The typical business-to-business salesperson spends anywhere from 5% to 30% of their time engaged in the activity of finding new business, or what is generally referred to as ‘prospecting’ for new customers.   Regardless of the product or service being sold, the geographic or industry vertical market a salesperson may cover, here are five prospecting tips that can help make you more productive:
 
1.     Don’t Get Overly Focused On ‘Marquee’ Or High Profile Customers
 
In any industry, there is a small universe of extremely high profile companies which are often viewed as the ‘most desired’ clients. Salespeople tend to focus more on these high profile organizations as well as known brand name firms in their geographic area.  Ensure your focus on high profile companies does not cause you to ignore many great revenue opportunities offered by less well-known businesses.  
 
2.     Monitor Time And Effort Spent Prospecting To Fortune 1000® Prospects
 
The top 1000 companies are obsessively sought after by sales representatives who may frequently ignore the companies that are slightly smaller than the top 1000 or what we will refer to as the ‘sub-Fortune 1000’ companies .  Frequently these companies are omitted entirely from a salesperson’s prospecting activities and may be businesses with higher growth rates and shorter buying cycles than the top 1000 prospects.  In addition, ‘sub-Fortune 1000’ companies are frequently easier to connect with, as all your competitors are busy courting only the largest accounts. 
 
3.     Beware Of The ‘Myth Of The Rolodex®’ When Targeting Prospects From A Prior Career
 
One of the first things a new salesperson in a new job will do is contact his or her prior customer relationships.  In fact, many companies base their hiring decision on whether a salesperson has prior relationships and industry contacts.  In many cases, not only are these relationships less important than expected, they can actually be counterproductive to seeking new business.  A salesperson cannot re-use the rapport or credibility that was built when representing a previous company to benefit a new employer.  They must re-establish the rapport and re-earn the customer’s trust.  
 
4.     Don’t’ Spend Too Much Time  Prospecting To Existing Or Previous Customers
 
Everyone prefers to talk to people who like them and want to talk to them.   By virtue of having purchased before, previous clients have made the salesperson feel good about their selling ability.   However, the activity of engaging with an existing or past customer is not prospecting, it is the activity of account management.  Always be on the lookout for new customers.
 
5.     Watch Out For ‘Friendly People’
 
Salespeople are people people and prefer to talk to friendly people over unfriendly people.  But prospecting is not about finding ‘friendly people’ to talk to or to meet with.  It is about finding the best potential candidate for the product or service you are selling.  It is about continually seeking out, qualifying, re-qualifying, collecting and processing information in order to identify the best potential prospect possible. 
 
While there are valid reasons for all the above-noted prospecting behaviors, it is critical to monitor the time being spent in one or more of these areas. Frequently, we will analyze the focus of sales activities and learn that while the Fortune® 1000 represents perhaps 5% of a given customer or revenue base, the sales representatives are spending a disproportionate amount of their time (20-25%) on this particular market segment. In addition, it is important to determine why this behavior is occurring. (Is the sales database disproportionately loaded with a certain type of lead (high-profile, past personal contacts, is there a reluctance to undertake new business development, etc.)
 
Finding new customers today has become more difficult than ever before.  In a world of ‘vendor resistant’ prospects, sales management must ensure their sales teams have appropriate time allocated to focus exclusively and effectively on the act of prospecting for new business and ensure that the salesperson uses every moment effectively. 
 
 
To learn more about effective prospecting and the Trigger Event Prospecting™ workshop, visit www.prospecting21.com.
 
Copyright 2003, The Cowan Group