Okay, make fun of me for putting this tired meme up at the top of this post, but it will help remember that you need to consistently prospect to ensure that you have the leads you need to generate the business you want.
A lot of the conversation that goes on about prospecting now centers on how you can create inbound leads.
And, those are all fine and good, but you still need to keep a steady stream of outbound and proactive leads in your pipeline.
Or, your business will flatline.
So how do you make sure you are getting the leads you need into your sales pipeline?
Here are a few ideas to help you get there.
1. Create a schedule for yourself that focuses just on prospecting:
One of the real challenges to any process you have in your organization is consistency.
One of the things I try to impart on my teams and my partners is the idea of using your calendar as a weapon to help you take the right actions at the right time and do things consistently.
You can do the same thing by making time in your calendar to focus on prospecting.
2. Don’t just rely on one tool:
We get caught in the trap of thinking prospecting is just using the phone, or email, or knocking on doors.
But your prospecting efforts should be comprehensive.
So look at ways you can use multiple tools: a little email, some phone, a note, a referral…etc.
3. Measure your results:
One challenge that we all face is not knowing how close we are to our goals.
And, in prospecting it can become pretty challenging to keep working when you don’t really know where you are in the process.
That’s why you need to set up some goals and objectives for yourself and then measure your work according to the goals and objectives you set.