Prospecting is a difficult part of Sales. It does not matter if your title is Sales Development Rep, Business Development Rep, Account Executive or Salesperson, hearing no time after time can weigh on one’s mindset.
For the sake of this post we are not going to focus on important issues like your skill set and proper messaging. However, your skills and words require coaching, and require serious attention. Your sales manager is coaching you right?
Let’s focus on a less complex and much faster fix.
You may have heard these various terms around prospecting objectives:
- Going for NO.
- Negative Goals.
- Disqualify to qualify.
The idea is the same. Instead of having a goal of three qualified leads per day, set a goal of disqualifying 50 prospects or hearing 50 No Thank Yous. How liberating would that be?
You must know your conversion rates for the math to work. For example, f it typically takes ten dials to have one conversation, set a lofty goal to have twelve prospects tell you NO or disqualify twelve prospects.
Remember, your intent does not change in this new goal. You are still qualifying.
You should notice that with this new mindset, you will ask better qualifying questions that uncover real issues that you can solve. Better questions are the key to qualifying. This concept can have a 2x impact on your results.
- Less negative thoughts around prospecting is likely to yield more time prospecting;
- Approaching prospecting calls with healthy skepticism will avoid the dreaded “happy ears” sales people grow and lead to better questioning techniques.
This shift in perspective works really well when you ask great questions in conjunction with an efficient sales process that you can trust.
Try it tomorrow. Set a goal of 50 No thank yous tomorrow. Contact us today to get help in the process.
