What are Your Sales Prospecting Barriers?
Posted by: Cheryl Clausen in sales coaching, tags: getting propects, sales coaching, sales prospectingIf you absolutely dread prospecting you aren’t alone. You don’t like doing it because of the way it makes you feel and the way your prospects react to your prospecting efforts. No one wants to do something they already know will produce a negative result.
Yet, you have to have people to sell to so even though you don’t like prospecting you have to do it.
Is there a way to get prospects and actually enjoy the process?
YES
Let’s think about why you don’t like prospecting now and what you could do to get real prospects interested in what you sell. After all if the people most likely to buy your stuff aren’t interested in what you sell you can’t expect a lot of sales.
Take networking, for example. Right now when you prospect you approach a complete stranger. After introducing yourself you probably do one of these things.
- You make small talk and walk away having made a connection but not a connection likely to go anywhere.
- You tell them what business you’re in and the conversation doesn’t go anywhere from there.
- You give them your elevator pitch and the conversation comes to another dead end.
- You tell them about your business and what you sell, and they excuse themselves as soon as possible.
- You ask them lots of questions about themselves then leave without telling the other person anything about yourself.
Or some similarly unproductive connection. It’s frustrating, uncomfortable, and time consuming to make all these connections and have nothing to show for your efforts.
You’ve probably witnessed those bells of the ball that come breezing in. They initiate a riveting conversation. And before they quickly move on they have everyone within ear shot handing them their business card and asking them to give them a call. While you stand there like chopped liver.
photo credit: Fernando Sacasa SerieB
How Do They Do That?
The good news is it’s a lot easier than you think. Right now your prospecting efforts aren’t working because…
- You don’t have anything of value to say
- You don’t ask the right questions
- You don’t have an offer they can’t refuse
Prospecting IS NOT Selling
Never forget that. Prospecting is about opening a connection so you get the opportunity to continue that connection. Prospecting is about making an acquaintance that you take actions to transform into a relationship.
That means when you prospect your goal is to:
- Engage
- Interest
- Extend
Prospecting is about starting a conversation that engages the other person. The quickest and easiest way to engage another person is to talk about them. If you want to get their interest you’ll want to talk about what they are already talking about and looking for.
In your case you want to talk about what they are already looking for in relation to what you sell. That automatically gives them a reason to be interested in what you sell… a reason to want to talk to you.
When talking to your potential prospects don’t ask a potential prospect for the wrong things. You’ve just met. In most cases they aren’t ready to meet you for an appointment. Only ask for the things they are ready to give you.
Finally, don’t make the wrong offer. Focus on offering something with immediate perceived value that they can get without risking calling you or meeting you for an appointment.
Most importantly be yourself and focus on the other person first and foremost.
Coach Cheryl
Entries (RSS)