Sales Prospecting: Do or Do Not – There is No Try – Lucrum House

When it comes to sales prospecting, I’m regularly asked to coach teams who have fallen into the lazy habit of rattling off a few of the lines below; so this week I’m going to share with you the download I’d share with them – a weekly “Commitment and Achievement” sheet.

Let me cut to the chase – if you approach review meetings with the following statements, and have convinced yourself that they are acceptable explanations for a mediocre performance – this piece is definitely for you.

“I’m just building up my pipeline”
“Do you know how tough it is to get through to these guys?”
“They are all in the middle of contracts”
“What am I supposed to do, they weren’t in”
“Actually, I need to talk to you about an opportunity after this meeting!”
“Next month will be GREAT, all the business is just waiting in the wings, all I need is another 30 days – next month is like sales utopia, man – it’s just out of reach, over the next hill. You can’t rush these things, you know?”

You can download the sheet here

And this is how you fill it in

1. Rather strangely, I want you to start at the bottom – with the box that says “Which – if we’ve worked this out correctly – will lead to..”

Write your weekly target (if you have a monthly target divide that by 4, if you have an annual target divide that by 46), not just numbers, use words – make a promise to yourself.

2. OK, so how many “contacts” are you supposed to make every week?

How many doors do you have to knock on, how many people do you have to actually speak to, how many emails do you have to send?

Put that in the box at the top under; “By the end of this week I will have achieved”

3. And finally, what will all that door knocking, telephoning or emailing (or whatever it is you do) create.

I’m using the word create here on purpose – you are supposed to be creating something that didn’t exist until you got involved.

Appointments?
Sign Ups?
Trials?
Prospects?
End Users?
Social media connections?

What is it that you are meant to be creating with your initial actions?

Well – whatever it is – it goes in the section entitled; “Which means I will have created..”

If you’re still not sure how to fill it in, there’s an example page attached to the template

So, you have now detailed;

What you have to achieve this week, because doing that will;

Create a certain number of desirable outcomes, which will (if we have got our sums right)
Lead us to our target

You also have some boxes to record what really happened at the end of the week – don’t panic if your plan and the eventual outcome were way off – be more realistic next week and use them as a benchmark.

You see, you either do it or you don’t – there is no try!

Stick it up somewhere that you’ll see it every day, share it with your boss, bring it out at sales meetings, refer to it in your report.

Just make sure you understand that, in this rather fast moving world of business – there has never been any room for people who simply “try”.

If you fall flat on your face – you pick yourself up, you learn from the experience and you do it better next time.

“I gave it a go, but it didn’t work out the way I wanted it to – at least I tried” is never the final remark of a successful person.

You’re more likely to hear them ask the question;

“I couldn’t find a way to do it that way – so what do I need to change to get it done?”

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Interested in finding out more? We cover all these topics in greater detail during the following Workshops

Foundation Sales Training Account Management Training Sales Prospecting Skills

If you would like to discuss how we can help to develop your team follow this link to find out a little more about our courses and workshops.

If you were looking to book a training workshop for an individual rather than an in-house training course for an entire team you’ll find everything you need over at our Open Workshops Page by following this link.