Prospecting is not cold calling, and prospecting is not selling. When you realize that these are different functions, it allows you to treat them as such.
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Cold calling may be one method or one potential aspect of prospecting, but that’s not all there is to it. So when you think in terms of prospecting and bringing new clients through the door, it doesn’t have to mean cold calling.
Just the words “cold calling” sound unpleasant and hard to do, don’t they?
“Cold calling.”
Who wants to do cold calling? I mean, it just doesn’t even sound great. There’s a lot more to prospecting than just cold calling and we’ll be talking about that.
Prospecting is not selling.
When you realize this… when you realize that these are two different functions, it allows you to treat them as such.
When you mistakenly view poor prospecting as a reflection of your selling skills, you do yourself a disservice. Because you may be a great salesperson.
Some of the most successful salespeople I know don’t consider themselves to be salespeople. “Hey, I’m a salesperson.” You know, like that approach.
They’re just people who like to help other people… people who want to connect… people who want to provide solutions… people who want to create value in the marketplace, and people who want to be paid handsomely to do that. And you don’t have to take the mindset of “I’m a salesman.”
What are some negative connotations you’ve heard associated with salespeople?
What typical negative connotations do you hear? Pushy, dishonest, annoying… but you keep coming back, don’t you?
But when you realize that true consultative selling — the people who really want to help you do something — for example, if you need a new car, if you want a new car and somebody helps you find exactly the car you want based on your needs, your wants, your desires, your budget and doesn’t try to get you to do something that’s not in your best interest. Those are the kinds of people you actually like interacting with. If we’re talking about selling conscientiously, selling based on helping the people you actually want to work with, that’s a good foundation to start with anyway.
But we need to understand that prospecting is not selling.
Prospecting is not about persuasion.
There are persuasion aspects involved in sales, but persuasion does not apply to the prospecting process. When you prospect, you don’t have to persuade anyone to do anything.
When you prospect, you just have to to determine whether or not the person is qualified.
This is one of the biggest mistakes we make. We talk to someone who is not qualified to do business with us, and we’re trying to convince that person to want to do business with us, and that just doesn’t work.
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2 replies to "Prospecting is Not Cold Calling"
Who was that guest speaker?
It wasn’t a guest speaker, Ed. It was just an excerpt from a live presentation I had done for a group of business owners and salespeople.