How to overcome prospecting mistakes and increase your sales pipeline
By Sandler Systems, Inc.
Have you heard the saying, “If selling was easy, everyone would be doing it”? The incredible income potential that comes from commission-based selling incentivizes many people to try this career path. But selling really isn’t easy! Many obstacles present themselves to novice and seasoned sellers alike, and both can agree there are roadblocks around prospecting.
The prospecting landscape is littered with pitfalls and traps. If you’re not careful, you may succumb to them. However, Sandler has developed a Success Triangle tool to help navigate this rocky terrain. To fully realize its power, you must understand each of the three components involved, and how they’re connected.
Behavior
Behavior is often seen as one’s blueprint for success in sales. Seems pretty straightforward, right? It can be, but first you must get past three limiting mistakes.
Behavior Mistake No. 1: Not maintaining proper schedule orientation.
Successful salespeople maintain a proper schedule orientation. Time blocking is a time-management concept that allows you to accomplish your daily and weekly tasks, and make progress on your goals. Consider how you treat your time with clients, versus the time you allot for yourself. If you have poor schedule orientation, you may allow interruptions and distractions to hinder personal efforts when you would never let them interrupt a client meeting.
Similarly, if you maintain proper schedule orientation, you don’t allow distractions to interrupt your prospecting time.
Behavior Mistake No. 2: Not having a goal for meaningful conversations.
Too often, meetings pass without accomplishing their purpose. When you talk with a prospect, you should have a goal in mind, and make meaningful progress in every conversation. These conversations should take place with decision makers, and your goal should be for them to enact a purchase decision.
Bonding, building rapport, and strengthening the relationship with your client or prospect is extremely important in the long term. However, that cannot be the only thing accomplished on the call. Every call should have an agenda and an outcome.
Behavior Mistake No. 3: Not placing importance on booking first time appointments.
If you don’t pursue new business, your total book of business will stall or start to shrink. By placing importance on booking first-time appointments with new prospects, you’re helping your business more than if you were only focusing on clients that already exist; new business brings new referrals, opportunities, and information to your pipeline.
Attitude
Attitude is one’s belief system and determines how you act and that ultimately affects your results. Just like with behavior, it’s very easy to have a clouded view of your attitude and actions if you’re not diligent with your process. There are several common mental traps that salespeople fall into when engaging in prospecting activities.
Attitude Trap No. 1: Having a scarcity mindset and not turning the ‘gumball machine’ enough.
Picture a gumball machine filled with red, blue, green, yellow, and purple candies. You want green gumballs because they’re your favorite. You turn the handle once, and a red gumball pops out. You turn it again, and a purple one comes out. You turn it yet again, knowing there’s a green one coming soon. The green gumball pops out on the third try, and you pop it in your mouth and enjoy.
The world of prospecting can work just like this gumball machine. If your ideal prospects are green gumballs, keep turning the handle until they come out. The more you prospect, the more chances you have at achieving an ideal prospect. You know not everyone you engage with is going to be a green gumball. For this gumball theory to work for you, you need to know what an ideal prospect looks like in your business. What is your green gumball? If prospects don’t work out, just turn the handle again and wait for your green gumball to pop out.
Attitude Trap No. 2: Believing you’re not worthy of your clients’ time.
Successful selling has a lot to do with a positive mindset. Before you can be of value to your clients or prospects, you must know your own worth.
Think about the goods or services you provide – have they been beneficial to clients in the past? Take to heart that you add value to those you engage with. You have equal business stature with your buyer. Don’t be intimidated by a CEO – you deserve to talk to the highest-ranking person on the buyer side regardless of your title.
Attitude Trap No. 3: Letting your ego alter your decision making.
Before going into a meeting with a client or prospect, check yourself. Don’t try to show your audience how smart you are by dominating the conversation. Ask questions and discover their pain points before you save the day.
Ego doesn’t only adversely affect you by bolstering your confidence. Alternatively, some individuals don’t want to prospect because they’re insecure and afraid of embarrassing themselves in front of prospects. It’s important to understand that this is part of the process. You will make mistakes the more you prospect – it’s only natural. Don’t let your ego get in the way of your dedication to prospecting.
Technique
Technique is how sellers go about their business. Technique is what you say and how you say it, and the actions and words you use to have a positive outcome. Although governed by different rules, poor discipline when it comes to technique can have just as many negative effects as bad behavior and attitude.
Improper Technique No. 1: Being unfamiliar with your talk tracks.
Salespeople should have a few things down pat, such as the words and phrases you use in a specific situation. You should be able to jump to the correct talk track at a moment’s notice, regardless of the scenario, beyond explaining the background of your company. You should have pre-determined language to help you overcome objections and lead any client or prospect towards purchase decisions.
Improper Technique No. 2: Being unprepared for sales calls.
Productive sales conversations that start well tend to end well and need participation from both sides. As soon as you engage with a prospect, cover the purpose of the meeting and the expected duration of your time together. Then lay the groundwork of your call and the topics you wish to cover. This will allow you to be sure you get through everything you want to cover and will let your target know why you’re heading down the conversational paths that you are.
Improper Technique No. 3: Failing to uncover pain.
The quickest way to solve your clients’ needs is to uncover their pain points and provide solutions. If you fail to realize what those pain points are, you’re doomed to struggle from the start. You need to ask good questions to determine what ails them. Never prescribe a solution before you completely understand the symptoms.
Prospecting can be daunting for any seller, but it’s imperative if you want your career to grow and develop at the highest level. By following the Sandler Success Triangle® and maintaining proper habits surrounding your behaviors, attitudes, and techniques, you can avoid traps that the average seller may fall into, and you’ll be well on your way to redefining the way you add prospects to your funnel.
Send your questions about improving Sales Development in your industry with a proven, systematic approach to selling to SalesTips@repertoiremag.com.
About Sandler Training
With over 250 local training centers around the globe, Sandler is the worldwide leader for sales, management, and customer service training. We help individuals and teams from Fortune 500 companies to independent producers dramatically improve sales, while reducing operational and leadership friction.
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