Fanatical Prospecting: The Ultimate Guide to Opening Sales Conversations and Filling the Pipeline by Leveraging Social Selling, Telephone, Email, Text, and Cold Calling

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The Three Ps That Are Holding You Back

Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

—Francis of Assisi

There are three mindsets that hold salespeople back from prospecting: procrastination, perfectionism, and paralysis from analysis.

Procrastination

You've no doubt heard the children's riddle, “What is the best way to eat an elephant?”

The answer, of course, is, “One bite at a time.”

It's a simple concept. But when it comes to the real world and real problems, not that easy.

Far too often we try to eat the elephants in our lives all in one bite, which results in stress, frustration, and ultimately failure. You can't do all of your prospecting for the month in one day. It is impossible and it will never get done.

Yet salespeople put prospecting off—always with the promise that they'll “get around to it” tomorrow or later this week or Monday or whatever the prevailing excuse of the day is. They delude themselves into believing that they can prospect once or twice a week and it will be okay. But I know the real truth, and so do you. It never works out like that.

Procrastination is an ugly disease that plagues the human race. No one is immune. You've got it and I've got it. In fact, I have a PhD in procrastination—a bona fide expert. One year I bought a book called How to Stop Procrastinating (my New Year's resolution). That book sat unread on my bedside table for three years until I finally sold it at a garage sale.

Every ...