Sales Coaching for Prospecting

Even members of the MDRT will tell you they don't really like prospecting, but they know it's something they have to do. Prospecting should be something you look forward to with excited anticipation because you can't sell anyone anything until you have someone to talk to, but you don't. And you don't because you don't like being told "no". You need a system for prospecting to be good at it. But a system is worthless if you won't consistently implement it. So, let's talk about why you don't like prospecting now, and how you could like prospecting.

In general there are two ways you can approach prospecting, face-to-face or direct response. Face-to-face prospecting involves: networking, cold calling via the telephone, cold calling via knocking on doors, and asking for referrals. When you think about prospecting you usually only ever think of the face-to-face options.

And you probably have the greatest resistance to the face-to-face approaches to prospecting. The reason you have the most resistance to face-to-face prospecting is because you run the risk of being told "no", and you take that "no" personally. That happens because you don't have a way to communicate the value of what you do in terms of what the people you want to work with want. The other approach to prospecting involves direct response prospecting. In this case, you'll still get a "no" when the other party isn't ready to buy, but it won't be face-to-face and it won't feel personal and it can still be a way to make a connection that turns into a buyer later. And there are a number of things you can do to increase the likelihood of getting a "yes" response to your direct response prospecting.

To increase your prospecting success you have to have something that the people you want to work with want. One of the best ways to do this is to provide education based opportunities. Unfortunately, more people do this wrong than right.

When you think about prospecting think about giving. Even when what your prospects want doesn't directly involve you there is an opportunity for you to connect with them by helping them to get it. And when you do that you increase your value to them by serving as the connecting point between what they want and how to get it.

Remember prospecting is less about you being rejected, and more about filtering out those who aren't right for you to identify the people who are right for you. Of course, you have to grow out of that "I can help everyone mentality" to get this concept. If you want business you have to prospect, and if you have to prospect you may as well learn how to do it right, and when you do you won't hate prospecting anymore.