Prospecting is the lifeblood of sales and is generally the most important thing a sales professional does. Success or failure in sales can usually be traced — one way or another — back to prospecting.

Given how important prospecting is to sales success, I tend to worry about sales pros this time of year. Why? Because they get too busy to prospect, or at least they think they’re too busy to prospect. When you’re super busy, it’s easy to put off prospecting. If you do that, you’ll pay the price a couple of months later.

Top producers consider prospecting to be an activity driven by their annual goals and business plans. They are highly goal-oriented and monitor progress throughout the year. They always want to be ahead of the game.

Elite prospectors are obsessed with prospecting and do it every day. They are constantly wondering, “Who else is out there that could become my client?” They prospect when times are good because they know that a rainy day will eventually come. They fight through worry and discouragement and keep prospecting during economic downturns because they know better days lie ahead and they want to be ready for future opportunity. They even prospect when mediocre sales reps would claim they are too busy to prospect.

Top producers dig deep into their professional souls and conquer the temptation to procrastinate. They know that perfectionism is the “little brother” of procrastination, so they don’t wait for things to be perfect.

Beware This Trap

You’ve probably fallen into this trap before, by the way. You keep putting off picking up the phone until you’ve accomplished “just one more thing.” Well, top producers know they will never be 100 percent ready, so they jump in and just get the job done. As the legendary Army General George S. Patton once said, “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”

The best prospectors are organized in both their personal and professional lives. They have a system of good habits allowing them to keep the little things in line, freeing them up to spend their time on big things.

They are “opportunity detectives.” A financial services CEO once told me that sales professionals should listen to their clients with the same intensity that a homicide detective listens to a murder suspect. Deep, active and fully-present listening is necessary to uncover hidden business opportunities. Most people only casually listen to prospects, causing them to miss subtle cues that could lead to millions of dollars in business.

An “Accountability Mindset”

Finally, great prospectors have an “accountability mindset.” They are accountable to themselves, their clients, and their colleagues.

If you have an accountability mindset, you live your life according to three words: responsibility, authority and accountability. You are responsible for your own world, and fortunately, you have the authority to carry out your responsibilities. But with that authority comes accountability for your decisions and actions.

In other words, truly successful people graciously take credit for their successes and accept blame for their mistakes. In practical prospecting terms, this means they don’t make excuses, such as, “Nobody answers the phone these days.” They don’t waste time worrying, “What if that person doesn’t want to talk to me?” They don’t complain, “Nobody will make a decision these days!”

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Closing the Referral Gap

The legendary Dale Carnegie once claimed that 91 percent of customers said they would be willing to give referrals, yet only 11 percent of salespeople ask for them.

More recently, a Texas Tech University study revealed that 83 percent of satisfied clients are willing to refer products and services, but that only 29 percent actually do. The study called this the “referral gap.”

It’s time to close that gap, because you can’t afford so much missed opportunity in a competitive marketplace.

I believe that latent referral potential is the biggest wasted resource in the sales profession. There is simply no better way to get a cold prospect to talk with you than to have a referral from someone that the prospect trusts.

But why does this referral gap exist? Why are sales reps hesitant to ask?

There are several reasons, but we’ll start with fear of rejection. Fear is a natural part of everyone’s psyche, even confident, gregarious people. After building a trusting relationship with a client and cashing a commission check, it would be painful to hear “no,” upon asking for a referral.

Similarly, some sales reps fear asking for too much. They think along these lines: “I spent so much time with the person, and they agreed to buy, so isn’t it going too far to now ask them for a referral after everything they have already done for me?”

But if you have done a good job of serving the client while at the same time building trust, you could make the argument that the referral actually strengthens your relationship with them. It’s kind of flattering when a vendor wants me to make referrals on their behalf. It shows me that I was an important and prestigious client.

Asking for a referral puts you and the client on the “same team” and creates more of a friendship between the two of you. Furthermore, saying nice things about you to others reinforces and reminds your client why you’re so awesome.

In an era when buyers are jealously protective of their time, a referral from a trusted source is your ticket to the show. The higher up a prospect is in a company, the more important referrals are.

Reaching busy decision makers is not the only reason you should ask past/current clients for referrals. By asking for business leads, you could find out about prospects who otherwise would remain hidden from your view. There are essentially thousands of prospective clients out there whom you do not yet know and who have not heard of you. A referral is your ice breaker, a chance to know someone who could someday become one of your best clients.

Additionally, referrals can get prospects thinking about making a change even when the thought of changing hadn’t previously entered their minds.

For example, let’s say there’s a client who’s marginally happy with their current vendor. They’re happy enough that they don’t feel compelled to look around but they’re not so satisfied that they wouldn’t consider an unexpected solicitation from someone who referred you. A referral could be just enough of a catalyst to make them consider a new provider.

Always be grateful for any referrals you receive. When clients allow you to use their names to seek business from their cherished contacts, they are putting their reputations on the line just to help you. That means you have an obligation to treat those referrals with the utmost care and respect. Caring for referrals is a sacred trust in the sales world, so take your job seriously.

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