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

9

The Four Objectives of Prospecting

I don't focus on what I'm up against. I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest.

—Venus Williams

“If you don't know where you're going, you might end up someplace else.” The great and oft-quoted Yogi Berra said those words. Sadly, this is how many salespeople approach prospecting—on a wing and a prayer.

From the get-go I've been clear that my objective is to teach you how to be both efficient and effective with prospecting. Another way to say this is balancing quantity with quality.

Knowing your objective for each call makes you more efficient because you are able to build prospecting blocks and group your prospecting channel touches around those objectives. This allows you to move faster and make more prospecting touches in less time. We'll discuss this further in Chapter 10, “Leveraging the Prospecting Pyramid.”

Developing a defined objective makes you effective because on each prospecting call, e-mail, social media touch, networking event, or referral request, you know exactly what to ask for and how to bridge to your prospect's problems to give them a compelling reason to accept your request.

The objective is the primary outcome you expect from your prospecting touch. There are four core prospective objectives:

• Set an appointment.
• Gather information and qualify.
• Close a sale.
• Build familiarity.

Your situation, industry, prospect base, product, and service are unique, as will be your prospecting objectives. Here are some quick ...