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Why Prospecting Gets No Respect
October 01, 2007
Don't Dismiss The Number One Selling Skill
By Maureen Hrehocik
According to Bill Truax, prospecting is the least used but most important skill in selling. It isn't always the easiest or most enjoyable task to perform, but it's the only technique that actually gets your sales reps in front of potential clients, allowing them to use all of their other skills to close a sale.
"Companies spend thousands of dollars on programs to develop better selling skills , but virtually nothing on improving a rep's ability to prospect successfully," says Truax, president of Trufield Enterprises in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. "And prospecting is so critical to success."
Many reps shy away from prospecting because they aren't trained to do it—and, of course, because it's fraught with rejection. That's why Truax says it's important for sales managers to mandate a set number of required prospecting calls weekly. "If they have a lot of prospects, being rejected by a few isn't that bad," he says. "They know they have others they can call on to generate business."
Truax says "blitz" days or weeks, where lots and lots of prospecting calls are made, don't work. "What happens is there is no time for follow-up afterward, and this creates the hills and valleys of selling," he says. "The rep creates opportunities, but there's no follow-through. He has too much to handle.
"Plus, they need to stop prospecting to do all of the follow-up required, which causes the 'valley' in the sales cycle. That's not healthy for your company.
Here's how sales managers can help reps prospect, according to Truax:
1. Learn a prospecting system.
2. Provide them with leads within their territories.
3. Determine how many prospect calls will be made each week to achieve sales goals.
4. Have a tracking form that verifies making that number of calls each week.
5. Have a follow-up system that's timely and effective. Truax says this can done through an electronic contact management system such as Microsoft Outlook, or something as simple as 3x5 index cards with each account's name.
"One of the biggest ways a sales manager can help a rep is to oversee all aspects of selling—prospecting, follow-up, lead generation, presentation, and service work for the client," Truax says. "You need all of those skills working in concert to have a successful sales experience."
(Editor's note: Truax's "Blitz Call Prospecting Kit," a self-learning program for commercial/industrial field sales professionals, is available at www.blitzcall.com.)
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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