The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Whether you call it cold calling, prospecting, or new business development, lead generation is critical piece for the sales success formula. In many current sales structures, the salesperson in charge of lead generation also oversees setting appointments, finding needs, selling solutions, and ensuring contracts are fulfilled.

Sales managers are great at tracking pending business and placing accountability on the average number of new accounts. While these are important metrics to track, they’re also narrowly focused on the middle and end of the sales process. What if we placed greater accountability at the beginning of the sales process as well? Imagine placing more focus on lead generation efforts, whether through a specialist role or an inbound marketing agency, where qualified leads are regularly handed off to Account Executives.

“Respect is a two-way street, if you want to get it, you’ve got to give it.” - R.G. Risch

Aside from lowering prices, releasing better products, or providing superior service, there's something else that your salespeople can do to improve sales performance. A sales professionals livelihood depends largely on the levels of trust and credibility they build with prospects and clients.

The more respect you command, the higher close ratio you will have. Additionally, the higher the degree of trust you establish, the less the need to negotiate. Getting that first appointment with a new business prospect is difficult because most sellers don't take the time to establish trust and create value in the mind of the prospect.

If you want to be treated as a professional, someone who is trustworthy, and worth an investment of time, do these four easy things and prove it to your prospects and clients. 

I recently had a coaching assignment with a highly ambitious salesperson. This person wasn’t prospecting for new business as often or as much as her manager would like. I’d had a few calls with her and given her a few assignments to complete between our calls in the prospecting part of the sales process. Her performance for me (and for her manager) continued to be lackluster. I've done a lot of individualized coaching over the years. Because of the talent interviews my company does, I am privy to the innate talents of everyone I coach. Often times my coaching assignments are to get people to do something they are not currently doing. Prospecting is often at the top of the list. 

For those of us who are parents, we know that while we try to help our children avoid mistakes, we also want to give them some leeway to have learning moments of their own. Of course there is a time and a place for learning moments. The same goes for our teams when they are prospecting for new business. We shouldn't allow our newer salespeople as much leeway (like our younger children) as we do our more seasoned veterans (our older children) especially when it comes to prospecting. 

Here are 5 tips to help newer sellers determine their best prospects: