How To Master the Art of Prospecting

“Our very living is selling. We are all salespeople.” ~James Cash Penney

I was having coffee with a friend the other day and the topic of sales came up. We are both salespeople and small business owners and work with the same. The conversation was around people’s aversion to sales. Most business owners don’t talk a lot about sales. Often times we don’t consider ourselves “salespeople”. We love to call ourselves business owners, entrepreneurs, innovators, networkers, connectors, or whatever descriptor you can think of as long as it’s not “salesperson”. The crazy thing is though, that’s ALL we are. Nothing matters unless you sell something. You can own the coolest coffee shop in the world, but it won’t be around very long if you don’t have sales. You could invent the most amazing widget that will change people’s lives, but no one will know about it and your business won’t last if you don’t sell it. You can be the best connector and referral magnet in the world, but no one is just going to come to the coffee meeting waving their credit card around saying “take my money”!

So, we need to be okay with selling, and I have found that the easiest way to remove anxiety, uncertainty and fear from pretty much anything, is to have a system and a plan. For sales, that plan starts with prospecting. How do we find people to talk to? Even better, how do we find people that are more likely to be interested in what we are selling? How can we build a list? How do we organize it? How do we start to contact these people?

The answers to all these questions and more can be found in our educational lunch ‘n learn this month: How to Master the Art of Prospecting

I’d love to hear your struggles and successes with sales though! Leave a comment or email me.

Happy selling!

Philip