Close Close
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
ThinkAdvisor

Life Health > Running Your Business > Prospecting

Never stop prospecting

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

Over the past 20+ years that I’ve worked with business owners, entrepreneurs and sales professionals, I’ve witnessed far too many of them agonize over the fact that they do not know where they will find their next sales opportunities.

I’ve also witnessed far too many business owners, entrepreneurs and sales professionals caught up in an endless boom-and-bust cycle. A new customer comes in the door. Whoopee! You get really, really busy—can’t-even-stop-to-think busy—until the work for that new customer is completed. And then… nothing. And the worry begins again.

At this point, some enterprising souls launch a prospecting blitz. They frantically begin their prospecting activity of choice, until they find that new customer who says yes. Then everything of a prospecting nature stops again. Once that new customer work is complete, the cycle begins again. It doesn’t have to be this way. There is a solution.

Prospecting means having a consistent, replicable system that continually fills your sales funnel with likely, qualified opportunities. (The relevant words are “consistent” and “replicable.”) If you have a consistent and replicable system, I guarantee you will be able to continually fill your sales funnel.

If you don’t want to have to tear out your hair worrying about where your next sale is coming from, then consistent prospecting is the way to go.

There are many ways to prospect and fill your sales funnel. I am a big proponent of telephone prospecting. There’s also referral selling, mining existing customer relationships, using social media and of course marketing to drive new leads. Pick the ones that work for you and do them consistently and watch your sales grow.

Sign up for The Lead and get a new tip in your inbox every day! More tips:

Wendy Weiss, aka The Queen of Cold Calling, is president of ColdCallingResults.com. She is also the author of Cold Calling for Women and The Sales Winner’s Handbook.


NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.