Rating: Excellent
Fanatical Prospecting blurb excerpt: Fanatical Prospecting gives salespeople, sales leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives a practical, eye-opening guide that clearly explains the why and how behind the most important activity in sales and business development—prospecting.
The brutal fact is the number one reason for failure in sales is an empty pipe and the root cause of an empty pipeline is the failure to consistently prospect. By ignoring the muscle of prospecting, many otherwise competent salespeople and sales organizations consistently underperform. My opinion: I love this book! Blount outlines his tested approach to prospecting that works for real people, in the real world, with real prospects. Teaching you how to keep the pipeline full of qualified opportunities and avoid debilitating sales slumps by leveraging a balanced multi-channel prospecting methodology. As someone who has worked in sales, this book delivers the brutal truth in a simple manner.
Fanatical Prospecting is one of The Best Sales Books. Filled with high-powered strategies, techniques, and tools, it's a must-read if you are in sales or business.
Lessons from Fanatical Prospecting:
Nothing happens until someone moves - Law of the universe
Nothing happens until someone sells something - Law of business
The reason why most sales teams have a poor pipeline is that the sales team is not prospecting. New prospects are the lifeblood of any business. Nothing is more important.
Superstars are relentless and fanatical prospectors. They get moving, own their territory, and take responsibility. However it's human nature to seek the easy way out, and that can really hurt prospecting efforts.
The foundation of a winning prospecting approach is balance - social selling, phone, in-person, referrals, trade shows, email, text, cold calling, etc… Nothing is neglected, nothing is given preference (Unless justified).
3 things you can control;
Your actions
Your reactions
Your mindset
7 mindsets of fanatical prospectors;
Optimistic and Enthusiastic
Competitive
Confident
Relentless
Thirsty for knowledge
Systematic and efficient
Adaptive and flexible
3 A’s approach to prospecting;
Adopt - actively seek out and adopt new ideas and best practices.
Adapt - those practices as their own, until they become
Adept at the execution.
To cold call or not to cold call? You must interrupt people in order to build a pipeline.
"I am so much better at (insert email, social selling, inbound lead generation, text, in-person etc)" is just an excuse to avoid doing the less palatable prospecting techniques such as calling on prospects.
3 laws for prospecting;
The Universal Need - The more you need something, the less likely it is that you will get it. Aka desperation. When you become emotional you don’t act logically and often make poor decisions.
The 30-day Law - the prospecting that you do in this 30 day period will pay off in the next 90 days. If you decrease your prospecting activity it will come back to bite you within the next 90 days.
The Law of Replacement - When you close a deal you must replace prospects at your closing ratio. i.e if you normally close 1/10 deals you would need to find 10 new prospects for every deal you close.
The rules of a sales slump;
When you’re in one, start prospecting. The more you prospect, the luckier you’ll get.
It’s more important to prospect consistently than it is to prospect using the best techniques or tools.
Know your numbers;
“The majority of salespeople don't track their numbers. Why? Because it is so much easier to delude themselves into thinking that they have made far more calls or prospecting touches than they have really made. The false comfort of delusion is warm and fuzzy and far more inviting than the cold edge of reality.”
The quality and quantity of what you put into your pipe will determine what you can get out of it.
Once you are tracking your numbers consistently you can audit the efficiency and effectiveness of your strategies.
Efficiency is how much activity you are generating in a time block that has been allocated to a particular sales activity.
Effectiveness is the ratio between the activity and the outcome.
Efficiency + Effectiveness = Performance
The 3 P’s that are holding you back;
Procrastination
Perfectionism - Whilst it’s characterized by an intense drive to succeed, it can be the very thing that stops you from doing so.
Paralysis by analysis
Stop wasting the Golden Hours.
Do your research in advance. Schedule your emails in advance. Schedule your social posts and responses in advance. Clean your list in advance. Update your CRM immediately after your Golden Hour. Specifically outside of the call window so you can be productive when it matters most.
Adopt a CEO mindset. In Sales, your job is to produce the best ROI with scarce resources. Be diligent with how and where you spend your time.
Time blocking is transformational. 3 power hours a day for calling will leave plenty of time for everything else. Your work will expand or contract to fit the time allotted.
You cannot be efficient when you are distracted. Place your attention on one thing at a time.
Never check email first thing in the morning otherwise it will derail your prospecting efforts. Emails may be important, but they are rarely urgent.
The 4 objectives of Prospecting;
Set an appointment
Gather information and qualify - identify buying window, criteria, and key stakeholders.
Close a sale
Build familiarity
Develop a buyer profile and have the discipline to walk away from a prospect if they don't meet your buyer persona. This will save you from spending time with people who won't buy or become "good" customers.
Build better lists and intelligence:
Only a small percentage of your prospects will be in a buying window at any given point in time. Therefore the probability that you call poor prospects is high. The result is ineffective prospecting, rejection, and low productivity. Your income and confidence also suffer.
Powerful lists get powerful results.
The list should be created based on;
Prospecting objective - set an appointment, gather information, close a sale or build familiarity.
Channel - phone, email, social.
Qualification - ranked from most qualified to least.
Potential - the largest opportunity to least opportunity.
Probability - the highest probability to least probability.
Territory plan.
Starting your day by calling qualified prospects will lead to more wins which will build confidence and momentum for the day.
“The most expensive thing you can do in sales is to spend your time with the wrong prospect”
CRM is your gold mine, not your trash can. An organised CRM can help you keep track of what is important and remind you when it is important. Invest your time into developing and maintaining it for your benefit and the future benefit of the company. The Familiarity Threshold:
The familiarity threshold states that it takes 20 - 50 touchpoints for a person to become familiar with you and your brand. Once familiar they are much more likely to engage and or buy.
Familiarity requires 5 things;
Persistent and consistent prospecting over time.
Referrals and introductions.
Company and Brand familiarity.
3 types of referrals;
Customer referrals - happy customers. The key is to ask.
Personal referrals - friends or family. The key is to educate.
Professional referrals - people who call on the same people but don’t compete. The key is to invest in these relationships.
Social Prospecting;
Personal branding and building familiarity - does my presence online support my efforts to build my reputation as a salesperson who solves problems and can be trusted? Does it help people become familiar with my name and brand in a familiar way?
Inbound prospecting via education and insights
Trigger event and buying cycle awareness - can be triggered by internal events of external factors.
Research and information gathering
Outbound prospecting via direct engagement
5 C’s of Social Prospecting:
Connecting
Content creation
Content curation - you need to be aware. Linking together relevant content that aligns with your strategy. If curating you should leverage tools to help save time.
Conversion
Consistency
A relaxed, confident, or enthusiastic approach can be more powerful than your entire message.
Put a smile on your face and it will transfer to your voice.
Power pose and you will feel more confident (shoulder back, back straight, chin up).
Put a mirror by the phone when you are prospecting so you are aware of your facial expressions.
When you dress your best, you feel your best.
Tell yourself that you will succeed and your chances of success go up.
Use assertive and assumptive words, phrases, and tone and you will be more credible and powerful.
A winning proposition focusses on;
A business objective that is measurable and measured.
It disrupts the status quo - increases sales, decreases costs, improves efficiency, reduces stress etc.
It offers proof or evidence.
Prospecting messages must be quick, simple, relevant, and direct.
Bridging the because using the customer's language, not yours. I.e I would love to get 10 minutes of your time to learn more about your business and what your priorities are because
Example: At (company) we (achieved what), whilst I don’t know if our solution will be a fit in your unique situation I have got some ideas and best practices I have seen work well for companies like yours and thought you might be interested in learning more about them. Let's put 10 minutes on a calendar this week. Would Friday at 10.00 am work?
3 steps to asking;
Ask with confidence and assume you will get what you want.
Shut up.
Be prepared to deal with reflexes and brush-offs.
The goal should be to get to a Yes or No fast.
Phone Calling Best Practices; "Nobody answers the phone that doesn’t ring."
Get their attention - use their name.
Identify yourself and the reason for your call - this shows professionalism and creates trust.
Bridge - give them a because.
Be confident.
Ask for what you want.
Example: Hey Name, it’s (Your Name) from (Company), the reason I am calling is to set up a short 15-minute call with you because you recently downloaded one of our papers on (Tech). Several companies in your industry are already using our platform and are very happy with the results we are delivering. I thought the best place to start is to set a short meeting to learn about your open source adoption, challenges, and goals. How about we meet Wednesday afternoon around 3.00 pm? Hey Name, This is (Your Name) from (Your Company), the reason I am calling is you downloaded our white paper on (Insert) and I would love to learn what triggered your interest. I work with a number of IT leaders and architects who …. And have a few best practices to help remove complexity, improve resiliency and times to deployment. Could you tell me more about your situation? Voicemail;
Identify yourself and your company
Say your phone number twice
Tell them the reason for the call
Give them a reason to call you back - knowledge, insights, special price etc.
Repeat your name and say your numbers twice
Disruption;
If your prospect says they’re happy say “awesome, if you’re happy you shouldn’t even think about changing.”
If they say they’re busy “I thought you would be which is why I will keep this brief” or “That’s exactly why I called, I wanted to find a time that is more suitable for you”
If they say just send me some information say “Sure, what information specifically are you looking for” This throws them off guard and get's them talking.
7 Keys for dealing with Gatekeepers;
Be likable
Use please, please
Be transparent
Connect - ask how they are doing
Hold the cheese, it doesn’t work
Ask for help
Change the game - feel free to sidestep them by calling early or connecting on social with those who they guard.
Email Prospecting:
Your email must be delivered - don’t send bulk email, avoid attaching images, avoid hyperlinks, avoid attachments, skip spammy words (free, special, buy now), don’t send multiple emails to the same company or person.
Your email must get opened - keep subject lines short, do not ask a question, use action words and statements.
Your email must convert - AMMO (Audience, Method, Message, Outcome) & tracking are key here.
4 Step Email Framework;
The hook - a strong opening statement.
Relate - demonstrate that you get them and their problem.
Bridge - connect the dots between how you can help them.
Make the ask.
Texting is now a sales tool. I didn't take any notes here as it was relevant to me at this point in time.
Fanatical Prospecting Best Quotes:
“There is no easy button in sales. Prospecting is hard, emotionally draining work, and it is the price you have to pay to earn a high income.”
"Here is the brutal reality. If you don't have a plan, you will become a part of someone else's plan."
"Law of the Universe: Nothing happens until something moves. Law of Business: Nothing happens until someone sells something."
“The enduring mantra of the fanatical prospector is one more call.”
“In the sales profession, it's not about what you have sold, it is about what you sell today.”
"One of the most effective ways to unload nonsales activity is to just say no. You don't have to take on or do everything that others bring to you."
"If you're in second place, attack the leader. If you're in the first place, attack yourself"
"To succeed in sales simply talk to lots of people every day. The great news is there are lots of people."
What Next:
If you are interested in this book, you may want to check out our list of reviewed Sales Books.
My personal recommendation for those who loved this read, Chet Holmes's book, The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies.
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