Some salespeople like to brag about how busy they are. But they forget that “busy” doesn’t always mean “productive.”
The excitement of being busy often clouds sales reps’ perception of how effective they actually are, particularly when it comes to sales prospecting.
It might be a good idea to hold a truth-telling session and have your sales team members answer the following questions about their prospecting activities. Productive prospectors know the answers to these questions:
- How many prospecting-related connections have you made on LinkedIn?
- Are you attending networking events that yield a good time but no prospects?
- Are your referral partners referring or just meeting you for lunch?
- How many referrals are you asking for and receiving?
- Are your articles generating leads or just causing writer’s cramp?
- Do you know your conversion rate from activity, to appointment, to close?
- Who are the primary players who make up your market?
- What are the current trends in your market?
- When do buyers in your market typically make their purchasing decisions?
- How does your market organize itself?
- Who are your existing competitors?
- What drives a particular competitor?
- When did your competitor enter the market?
- Why do your competitors behave as they do?
- When was the last time you regained a lost account?
