Prospecting is hard. Do these scenarios sound familiar?  

Case 1: You are trying hard to generate interests to your prospects by presenting your company, the benefits of your products, and your credentials, but it feels like a one way dialog to your prospects. There were no responses from prospects and your calls could not reach them.

Case 2:Prospects asked for your proposal.  You get excited, send in information, and follow-up diligently but prospects don’t respond to your emails and/or phones calls after the proposals. Apparently, you have spent a lot of unnecessary work pursuing unqualified prospects that you thought were qualified initially.

The frustration feelings sank in and intensified.  You know you need better sales pipelines, more realistic quotas and improved conversion rates.  But these won’t happen if prospecting fails.  You feel there are more roadblocks than business opportunities and your spirit is dampened.

You are not alone. I have gone through similar frustrating experiences.  The trial and errors to build the craft of prospecting in the past have made me realized that prospecting habits is one of the roadblocks to the selling effort.   To avoid the frustrating experience, consider…

5 Prospecting habits to set positive feelings

1. Selection of the right target and finding the qualified leads.  Don’t be desperate calling to anyone and everyone.  Qualifying prospects to fit into your ideal customer profile, rather than simply cast as wide a net as possible and chase the wrong target.
2. Start a conversation with the prospect in the first contact. Don’t push for an appointment too early.  Do the preliminary outreach with the prospect; be it an inquiry to the needs of your services, sharing the benefits of your services and then an appointment will make sense to the prospects.
3. Change your prospecting strategies. You can target more than one person in the prospective company that would benefit from your offer. Or you can be flexible in your outreach to prospects through social selling in addition to phone, email, direct mail, and referrals. Choose strategies that fit the prospect’s preference and not your habits.
4. Don’t get upset with the prospects. Be understanding and see from their perspectives.  Today’s buyers are different in their buying process, behaviours and expectation. They are well-connected to get information that addresses their needs. They want control in buying. If you are perceived as annoying, they will simply ignore you.
5. Be proactive in learning and practicing prospecting skills to improve your results. Attend courses to work on specific skills, for example how to write effective emails for prospecting, how to apply new social prospecting skills, and more. You can always update yourself with new prospecting strategies from thought leaders or sales leaders for better prospecting effort.

Tell us what other prospecting habits you have uncovered that made your prospecting experiences a more productive and enjoyable way to do more sales.