Sales and Sales Management Blog

November 7, 2008

Guest Article: “Warm Leads in Cold Weather,” by Umberto Milletti

Filed under: cold calling, prospecting, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 8:21 am
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Warm Leads in Cold Weather
By Umberto Milletti, Cofounder and CEO of InsideView

As the economy worsens, inbound sales opportunities quickly dry up and sales teams are forced to become increasingly proactive. Just picking up the phone and calling a sales target is generally not enough, but that is particularly true during the economic times we are currently in. Your Rolodex is static; in a down economy, people move around, lay-offs happen, even entire companies disappear. In order for your sales teams to strike up promising conversations in a tough economic climate, they need to have a clear and compelling reason for initially calling.  They need to know who to call (calling somebody after they just blogged about being laid off could lose a business relationship permanently.) Updated inside knowledge of what is going on with the company and the person you are selling to can make the difference between beginning a relationship or ending one.

Let’s face it:  While cold calling is incredibly impersonal, and rarely successful, it is a necessary part of the sales process. In a cold economy though, it becomes much more challenging, and the need for a warm lead is significantly increased. Fortunately, social sites across the Web are hot with the latest activity on a myriad of subjects and industries, and in the process, are publishing enormous amounts of rich, useful content for sales teams. In fact, much of the most insightful and timely content for sales people on the Web can only be found via social Web sites. For example, you can only learn that a mid-level sales manager with whom you used to work at a now-defunct start-up just joined a company you’ve been focusing on through an RSS feed from LinkedIn.  That same update wouldn’t be available from Reuters.

Distilling rich, up-to-date insights from the social Web is a prime example of how Sales 2.0 solutions are revolutionizing the sales process. With the Internet as the new business platform, now all stakeholders - prospects, customers, salespeople and marketers - can connect, learn, plan, analyze, engage, collaborate and conduct business in ways that were not even imaginable a few years ago. Sales 2.0 is about leveraging the wealth of information and interactive possibilities on the Web to accomplish customer engagement rather than just customer-data harvesting. Today’s “smarter” and better informed prospects are requiring sales people to be better versed both in their products and their prospects, rendering Sales 2.0 a two-sided interactive process. It is no longer just who you know that will make business deals happen but “what you know about who you know” along with “when and where you should know it.”

Here are some of the ways that we’ve found that the social Web can make the difference for sales professionals:

Know where your target is actually working (or not): Company moves, promotions, new roles and departments

Know company updates: Did the company that you got denied from last quarter just post record profits? That would be a pretty good time to give ‘em a call back.

Know industry news: Is there a shake-up in one of your target industries that will lead to more opportunities for your company?  What is the commentary going on surrounding the news?

Know it quickly: With all of the examples above, its best if the information can come to you. The sooner the better, so you can have time to properly prepare your sales approach while still getting in early.

By now you’re probably thinking, “This is all great, but who has the time to spend scouring the social Web?”  And you’re right:  There is just too much stuff on the Web to research randomly on your own.  But Sales 2.0 is also about increased productivity and speed and the emerging Sales 2.0 tools accomplish this by intelligently utilizing the massive amount of resources on the Web. For example, at InsideView, our vision was and is to help sales teams save time by integrating our business search and intelligence application, SalesView, directly into the CRM tools they’re already using: Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce and Oracle, just to name a few.  That way, they can get important sales insights from across the social Web while their list of sales targets remains right in front of them.

Customer relationship management is a fundamental element of success in an economy like the current one, and the leads you have need to be good ones.  While the world outside gets colder, remember that in a Sales 2.0 world, warm leads are waiting for you on the social Web.

Umberto Milletti Bio

Umberto Milletti is the cofounder and CEO of InsideView, the pioneering business seach and intelligence service. Before founding InsideView, Umberto was an executive and co-founder of DigitalThink, a leading provider of Web-based corporate training services. Beginning in 1996, Umberto held a number of key roles at DigitalThink, serving as GM, Products; VP, Technology; and VP, Marketing & Product Management. Umberto helped lead DigitalThink to a successful IPO, and ultimately to its sale to Convergys.

September 30, 2008

What Has Been Your Experience with Cold Calling?

Filed under: cold calling, prospecting, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 11:52 am
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A recent article of mine, Why Decision Makers Hate Cold Calls, is creating a number of responses to it on EyesOnSales, as well as a number of emails to me.  The majority of the responses are defending cold calling and challenging my thinking on the subject.

What I find interesting is the article simply related the reasons decision makers hate cold calls and that if one wants to use cold calling as one of their primary prospecting tools, they had better get the best cold call training they can-or, better yet, learn more effective methods of prospecting.

I’m always amazed at the emotional reaction many salespeople and managers, and a great many sales trainers have to anything that might question the orthodoxy of cold calling.  Simply mention that you question the effectiveness of cold calling and the reaction is immediate and vehement.  I’ve been accused of hypocrisy since “those who oppose cold calling are only trying to sell their overpriced, worthless ‘training.’”  Nice to know that the only trainers who believe what they say are the ones who agree with the sender of the email.

And, of course, I’ve been accused of being ‘dangerous’ and should be ‘stopped’ for leading salespeople to believe there are other, more effective ways of finding and connecting with prospects.

We conducted a survey last year that asked business decision makers and individuals a number of questions regarding how they found the salespeople and companies from which they bought goods and services.  Regarding cold calling, of the several hundred people we spoke to at random, less than 5% indicated they had bought anything in the past year initiated through a cold call (slightly higher for businesses than individuals).

My argument isn’t that cold calling doesn’t work-you can certainly find clients via cold calling, and every once in a while, even find a great client.  My argument is that cold calling is inefficient.  Certainly for some companies and even some salespeople selling a commodity, cold calling can be the only reasonable way of operating.  But for salespeople in relationship driven industries, is cold calling really the Mecca of prospecting?

I’d be very interested in getting your cold calling experience.  My only request is that you identify yourself with your real name (too many try to hide behind a screen name), and that you give real experience, not opinion.

September 22, 2008

Why Decision Makers Hate Cold Calls

Filed under: Personal Marketing, cold calling, marketing, prospecting, sales, selling, small business — Paul McCord @ 7:24 am
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The simple answer to why decision makers hate cold calls is cold calls are one of the biggest time wasters for them.

Decision makers hate cold calls and have no interest in taking your call because all you do is waste their time.  Period.

Now, you don’t see it the same way.  You believe you have something of value to offer the decision maker–actually, you want to see if you have something of value for them.  You have to qualify them and that’s one of the things you’re hoping to begin to do while speaking with them.  All you want is a couple of minutes of their time to set an appointment and learn a little something about whether or not they’re a qualified prospect.

To you, all you’re asking is just three, four, maybe five minutes of their time and a short little 10 or 15 minute appointment.  No big deal–just a moment of their time.

But look at what you’re asking from their point of view:

1.   You’re not the only call they’ll get that day. They’ll get 5, 10, 15, maybe more cold calls on any given workday.  You only want 5 minutes of their time?  Well, that 5 minutes can add up to a half an hour, an hour, two hours or more if they spoke to everyone who called.  Everyday.

2.   You only want a short 10 or 15 minute meeting.  Sure.  They understand that you’re asking for 10 and intend to stay 45.  They learned the BS about the 10 minute meeting their first week on the job.

3.   You just want to ask a few questions to gather information to grab their interest to set an appointment.  You sound like every other salesperson who calls.  That’s what they all want.  They want the decision to educate them about why they called, that is, to give them a reason to try to set a meeting with the decision maker.

4.   When they politely say ‘no,’ you won’t accept it. Instead you try to probe, to flush out the objection, to give more reasons to meet with you.  Finally, they get mad enough to slam the phone down or tell you in no uncertain terms ‘NO.’

5.   When you call, you have nothing of interest to them. They’re not thinking about your great new copier because they still have 2 years on the lease of their current copier.  They’re not thinking about replacing their phone system, they’re thinking about the server that just crashed.  They’re not thinking about a new accounting system because they’re thinking about the big deal they just lost that morning.

How would you like to go through that 5, 10, 15 times a day?  Everyday?  Without fail? What would be your resolution to the problem?  Would you take those calls?  You would do the same thing they do-not take any calls.

And decision makers have made it as obvious as possible that they don’t want your call. They’ve put gatekeepers in place to keep you out.  They’ve got voice mail to filter who they want to talk to and who they don’t.  They put signs on the door that say ‘no soliciting.’  As soon as they discover you’re a salesperson they say ‘no,’ and hang up.

Yet, you think-you hope-that you’re the exception.  That they’ll take your call.  That they’ll want to speak with you despite the signals they’ve given.  That you’re different from other 5, 10, or 15 salespeople who will call that day.

Cold calling is viewed by many salespeople, managers, and companies as the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way to find prospects.  It isn’t.  It is in many ways the most difficult and expensive because when you cold call you’re trying to connect with someone who has already indicated as plainly as they possibly can that they don’t want to speak with you.  In order to overcome that, you have to make massive numbers of calls in order to find someone, anyone you can corner.

If you choose to cold call, you’ve a hard road ahead of you.  Few top producers waste their time cold calling because it is so ineffective and costly.  However, if you do choose to cold call, invest in getting the best cold call training you can.  Your investment will pay off with greatly increased results-you’ll still waste a lot of time; you’ll still face a tremendous amount of rejection;  you’ll still have to eventually find better ways to connect with prospects; but at least make your efforts as profitable as possible.

September 16, 2008

Need Cold Calling Help? Listen to Wendy Weiss Talk About Cold Calling College

Filed under: cold calling, prospecting, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 5:56 am
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What would happen to your business if you were able to double the number of qualified prospects you are able to reach?

How would it affect your bottom line if you met with and/or had comprehensive telephone conversations with twice the number of qualified, decision-makers?

How would it feel to have qualified, decision-makers eager,willing and delighted to meet with you?

Join Wendy Weiss, The Queen of Cold Calling, as she discusses cold calling and how she helps entrepreneurs, business owners and sales professionals prospect fearlessly and schedule more new business appointments in less time.

The Cold Calling College Free Preview Call is on September 18, 2008 and details can be found HERE

Prospecting is perhaps the most important skill that entrepreneurs, business owners and sales professionals must master to be truly successful. Let’s face it, without customers you don’t have a business, and without prospecting, you don’t have customers!

Many people struggle with prospecting by phone.

The reality is that prospecting can be difficult, but it doesn’t need to be. The good news is that cold calling is a communication skill, and like any communication skill, it can be learned and improved upon.

If you struggle with prospecting, you too can see amazing change and terrific improvement in your ability to connect with multiple new prospects on a personal level, and have them agree to sit down and have a further conversation with you.

The Cold Calling College Free Preview Call is on September 18, 2008
and details can be found here

Here’s what people are saying about ‘Cold Calling College’:

‘I recently called six companies and was able to get four solid introductory appointments on my calendar with minimal effort! If I can keep up this pace I can make more money in less time.’
–Tracy M. Brodd, Account Executive, American Identity

And isn’t that what it’s about? Making more money in less time.

You can do it too.

PS - Just for attending, you are eligible for EXCELLENT discounts… Register (even if you can’t make it - Wendy will send you a recording!) today!


August 12, 2008

Two Recent Encounters—Anomalies?

Filed under: cold calling, lead generation, marketing, prospecting, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 7:13 am
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Do prospects OWE you their time and attention? Of course, for many of us that seems like a silly question. But for some salespeople it’s not only a legitimate question, its one that they believe the answer to is ‘yes.’

I’ve met two salespeople over the past 90 days or so that make me wonder if the world isn’t going off the deep end faster than I once thought.

As prospects-in both of these cases we’re talking about business prospects-become harder to reach, insulating themselves more deeply from salespeople’s attempts to connect with them, some salespeople appear to be adopting a slash and burn mentality, trying to force prospects to pay attention to them.

One salesperson who specializes in cold calling told me that when he encounters a prospect who won’t return his call or whose assistant won’t pass him through to the decision maker, he informs them that if they want him or his company to ever purchase their products or services, the decision maker will take his call. He says he is very upfront about the fact that the decision maker-because the decision maker sells a product or service–owes him the time and courtesy of taking his call and if they won’t, he’ll not only not buy from them but do everything he can to keep others from buying from them also.

Another says he has let a number of decision makers from companies who have sent him direct mail know that they are obligated to hear him out because they approached him first with their marketing pieces. Since they sent him their material, they expect him to read their material; consequently, he expects them to listen to him in return.

Neither of these men are sales neophytes. One owns a company that specializes in setting appointments for their sales clients; the other owns a financial services company.

In almost 30 years of being in sales I don’t recall ever encountering such self-centered, irrational behavior regarding connecting with prospects. I’ve known salespeople who may have thought this in the past, but I cannot recall ever meeting salespeople who would confront a prospect directly in this manner. Are these two an anomaly or have we come to the point in the breakdown of social interaction where slash and burn tactics are becoming acceptable?

August 6, 2008

Cold Calling–Some Advice to Get the Call Answered

Filed under: cold calling, prospecting, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 7:27 am
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The Inside Sales Experts Blog has a couple of very good posts regarding cold calling.  Although I’m not a fan of cold calling and believe there are far more effective methods of connecting with prospects, I do realize that there are some prospects you just can’t connect with any other way.  Even though cold calling in my opinion should be the exception, not the rule for any salesperson engaged in a relationship selling process, it is still paramount to hone your cold calling skills.  Most of us, however, simply pick up the phone and call–without really knowing what we’re going to say.

Matt Bertuzzi is a Marketing Manager who gets tons of cold calls.  He gives his advice on how to answer a cold call here.

Trish Bertuzzi is President of The Bridge Group, a company that trains inside salespeople.  Here she gives her advice on cold calling.

July 19, 2008

Prospecting is Getting Tough–Are You Prepared?

Filed under: Personal Marketing, Referral Selling, cold calling, lead generation, marketing, prospecting, sales, selling, small business — Paul McCord @ 6:31 am
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More and more of us in sales are finding it more and more difficult to keep our pipelines full with high quality prospects.  The slowing economy is putting a great deal of pressure on prospects-both business and individual–to think very carefully before they commit to any purchase.  Consumer confidence is down.  Unemployment is inching up.  Inflation is becoming a concern.  Both oil and the stock market are on wild rides.

Salespeople are waking up every morning wondering where they’re going to find this month’s commission check.  And although the signs of an economy that was headed for a major slowdown if not a recession have been around for almost two years, few salespeople took the time and invested the effort to prepare by learning more effective ways to find and connect with quality prospects.

The good news is it isn’t too late to change your prospecting and personal marketing strategies so they more closely match the way prospects want to be connected with and that will identify and engage more high quality prospects.  You can learn techniques that will open more doors, identify more high prospects, and generate more sales.

How?

To start, next Thursday, July 24 McCord Training is offering three one-hour tele-seminars, each deals with a separate technique of reaching quality prospects.

Never a Cold Call, Always an Introduction   1PM Central

Cold calling is a time intensive process that is frustrating for the salesperson and irritating to most prospects.  Prospects have assistants, voice mail, caller ID, and other gatekeepers in place.  Why?  Not because they want to talk to you but because they specifically DON’T want to talk to you.  Does it make sense to bang the phones trying to connect with people who you KNOW don’t want you calling?

No, it doesn’t.  And you don’t have to.  You can learn to turn those cold calls into real connection calls by learning how to gather the information you need before hand to be able to call the decision maker with real information about specific issues you know they have and must deal with.  You can turn your cold calls into referred calls that make your call a welcome, informative call that engages your prospect’s attention and gets you appointments.

The First 10 Seconds  3PM Central

If you do cold call, you have only about 10 seconds to grab your prospect’s attention.  If you can’t get their interest in 10 seconds, your call is going nowhere.  Learn 4 techniques to immediately grab and retain your prospect’s interest.  Learning to get your prospect’s interest will significantly improve your appointment setting ratio.

The PWWR Referral Generation System  5PM Central

Referrals are touted as the single best, most cost effective marketing method any salesperson has.  Yet few salespeople are successful at acquiring a large number of high quality referrals from clients.  Why?  Because what they’ve been taught about referrals doesn’t work.  They been taught to just “do a good job and ask for referrals.”  That’s about the worst advice you can get.  They’ve been taught that clients want to give referrals.  The truth is clients hate giving referrals and most salespeople know that and consequently don’t ask.  They’ve been taught getting referrals is a no brainer-just ask.  It isn’t-it requires understanding human nature and forming a process that conforms to the way clients think and respond and to their interests and goals, not the salesperson’s.

But referrals can be the most effective, highest ROI prospecting method you have.  You just can’t do it the way you’ve been taught.  Generating a large number of high quality referrals requires a disciplined, predictable, client centered process that prepares the client to give referrals, lets the client know why giving you referrals is in their best interests and that makes giving a large number of high quality referrals easy for the client.

Change your 2008 results on July 24.  Whether you want to learn how to be more effective at cold calling or you want to learn more effective prospecting methods, there’s a seminar for you.

Register for 1, 2 or all 3 seminars

Register for any individual seminar $67.00

Register for any two $114.00  and save 15% off individual registration fee

Register for all three $151.00  and save 25% off individual registration fee

July 6, 2008

Change Your 2008 On July 24

Filed under: Referral Selling, cold calling, lead generation, marketing, prospecting, sales, sales training, selling — Paul McCord @ 10:30 am
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Three Incredible One-hour Tele-Seminars on One Day
That Will Change Your 2008

Attend 1, 2, or All 3 Tele-seminars and Pump Up Your Pipeline for the Second Half of the Year

Afraid of the economic slowdown?

New to Sales?

Getting burnt out on the endless, fruitless cold calling?

Can’t find a way to get your career in gear?

Not making the money you want to make?

Just want to make more money?

Whether you’re engaged in B2B or B2C sales, these seminars will show you how to radically increase the number of appointments you set with qualified prospects.

What You Know About Your Prospect:

  • You know your prospect doesn’t want your cold call.
  • You know your prospect thinks your call is nothing but a waste of their time
  • You know your prospect resents the interruption
  • You know your prospect has gatekeepers in place to keep you away

What You Know About Yourself:

  • You know you don’t have a way to grab your prospect’s attention and interest
  • You know you can’t differentiate yourself from your competition on a cold call
  • You know you can’t leave a voice message because it won’t be returned
  • You know you’re wasting a huge amount of time and effort cold calling
  • You know you’ll never become a top producer cold calling

So, what’s the answer?

    1. Discover a way to quit cold calling and still use the phone to make connections with qualified prospects
    2. Discover how to grab your prospect’s interest within 10 seconds of them answering the call
    3. Learn how to turn your business from cold calling based to referral-based which is the way top producers generate their business

1PM Central
Never A Cold Call, Always an Introduction

Discover how to turn cold calls into a referred call where your prospect welcomes your call and WANTS to hear what you have to say.

You’ll Learn:

  • To turn cold calls into real conversations about how you can address real prospect problems and issues
  • Immediately capture your prospect’s attention and interest
  • Get your voice messages returned
  • Get past the gatekeeper without lying or manipulation
  • Differentiate yourself from all the other calls your prospect receives by demonstrating your professionalism, your knowledge about your prospect, and by making a call that is worth your prospect’s time

3PM Central
The First 10 Seconds-How to Instantly Engage Your Cold Call Prospect’s Interest

Still want to cold call instead of getting a referral to the prospect? Then you must learn how to grab your prospect’s interest. The first 10 seconds of your cold call determines whether or not you’ll capture your prospect’s interest-or get blown off. Learn how to get your prospect to not only listen, but to pay attention.

You’ll Learn:

  • To formulate an introduction that grabs your prospect’s interest
  • Determine what you should be talking about BEFORE you call your prospect
  • Create rapport with the prospect, not hostility from the prospect

5PM Central
The PWWR Referral Generation System-
Don’t Dream About Referral Business,
Learn How the Mega-Producers Get Tons of Referrals

Learn to turn your business from low return, high time investment prospecting methods such as cold calling and networking into a high return business through generating a large number of high quality referrals from your clients and prospects. Mega-producers don’t cold call, fax worthless fliers all over the place, or run from ‘networking’ event to networking event. Instead, they’ve learned how to get 5, 6, 7, even 10 high quality referrals from every one of their clients and even their prospects.

Just asking for referrals will get you nowhere. Instead you have to learn HOW to make referrals work.

You’ll Learn:

  • Why your client won’t give referrals if you just ask
  • What you must do to get your client comfortable and willing to give quality referrals
  • Get your client to AGREE to give you 5 or more quality referrals
  • What you must do to EARN the referrals
  • How to make it easy for your client to give 8, 10 or even 15 referrals
  • How to guarantee you get an appointment with the referred prospect

Can’t Make it One of More of the Seminars? No Problem!

Since each session will be recorded, register for the seminar and if you can’t make it you’ll still be able to ‘attend’ at your convenience after the 24th.

Register for any individual seminar $67.00

Register for any two for only $114.00 save $20.00

Register for all three for only $151.00 save $50.00

REGISTER HERE

June 17, 2008

Today at 5PM Central: Learn to Reach Your B2B Prospects Without Cold Calling

Filed under: Personal Marketing, cold calling, lead generation, marketing, prospecting, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 6:41 am
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You don’t have to waste time cold calling IF you learn how to connect with your prospect in a manner they welcome and that gains their interest.

Take an hour this afternoon and learn how you can use the phone to connect with decision makers without having to use manipulation or deceit to get past gatekeepers, how to develop immediate credibility and rapport, and to engage your prospect in a real conversation, not just a sales pitch.

Let me give you some of the reactions from the last teleseminar:

David Collins said “this is by far the most productive teleseminar I’ve ever attended, bar none. Your approach isn’t like anything I’ve heard before and the best part is after a week of using it, I can say without any hesitation, ‘It Works!’”

Lynn Groves says “I’ve taken numerous telephone seminars and teleseminars and none come close to giving me the real honest to God help this seminar has given me. Funny, this seminar at $67 is one of the least expensive I’ve attended and is worth more than all the others put together.”

Andy Ramos says “without a doubt, the most effective seminar I’ve attended in the last three years.”

What are they raving about? They’re talking about what they learned that gets them to:
• the decision maker without having to lie, deceive gatekeepers, or try to manipulate people
• how to create real interest in the decision maker
• how to know before they call what the company’s needs and issues are
• how to get their voice mail messages returned almost 100% of the time
• how to make a real, welcome connection with the decision maker, not a cold call
• how to set themselves apart from every other salesperson even before they make the call

This isn’t some miracle cure or slimy gimmick. This is a disciplined, effective process that turns time wasting, ineffective cold calling into a real conversation and connection with decision makers.
Join me on Tuesday, June 17 at 5PM Central Time (6PM Eastern, 4PM Mountain, 3PM Pacific) for the most effective phone training you’ll ever get.

REGISTER HERE—still only $67.00 for this career changing teleseminar.

Only three ’seats’ left so register early

June 6, 2008

Rachel’s Fixin’ to Prospect Issue Revisited

Filed under: Networking, Personal Marketing, career development, cold calling, lead generation, prospecting, sales, selling, time management — Paul McCord @ 7:40 am
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I received several emails about my post discussing Rachel’s prospecting issues from a couple of days ago. The basic message in each email was that the post was timely and the admonition was needed—but what did I recommend for Rachel?

Without going into all of the details of the recommendations I had for her, let me give three of the most basic recommendations I gave her.

But before I do that let me revisit one aspect of her issue—spending time preparing to prospect. Rachel’s problem is one well know to us Texans. In the vernacular of Texas, she had a “fixin’” problem. We Texans spend a great deal of time “fixin’ to”. We’re always fixin’ to do something. Ask a Texan what they’re doing and they’ll tell you they’re “fixin’ to prospect,” or “fixin’ to make a presentation,” or “fixin’ to eat,” or “fixin’ to take a shower.” We’re so involved with fixin’ you’d think we never actually do anything.

Rachel was always fixin’ to prospect and seldom actually engaged in prospecting. So the solution was to change her focus from fixin’ to doin’.

Rachel’s three primary new prospecting activities:

Calling. Her company’s primary prospecting method is cold calling. She had a list of several hundred names to call of which she had made contact with very few. Her first task each day is to speak with a minimum of 15 individuals. That in itself is a big task. She may have to make 100 to 150 dials to connect with and speak to 15 prospects. If she makes 20 dials an hour, she could be on the phone 5 to 7 hours a day.

Networking. Rachel loves to network, but she had been spending her time at networking events that by their very nature presented limited opportunities. She attended three or four networking events a month held by various local chambers and she also attended two networking breakfast groups. During her 8 months of selling, she had made contact with less than a dozen quality prospects and had acquired none as clients.

Her experience with networking events had paralleled that of most salespeople—there were very few quality prospects at the chamber events and those prospects that did attend were surrounded by her competitors. The networking breakfast events were as fruitless, as most of the other members of the groups were not in a position to meet her prime prospects since few sold products or services to her prime prospects.

Rachel was encouraged to change her networking focus from chambers and breakfast groups to organizations where a large number of prime prospects would gather—the associations of various industries. She is in the process of deciding whether to invest her time with the dentist, manufacturers, pr, or commercial real estate associations in town. She’ll eventually join and become active in two, possibly three of these organizations.

Speaking. Rachel has developed a presentation about financial independence for women and is beginning to book presentations at various business, industry and women’s organizations in town. The presentation is educational, not a sales pitch. Her goals are modest—get in front of and meet as many potential prospects as possible. To date she has only given three presentations, but has already begun developing relationships with more than a half dozen quality prospects—more than she would have met in a month when she spent her time fixin’ to prospect.

Although Rachel and I have been working together for only three weeks or so, she has already tripled her monthly average of new prospect contacts. Her secret new weapon? She isn’t fixin’ to do anything any more—she’s actually doin’ prospecting now. Most of her day is spent on the phone, her networking and speaking is done either before or after working hours or during lunch—works great because they don’t interfere with her phone work.

Three weeks isn’t long enough to know whether she’ll have the discipline to continue with her new focus or whether she’ll be able to convert her prospects into clients, but she now has a real shot at success simply because she went from fixin’ to do something productive to doing productive activities.

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