Article 101

DON'T LET MANAGERS WASTE YOUR TIME.

If a good portion of your income is commissions - or all of it is, pay heed to these words.

Again this week, working with a coaching client, the "just go start knocking and calling" demon raised it's ugly head. I hear this story commonly - usually after the fact when the damage has already been done from an exhausted spirit broken salesperson who has been slaving mightily with pennies to show for their efforts.

Your sales manager exhorts you to engage in frenzied activity - now - to drum up business. You are working on commission and only have time to call on a few hundred prospects yet have been given a universe of thousands to pick from.

Do you accept that list and just start calling? No way! Assuming you have a spine and assuming you don't want to waste months of your life working for nothing you will insist on getting a full list of the best clients and customers... the ones the company wants to clone. You will go to a public available database... many times referenceusa is available at your local library or college, and look up those specific companies.

You will create a chart of their respective SIC codes, revenue ranges and employee ranges. Then, you will get a list of suspects who most resemble the good accounts and you will call them first.

Why would you choose to prospect 200 companies that probably contain only 5 small accounts, when you could invest the same time prospecting 200 accounts that contain 20 or 30 medium or large opportunities. You wouldn't. But that is exactly what you do when you start working a large list without a clue as to the profile of the previous buyers and the suspect pool you are calling.

If your superiors won't share that info with you, it is usually a sign that they are totally clueless as to how to sell... or, there is something being hidden.... a service problem, a low closing rate, prior defects.... something is being hidden from you.

In this case my coaching client is now fully armed with info to get the data necessary to invest time where it will be most profitable. You should always do the same.

Best wishes with your selling.
Scott Channell

Article 82	Dive into a pool of great prospects... or a bucket. Find out before you dive.
	by Scott Channell