© Sergey Nivens | stock.adobe.com

Prospecting is not just something sales professionals do to fill their pipelines. Prospecting is a mindset, and for the most successful sales pros, it’s a way of life.

If you work in sales, nobody has to tell you that prospecting today is exponentially harder than at any other time in history. Why is that?

Here are four reasons:

1. Prospects are busier than ever, making them distracted and difficult to reach.
2. Products and services are now commonly considered to be mere commodities.
3. Salespeople all sound and act the same. Too many of us utter the same meaningless jargon and gimmicky sales lines.
4. Prospects have access to unprecedented information about products and services. They can find out anything they want about your company through a simple Google search. In many cases, they can find online reviews about your offerings. They can go onto a discussion forum and solicit opinions about you and your products. The problem with all this information, however, is that it tends to be overwhelming, unfiltered and often taken out of context. Prospects are highly informed but not necessarily accurately informed.

The combination of these four challenges has turned prospects into price-sensitive buyers who are hesitant to engage with salespeople.

So, what can we do to rise above the fracas and succeed in a highly competitive selling environment?

Prospect Like “Your Hair’s on Fire”

Because prospecting is harder than ever, you need to be more diligent. Like I mentioned earlier, prospecting is a mindset, a way of life. You could even call it a “lifestyle.” Embrace it. Welcome it. Do it every single day of the week. While prospecting can be nerve-wracking and frustrating, push through it. If you are positive about it, you’ve won half the battle.

It’s not about you — Always focus on what the prospects value, not what you care about. It’s never about you. It’s not about your company. It’s not about your product’s features and benefits. Think of yourself as a detective assigned to figure out how you can best help the mysterious person known as your prospect.

Apply Discipline to Your Prospecting

Even though there are more enjoyable things to do as a sales professional, you have to make prospecting one of your top daily activities. You even have to do it on days you’re closing other deals. Top producers reserve blocks of time for prospecting and they don’t allow any distractions during those times. I know of no other use of your time that is more likely to lead to long-term sales success than being a dedicated, disciplined prospector.

Value-Based Language

When emailing prospects, leaving them voicemails or talking to them face-to-face, use compelling messages that catch their interest and relate directly to them and their companies. Good prospectors research and test language they can use when engaging potential customers. Ultimately, you want language that captures a prospect’s attention, conveys value, makes them feel comfortable sharing sensitive information with you and then compels them to make some sort of a commitment.

Make a Plan

While you need to be an exuberant and disciplined prospector, you do need a plan. If you run to the nearest phone and start dialing cold prospects haphazardly, you’re wasting your time. Your plan should include what types of people you target, where you get leads, how you do pre-call research, the language you use to establish value and the tactics you use to push them further down your pipeline.

Did you know that prospecting is the number-one deficiency among salespeople and sales departments? It’s true. Most of the problems that salespeople complain about are ultimately caused by poor prospecting methods or a lack of prospecting discipline.

MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].