Are You Fishing with Blunt Hooks?

An extremely important component of growing any business to the point where it becomes self sustaining is prospecting for suitable clients or customers. As a business owner, you need to set the lead for others to follow if you want to elevate the importance of prospecting for future business to its rightful place as a key component of your business plan.

All business owners have to prospect, and some are far better at it than others. If you, and those you employ, avoid the seven common mistakes that others frequently make when prospecting, you will become very good at it, and your business will grow quickly.

The first and most common mistake in prospecting is simply not doing enough of it. As a business owner, you must understand that the work you do today, in uncovering suitable prospects, represents your income for weeks or months down the track. The absence of constant prospecting activity equals no constant income in the future, and creates the real and dangerous potential for cash flow problems to develop in your business.

The second mistake is prospecting with the wrong attitude towards the job. When you prospect with a positive attitude towards the work which needs to be done, and you expect that work to generate good business leads, you will usually prove yourself to be absolutely right.

The third mistake is not having a good system in place to ensure that all leads generated are followed through with, and all income potential is maximised. Without systems, too much falls through the cracks and unproductive activity will prevail. Before you commence any prospecting activity make sure that your business has a CRM package in place, and that all involved in the prospecting activities are familiar with it, and understand the importance of recording all activity and outcomes.

The fourth mistake is prospecting the wrong people in the first place. Are your potential prospects going to deliver your business a high enough return on the investment made, are they geographically positioned to make servicing them a cost effective option, do they actually want what or need what you are offering, are you face to face with the decision maker or a key advisor to the decision maker?

The fifth, and a killer of a mistake, is not asking the prospects you do get in front of, for referrals. It is vital for all business owners to remember that when you are prospecting, you are not only prospecting the prospect, but anyone else they know, who may have a need for your offering. Always remember, if you don’t ask – you don’t get.

The sixth mistake in prospecting is a reluctance to invest in direct mailing to potential prospects that you have on any database you own or control. Mail them monthly at a minimum, and the frequency of touches will eventually deliver a regular stream of people wanting to take up what you are offering, and who will also be willing to give you referrals.

The final, and an all too common mistake made by business owners, is to stop regular and consistent heavy prospecting just because they have a few good weeks or months flowing on from previous prospecting activities. Never forget, that a drop off in prospecting will inevitably result in a drop off in income for your business in the coming months.

How does your business measure up in terms of the returns from your prospecting activities?

Does your business have a program of activities which constitute a constant and effective prospecting machine?

Do you need to sharpen your hooks?

Momentum - The Best Business Fertiliser

Without momentum in your business, everything just grinds to a halt, and all effort is effectively wasted. With momentum, anything is achievable. If you want to be successful as a business owner nothing could have more relevance, or should assume greater importance, than the building and maintaining of momentum in your business.

In this context, and as a business owner, you need to clearly understand what momentum is, and how to make sure it is happening in your business. To begin, you must have a business plan, you must work that plan, and you must be willing and able to grow with your business and to overcome the challenges which will arise as your business grows.

Business momentum can be simply described as the outcome of your own level of productive effort multiplied by the degree of persistence you consistently provide to working your business plan. You know you have momentum when your business is continually busy and the evidence establishes that it in being busy it is accomplishing everything laid out in your business plan.

Building up momentum, in order to establish a manageable and productive funnel of opportunities which deliver regular and growing income, takes considerable time and effort. The following four suggestions, if implemented in your business, should assist you get to the point where you can effectively see and feel the required momentum.

The first suggestion is to know where you are going with your business, why you want to go in that direction, and then attaching basic numbers to what the business must achieve on a daily basis, in order to be successful. This clarity will assist you to work on your business, rather than just working in it without giving much thought for the future.

The second suggestion is to walk to the end of the cliff and jump off, fully knowing that unless you immediately attract customers or clients, it is all over for your business. There is nothing like having no fall-back position to focus your mind, all of your energy, and absolute commitment to the taking immediate actions required to get your desired outcomes. Remember that the desperate and hungry dog will always beat the pampered pooch to any available rewards, and that is the mindset you need to have when looking to develop momentum in your business.

The third suggestion is to step right out of all of your comfort zones and embark on the emotional roller coaster that is directly aligned to successful business ownership. Learn how not to be discouraged by the inevitable setbacks, how to avoid making excuses for not succeeding, and how to immediately kill any thoughts of giving up now or in the future.

The fourth suggestion is to develop a healthy support mechanism so that when times get tough along your journey to success you have somewhere to turn to provide you with the support you need to pick yourself up and continue to persevere with your plan of attack in accordance with your business plan. Don’t try to achieve it all alone, a journey shared with someone who can contribute support when you most need it is one that once you achieve success, you will look back upon with greater pleasure than any solo trip you might take.

Does your business currently have sufficient momentum so that work is self generating?

As the business owner are you helping or hindering the development of momentum in your business?

Are your employees aware of the concept of building momentum?

Is it time to fertilise your business?

Rapidly Improve Lead to Customer Conversion Rates

As a business owner, you need to clearly understand and ensure that all charged with converting your hard to generate sales leads into valuable customers for your business, clearly understand and apply a set of sequential steps which, if followed religiously, will generate far more sales and make each member of your sales team more productive.

These 7 steps address standard buyer behaviour, and it is important that each step be used and that the next step is not tackled until the potential customer is clearly ready to move up to the next step.

The first step is to establish if there is actually a real need for whatever you are offering. If you can’t get the customer to agree that they have a real need for what you are offering, don’t waste any further time trying to sell them. Simply get their details and agreement to be added to your mailing list, and move on to another prospect.

The second step is to get them to acknowledge the effect that meeting their need will have on them personally. As you have already established the potential customer has a need for your offering, you must determine what it will mean for them personally if this need is able to be satisfied by your offering.

The third step is to instil a fear of the situation continuing to worsen over time. In this step you simply up the ante on the last step, and reinforce how it will continue to affect them personally, if they don’t immediately meet the need they have identified for your offering, and then get them to agree that this will be the case.

The fourth step is to help the potential customer realise that they have a compelling need for change. Having laid the ground work in the previous two steps, this step should be easy for any accomplished salesperson. Simply put, the potential customer needs to be led to the point where they acknowledge that it makes no sense to continue to put up with their current situation.

The fifth step is to lead the potential customer to the point where there is now a clear demand for an improvement in their situation. At this step, the potential customer needs to be helped to paint a picture in their mind, of how their situation will look when they implement the change that your offering will bring to their world.


The sixth step is to give them hope for a better future by suggesting that there are a range of solutions for the burden that they presently carry. This is where you outline the possibilities they might embrace in order to get relief from the pressing need they now have to improve their worsening situation and also determine the level of investment they are willing to make to resolve their situation.

The seventh and final step is to show them how you can deliver the solution for your customer now that you know they have a genuine need for your offering, are ready to take action to satisfy the need, and have indicated how much they are willing to spend to get the relief from the burden they have been carrying. Then you can confidently and quickly close the sale, and move on to the next potential customer.

Are you clear on the importance of each of these 7 steps and why they must be sequential and why you should not move off any step until the potential customer has clearly indicated that they are at the position where you can move them on without losing them?

In your business, are these 7 steps rigorously practiced with all new leads that come into your business?

How much more revenue could your business be generating if these 7 steps were competently practiced on every occasion by well drilled sales staff?