If I had a dime for every business leader who says, “When we are in front of the right prospects we close sales most of the time, we just need to get in front of more prospects!” I would be a VERY wealthy woman.
Why hold off making changes or trying something new that will set you up for success this year and lay the foundation for next year?
The longer you wait instead of taking action, the longer it will take to close more sales. And, while you wait and hope things will be different, your competitors will eat your lunch.
Remember, your prospects are NOT holding off finding ways to improve and solve problems. Like you, they need to achieve goals and identify new ones in time for year-end. If you are not in front of them starting relationships, someone else will.
How to make the final decision that something must change? Use the TTD Method™ to assess whether the resources you have will deliver the meetings you need to succeed. TTD stands for Time, Talent and Desire.
TIME. Do your sellers truly have time to devote to effective, successful prospecting? Not the kind of prospecting where you find 2 available hours on a Friday, call some people and never call them again. Also, not the kind of prospecting where you send 200 of the same emails hoping that will suffice in starting meaningful relationships. And, definitely not the kind of prospecting where you answer inbound inquiries from hand raisers who are not right for you.
I mean the kind of prospecting where you strategically select a group of prospects who are exactly right, start meaningful conversations with them and stick with them until they agree that meeting you is the best decision they will ever make! If no one or not enough people in your company have the time, it’s time to do something differently.
TALENT. Not everyone tasked with the job of getting the right prospect meetings has the talent to do so. While I absolutely agree people can improve by learning and consistently implementing the right process for effective prospecting, it is not the same as having people with door opening DNA to get the right meetings for you.
What most don’t know and is a blind spot, is that within the world of hunters, there are different kinds of hunters. Many are great at going on the meetings and closing the sales. We call them “Closers.” Others are intuitively great and have it in their DNA to open new relationships with people they don’t know. We call them “Openers.” If you need an Opener but have a Closer (or you are the closer), it’s time to do something differently.
DESIRE. The ultra-blind spot. Not every great hunter who is talented in Door Opening and who has demonstrated success in the past has the desire to spend time doing door opening work. If you realize that you don’t have enough people with the desire to do effective door opening, it’s time to make a change.