Prospecting for Sales Month

I bet you didn’t know February is “Prospecting for Sales Month.”

If you’re wondering who made it the official “Prospecting for Sales Month,” well, it was me.

Yes, I decided if January can be “diet month”  then February could be something important with regard to something so crucial to our business growth.

The reason I’m declaring this for February is simple.  It’s the start of a new month and for most salespeople, it means the start of a new quota.  One reason salespeople get behind is they wait too long to develop new leads.  This is the sole reason why I say February is “Prospecting for Sales Month.”

As you put together your prospecting plan, allocate time each day — or minimally, each week — where you are actively engaged in prospecting.  This does not mean thinking about prospecting or gathering information on potential prospects.

No, this means actively calling on prospects.

Another task to do in February is to make sure you start right away prospecting on those merchants who may take the better part of the year to turn into a customer.   You know who these are. These are the big kids on the block — the prospects who when you turn them into a customer, they will create a significant amount of new business.

Too many times I watch salespeople put off going to work on these big fish prospects until it’s too late to make an impact in the current year.  

What happens is the salesperson sees that the opportunity for getting business this year is most likely not going to happen, so they shift and prospect with small fish.  End result is the salesperson never winds up going after the big fish.

One final note on why I’m declaring February as “Prospecting for Sales Month.” It is because it’s also the best time for us to get in front of a lot of business owners, build or add to your pipeline. 

More importantly, Making calls early in the year as a tool to open up new opportunities will result in big payouts later in the year.

It’s February, Let’s leap into it! (No leap year this year, BTW)

What are you waiting for?

It’s time to get your sales prospecting machine moving.

Happy Selling, 

David