Field of Dreams is a 1989 film, about an Iowa corn farmer who hears a voice telling him: "If you build it, he will come." He interprets this as an instruction to build a baseball diamond in his fields; after he does, Shoeless Joe Jackson and other dead baseball players emerge from the cornfields to play ball.

Ok, what the heck does this have to do with prospecting? Ask any sales representative their strategic plan for developing business and listen for stone cold silence. Business development has become a lost art within the sales world. Prospecting doesn’t have to be a “field of dreams.” If you create the plan, work the plan,  the prospects will come.

Order takers and flipping your client base yes is a sales function, a true sales professional creates a balancing act of nurturing their current clients while adding new clients to their sales family.

It boils down to the old school versus the new school

Old School Approach to Prospecting

  • Prospecting is a pure numbers game. Don’t worry be happy!
  • It’s all about cold calling complete strangers to set an appointment to talk about how you and your company can help them
  • Learn to appreciate rejection as it only hurts for a bit
  • Get out there, pound the pavement, turn over some rocks and make it happen
  • Dial for dollars, don’t worry you don’t need a script just wing it while using your charm to secure appointments
  • You won’t make any money sitting on your butt in the office go out and make some more cold calls

I am the first one to hop on the bandwagon to say “Cold calling is not dead, it is just different.” In my opinion, a true sales professional integrates strong business developments skills into their daily routine. Business development is an absolute necessity.

Lets package prospecting into the business blender by adding some old school and new school. Recipe quite simple... phone, email, social selling, no sugar needed.

 

New School Approach to Prospecting

  • Create target lists of companies within your territory. Integrate modern salestools such as Twitter, Google News and LinkedIn to conduct research determining appropriate contacts
  • Follow these targeted companies and contacts. Leverage Twitter, Google News and LinkedIn to learn as much as you can about your prospects
  • Connect with them on LinkedIn via sending a personalized invitation
  • Nurture and build the relationship through educational content. Become an engagement magnet
  • Turn these online conversations into face to face meetings by building  your credibility, value and trust worthiness.

Lets get this out on the table, we live in a relationship driven world. We all know the age old saying, “People doing business with people they know, like and trust.” All this is based upon being able to help them solve a business problem or challenge.

It is hard to keep a consistent sales pipeline without a proactive, modern method of prospecting. Furthermore, without a healthy relationship funnel how can you as a sales rep keep a consistent sales funnel? Stop trying to sell first and then build the relationship.

What does this mean? It means as sales reps we must adapt, adopt and be open to change. We are the face of the company in the eyes of our prospects and clients. The experience we provide as sales reps is mission critical. Therefore, without building our “relationship capital” with our prospects and clients then how can we keep a consistent, well flowing sales funnel?

Remember what we do as sales reps today plays an important part to our success months down the road. Embrace change and quit chasing the 30/60/90 sales funnel.

Old Mindset meeting New Mindset

 

V.P. of Sales and Sales Managers, I am here to be of help. My commitment is to help your team win. If you would like my Sales Managers Guide to LinkedIn, please send me an email to llevine@dealermarketing.net 

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I enjoy sharing my LinkedIn stories. LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive copier world. I transform and coach copier sales professionals to grow net new business by helping them tell their story and communicate on LinkedIn. My commitment is to help independent office technology dealers thrive in a changing marketplace. You can follow me on LinkedIn,Twitter,www.dealermarketing.net/what-we-do/linkedin,www.dealermarketing.net, and at Social Sales Academy