I Hate Prospecting for Sales Leads
Posted by: Cheryl Clausen in sales marketing coaching, tags: sales leads, sales marketing coaching, sales prospectingHow many times have you or the people you hire to sell your stuff either said or thought these words? “I hate prospecting!” Probably more than once. Rather than dealing with the frustration overcome the challenge so you can say, “I love prospecting for sales leads!”
The problem stems from the fact that most people approach sales prospecting from the perspective of trying to find people to buy your stuff. When you should be focused on making your business FINDABLE by the people most likely to buy your stuff. Once you flip that paradigm you’ll love prospecting.
Here’s why prospecting is so hard when it shouldn’t be. You can’t effectively answer these questions:
- Who are the people most likely to have both the desire and the means to buy your stuff?
- What are those people already looking for?
- Where do the people most likely to buy your stuff gather?
- Where can you interact with and engage those potential buyers?
- When can you interact and engage with those people?
- Why do the people most likely to buy your stuff want to connect with you?
- How do they perceive getting what they want?
- How will you develop a relationship with the people most likely to buy your stuff?
- How will you transform strangers into buyers?
In case you didn’t notice the information you need to develop for your business is the same information a journalist would require to write an article about your business… Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How.
Don’t just answer these questions based on logic and features. You have to get to the driving emotional motivator that gets people who would rather ignore you and do nothing to act. You need a message that drives people out of their do nothing zombie state and transforms them into alert eager to act buyers.
The most important question is the first question. Answer that question and then do your homework and learn as much as you can about those potential buyers so you can effectively answer the remaining questions.
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September 24th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Thank you again. Great blog. Prospecting in a fun way, instead of a shot in the dark. By taking a little bit of time and doing some detective work I can see by your blog that it would be more beneficial for me, my sales and my budget to work accordingly.
No more encompassing the largest area possible to see who bites. Very smart, as always. Thanks!
September 25th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Yes I think those questions up there will make me tire out to answer them. Just my thoughts for your readers, if prospecting isn’t your goal for your sales leads, you’d really have a hard time coping up to those questions. It’s your choice of giving up or like what Cheryl have said, doing your homework. The first question isn’t really that hard to answer. You answer that question, do some research, then you’d be able to answer the following questions. Now you can execute your plans for prospecting for sales leads. After that, you’re okay.
While some people, like I do, love prospecting, there are others whom prospecting doesn’t love them back. This is the time where you’ll need to seek professional advice and help you go through the stage.