My Technical Salespeople Think Prospecting Is Beneath Them

“Prospecting is just about volume. Keep banging the phones, knock on enough doors, and something will eventually drop.”

After all, sales is just a numbers game, isn’t it?

Actually that sentence is not completely bad advice or a bad sales tactic – but taken literally, that “sales myth” has caused more frustration (and more missed targets) than almost any other I come across.

Because here’s what happens when both the leadership team and the sales team believe that statement without question:

• Activity gets measured instead of bankable income.
• Busy diaries get praised while effective salespeople are penalised.
• Forecasts get inflated with false hope.
• And everyone consistently moans about the impossible target.

So, instead of building a working account portfolio (which is what the company is hoping for), the myth of “just do more” leads to exhaustion, false accounting and wasted time.

Thing is: pretty much everyone can feel (deep down) that it’s not working.

But when an enlightened sales manager tries to change things, they get resistance from all sides:

• Salespeople push back: “I’m already too busy – don’t ask me to prospect more.”
• Leadership Team don’t have time to change direction: “Just get them to make more calls. Work through the list”
• Marketing don’t care about the quality of inbound leads: they’re “raising awareness” and doing a great job thank you very much.

So the problem becomes an “unsolvable” cycle:

More effort, less progress, and no one able to put into words what needs to change or why.

Just so you know, there is a way out of this loop. And I’ll share some practical steps in a moment.

But you have to understand where the lie starts – and why generations of leadership teams perpetuate the myth.

Before I started Lucrum House, I sold products and then ran sales teams in a number of industries where you were measured on activity – the phone call, the door knock, the face-to-face meeting.

And I spend all my time now in training rooms with sales teams who are still managed exactly the same way.

Here’s a question I’d like to put out there for any field sales managers reading this;

Why do you think your company has always required your sales teams to log twelve meetings per day?

Now, obviously, that could be a bigger or smaller number – and it could be phone calls – or presentations – but you recognise the situation.

The only reason I can see that any business eventually settles on a specific number…..

Is that it’s the average number they’ve worked out over time – that still gets results – because the great salespeople’s numbers…

Are all brought down by the fact that a percentage of the team are absolutely terrible, completely lazy and can hide behind activity rather than success.

I mean – any muppet can knock on 12 doors.

But it takes a great salesperson to hit target like a sniper. To find the biggest and best opportunities and then spend time converting them.

But what the hell – let’s get everyone to do twelve calls – or 50 phone calls – at least we can see them being busy.

I was managed like that throughout my early career.

I walked into sales management positions where everyone hid ineffective business development behind call numbers and activity.

I train sales people to this day who don’t have a target (at all) apart from how many people they need to register on a call sheet every day.

And the problems never change. Lots of first meetings, groundhog day reports, very few meaningful conversations, CRMs stuffed with low-value prospects, and the reason for every knock back is that “they already have a supplier”.

Which inevitably leads to targets (if they have them) being missed or seen as impossible, confidence lost and leadership teams demanding even more activity.

Which is why I now make it my mission to ensure everyone walks away from my Two-Day Business Development Workshops and the Half-Day Sales Leadership Masterclass understanding how to turn this situation round.

To be fair, we do things a bit differently than most during my small group Business Development sessions.

No scripts, no personality transplants. No laminated sheets, no role play. Just a framework that everyone can adapt so that it works for them – in their world, with their voice.

But if you can’t make it to one of those, here are some simple, practical ideas you can put in place straight away:

1. Measure outcomes, not activity – ask “what moved forward?” not “how many calls did you make?”
2. Target fewer, better prospects – relevance beats volume every time.
3. Warm the door before you knock – credibility first, then contact.
4. Celebrate business savviness, not simply work ethic– build a team of entrepreneurs rather than labourers.

You know, helping your team uncover new business worth having doesn’t have to be the most hated part of their job.

Instead of a pointless, never ending task handed down from above – with the right strategy – it becomes the first step toward genuine job satisfaction and tangible success.

To your success,

Chris Murray