Prospecting Your Biggest Headache or Greatest Opportunity?

“You earn 90% of your commission for finding the person and 10% commission for selling them.”

Walter J. Shields

Prospecting for new business is a never-ending job, the lifeblood of any successful business. You may be able to delegate other activities but not prospecting.

Prospecting is the most important part of the sales process. Depending on your attitude, prospecting can be your biggest problem and headache or it can be your greatest opportunity.

Several years ago, LIMRA researched individuals who had failed as independent professionals within the first 18 months of being in the industry. They asked each person, “What did you find most difficult about selling?’ The most common answer was prospecting.

A key attraction for many who enter the financial services industry is that there is no ceiling on your opportunities. Regardless of your goals and dreams, your opportunities will remain just daydreams unless you can pin them down to specific people who will buy from you. Your future success depends on your ability to develop a steady flow of leads and prospects.

Are you a hunter or a trapper? 

There are two types of prospectors, hunters, and trappers. Hunter’s concentrate on anything that moves and in the process, they invest a  lot of time and energy, but often get little return on their investment. In the end, they develop a fear and reluctance for prospecting and avoid it, simply because they lack the skills to do it effectively, or the continued effort wears them out?.

Trappers, on the other hand, are concept centered instead of product-focused. The trappers’ concept-driven approach permits them to prospect by communicating ideas. They take pride in their profession. They consider the products and services they offer practical vehicles to attain realistic results. Instead of just aiming at anything that moves, trappers select and use a variety of prospecting methods to carefully attract those prospects that match their selling concept.

Follow these steps to become a trapper:

• Make a list of all of the features and benefits that your service or products provides to clients
• Next to each feature and benefit, list the outcomes or value that it provides.
• Next, to each value list your beliefs “why this is important”
• Summaries your list of beliefs and articulate your selling concept.

Following the above steps will help you streamline and fine-tune your prospecting methods and build a strong sales pipeline filled with high-quality prospective clients. Delivering streams of revenue to your business for years to come.