch persuasively crafting persuasive
sales pitches is not easy in order for a salesperson to pitch effectively they need to place themselves in their prospects shoes they should imagine what it is their prospect actually needs and then provide it for example when a client is cold called they rarely want their time wasted or to hear outlandish claims instead they want the call to be quick and to the point therefore it is important that salespeople tailor their pitches to their individual prospects they should think about what their specific needs concerns and desires are and then consider how they can address those
concerns every prospect's main concern is what's in it for me it is up to the salesperson to answer this question but clearly and concisely stating the tangible results that the prospect will enjoy by using their product or service in order to effectively communicate these results the salesperson should first address their prospects business objectives for example if their main goal is to save money then the salesperson should address that first secondly the salesperson should then demonstrate how their product will provide a tangible improvement most people resist change and stick with the status quo because it is
comfortable therefore the salesperson has to take on the responsibility of showing the prospect how their product will provide a significant improvement on the status quo lastly the salesperson will need to provide concrete evidence that their product is worth it their pitch will be much stronger if they are able to back up their claims with hard proof that their product will be beneficial to the client there is no substitute for the telephone cold calling on the telephone is the most stressful part of most salespeople's jobs and they will try to avoid it if at all possible
however there is no real substitute for calling prospects on the telephone it simply works much better than any other alternatives calling prospects on the phone generates a far higher percentage of leads than reaching out via email or social media in fact despite the recent rise of social media phone prospecting is more relevant than ever and phone contact rates have even risen by 5 percent since the 1990s part of the reason phone prospecting remains so successful is precisely because so few people do it hearing a human voice on the other end of the line adds a
personal element that virtual alternatives lack additionally in the digital age almost everyone has their phone on them at all times so a caller is almost always likely to reach a real person when they call them on the phone calling prospects can even be a better alternative than face-to-face meetings because those often take up far more time and time is money phone prospecting provides the best combination of efficiency and effectiveness therefore all sales people will have to make phone calls if they want to reach their sales targets the best way to do this is to borrow
a technique from the french writer nicholas chamfer and eat the frog chamfor suggested that the best way to accomplish something that is distasteful or unpleasant to do such as eating a frog is to simply do it first thing and get it over with for most salespeople making phone calls is their version of the frog therefore they should dedicate the first two hours of their day simply to phone prospecting then once it is done they can move on and not have to worry about it for the rest of the day the internet can be a powerful
sales tool while there is no substitute for the phone social media still provides a lot of value one of the biggest new trends in sales is social selling which is selling through social media like facebook twitter instagram or linkedin while it can be a useful tool to have in the sales toolbox it will not replace all other forms of prospecting email and phone calls still have much higher success rates than social media channels this is because social selling isn't really selling in the traditional sense when people use social media they are not actively looking to
buy anything most people are using it to connect with others and share experiences so they do not necessarily want to hear a sales pitch when they are online in fact cold pitching via social media is more often likely to annoy or alienate potential clients than it is to generate a lead however social media is useful because it provides a large amount of data and insight into prospects interests behaviors and desires salespeople can use this data to become familiar with what their prospects want and find a broader audience for their products this information can come in
handy later on when salespeople are trying to establish a relationship with their prospects a fanatical prospector will utilize social media to find where their potential clients are and will gather useful information about them salespeople should craft a carefully curated social media presence and use it as a tool to lay a solid groundwork for relationships with new prospects email can also be a useful tool for reaching out to potential clients while it is not as effective as the telephone emails can be a very efficient addition to the prospecting toolkit they can be written ahead of time
and scheduled to be emailed to prospects at specific times which increases efficiency and their response rates can be easily measured and analyzed the most effective prospecting emails follow three simple rules first the email must be delivered to its intended contact many people have spam filters set up which can block the email from reaching its intended audience to avoid getting caught in a spam filter sales people should not send bulk emails and should avoid including attachments or hyperlinks secondly the email must be opened by its intended recipient they should be compelling and the subject line must
be carefully crafted to catch the prospect's eye lastly the email should accomplish its goal of turning the recipient into a potential client this can be accomplished by making the email as personal as possible while clearly stating what the desired goals and outcomes of the email are the three ps of failure procrastination perfectionism and paralysis there are three deadly sins of prospecting procrastination perfectionism and paralysis committing any one of these sins will negatively impact the salesperson's prospects procrastination is when a salesperson puts off accomplishing certain tasks many people assure themselves they will make it up later
but skipping even small tasks can have huge consequences down the road too much procrastination will lead to panicking rushing and struggling to finish everything at the last minute which is sometimes impossible this often leads to angry managers lack of client leads and a lot of regrets instead a salesperson is much more likely to be successful if they try to accomplish their tasks in a slow steady manner they set aside time to accomplish their necessary tasks each day and they remain consistent perfectionism comes from an intense desire to get everything one hundred percent right but it
can ultimately result in failure if the impulse is not controlled too much focus on getting everything perfect which is an impossible goal will hinder people from even starting so in the end nothing gets done for example jeremy a sales rep who struggled with perfectionism would spend hours preparing by reading and re-reading client notes but ultimately all that preparation cut into time he could have spent actually making active connections with clients by phone prospecting his output was actually worse than his colleague sandra who sat down and immediately began her day by calling all the prospects she
could within an hour she had reached 53 clients compared to jamie's total of just seven over the course of three hours while she might not have been the most prepared on paper she ended up with the more successful results finally paralysis is what happens when salespeople overthink and over analyze their next steps too often people get caught up in the what-if scenarios and become consumed imagining all the possible negative outcomes however these negative outcomes may never come to pass but failure is assured if salespeople remain paralyzed and never reach out to their prospects at all
successful prospectors diversify their methodology selling is a lot like investing the best investors do not put all of their savings into one stock option rather they diversify their portfolios so that if something goes wrong they will not have all their money wiped out diversifying investments is the best way to ensure long-term success and the same principle holds true in sales sales people should not put all of their eggs in one basket but should diversify their prospects there is no one single method that will lead to success and salespeople who do not diversify their prospects will
underperform the most successful salespeople mix up their methodology and seek many different avenues on their path to success they utilize all the tools at their disposal a fanatical prospector does not only use the phone or email but utilizes a mix of phone email social selling texting in-person networking and any number of other possibilities to maximize his return individual methodologies will be more or less successful depending on the specific circumstance each industry will have its preference and the type of product plays a significant role for example consultants might have a lot of success using linkedin where
many prospects for this type of service will frequent but companies with more established contacts might have more success mining the database of contacts they already have through more personal avenues like the telephone or email geography is also important for example knocking on doors will not be an efficient use of time in sparsely populated rural areas but might yield results in densely populated cities maintaining a diverse balance of techniques is important and when in doubt it is always a good idea to take advice from successful salespeople who have been in that area for a long time
the three laws of prospecting without a pipeline full of prospects deals cannot be closed and sales will not be made that is why prospecting is the most essential part of sales the most successful sales people already know this which is why they spend up to eighty percent of their time just on prospecting because they know it is a good investment the sales people who have the most success prospecting follow these three laws of prospecting the first law is the universal law of need according to this law the more a salesperson needs a sale the less
likely they are to get it when salespeople start to struggle they begin to get desperate the fewer deals they have the more desperate they are which is a problem because desperation can lead to bad judgment which causes even more failure clients can also sense when a salesperson is desperate and it will turn them off from making a deal desperation is a bad look and it will turn clients away desperation can be a vicious cycle but there is a way out the best way to avoid this cycle is to always keep the second law called the
30-day rule in mind according to the 30-day rule all deals that are closed within a 90-day window are the result of prospecting work that was completed 30 days earlier many people forget this when they are busy focusing on closing deals which causes them to put off prospecting however if they put it off for too long they will feel the consequences 90 days later when they have no deals to close therefore salespeople should remember that each day they are not prospecting is one day in the future when they will not have a lead and after 30
days they are setting themselves up for failure three months down the line the last law is the law of replacement this law states that new prospects should be added to the pipeline at the same pace as a salesperson's closing ratio that means that as a salesperson closes a deal they should replace that deal with another prospect but their prospect should align not with the number of deals they close but with the prospect to deal ratio for example if becky has 30 leads this month but her average closing ratio is only 1 in 10 then she
does not have 29 prospects left after closing a deal she only has 20 because according to her ratio nine of those prospects will not turn into deals statistically she will need at least 10 prospects in order to turn into one deal so she should aim to replace her pipeline according to that ratio numbers do not lie exceptional performers keep track of statistics and data because it helps them improve and top performing sales people are no different looking at the numbers can show them where they can improve therefore the most successful salespeople track everything from the
number of emails they send and appointments they make to the number of contacts they have and their closing rates they then analyze these numbers to ensure they are performing both efficiently and effectively efficiently is simply the measure of how much work gets done in a specific time but effectiveness shows how much real world success the activity yields for example if someone makes a hundred calls in an hour then they are certainly working efficiently but if none of those calls led to any leads then the time spent was not effective effectiveness is when the activity yields
a beneficial outcome the best salespeople aim for the perfect balance of efficiency and effectiveness but they also need to be realistic this is where looking at numbers comes in handy tracking performance shows how their performance and efficiency correlates to effective outcomes so they can see where they need to improve and adjust accordingly not looking at these numbers deprives salespeople of this important data for example a salesperson was having a slow day which he chalked up to bad luck when asked he believed he had made close to 50 calls that day and had generated no leads
however when looking at the numbers it turned out he had not made 50 calls he had only made 12. therefore there is no wonder why he had not generated leads he was being far less efficient than he had claimed but because he was not tracking his numbers he had no idea that his effectiveness was not suffering because of bad luck but because he was not working efficiently the prospecting pyramid in order to be as effective as possible prospecting cannot be random the most effective sales people prioritize their prospecting calls not every call will be equally
valuable so prospects should first be vetted in order to determine which ones are worth calling first prospects should be prioritized according to which ones are the most likely to yield a sale and which ones have the potential to be a huge opportunity the best way to arrange these prospects is in the shape of a pyramid at the bottom are the prospects that are least likely to yield a sale not much is known about these prospects so the goal for reaching out to them is simply to gather more information about them for the future the second
tier of the pyramid contains contacts that are a little more well known the salesperson will have some basic information about them such as demographic data and the size of their budget which will enable them to ask more targeted questions the goal of reaching out to these prospects is to identify their buying window and try to determine when they will be likely to want to make a sale the third tier is similar to the second tier but these will be contacts that have a closer relationship with the sales representative the goal in reaching out to them
is to continue to nurture that relationship and ensure that they are prepared when these contacts are ready to buy the fourth tier contains contacts that are the best opportunities for turning into buyers as soon as the moment is right the goal of reaching out to them is to assess when the moment might be right to make the sale the fifth tier second to the top should be reserved for hot contacts that have come in via referrals and third-party recommendations these prospects are just about ready to purchase and just need to be contacted in order to
push them into the pipeline the tippy top of the pyramid is the most time sensitive highest priority prospects who are the most willing to buy immediately those prospects are the most valuable and should be contacted right away the main takeaway the most successful salespeople spend 80 percent of their time on prospecting because they understand building a pipeline of prospective clients is the key to success fanatical prospectors do not let rejection procrastination perfectionism or paralysis hold them back instead they use all the tools at their disposal to reach out to potential clients they are not afraid
of cold calling which is the most effective method of connecting with clients fanatical prospectors track their performance and analyze the numbers in order to see where they can improve and they strategically prioritize their prospecting efforts based on the quality and size of their potential leads hi i'm rhonda and this is an exclusive audiobook video recorded for the audiobook master channel enjoy your audiobook and have fun learning don't forget to subscribe and hit the notification button so you'll get updated on our next upload if you liked the video give us a thumbs up and say your
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