Let’s eavesdrop on two different sales managers as they address their sales force at two different companies and in two different economic climates. In your opinion, which sales manager has the right perspective?

Sales Manager No. 1, Selling Environment No. 1
“We’re in a recession. We have to focus on getting as much revenue out of our existing customers as possible. I don’t want anyone spending time on business development right now. Besides, once you finally turn a prospect into a customer their first orders are small. When the economy improves we’ll get back to the task of new business development.”

Sales Manager No. 2, Selling Environment No. 2
“The economy is strong and there is a lot of customer activity. We have to capitalize on the moment and make sure we get all the business we can out of our existing customers. Don’t spend time prospecting right now. When the economy slows down we’ll get back to prospecting.”

Which Sales Manager Is Right?
Short answer – neither. Based on what the two sales managers were saying, there is never a good time to prospect – good economy or recession. Since most businesses lose about 25% of their customer base each year through attrition, not prospecting is never a good business strategy.

When Do We Prospect?
I’ll answer the question of when we should prospect by asking you to answer five questions.

1. Are we prospecting for today or tomorrow?
2. True/False. Yesterday’s prospecting affects us today.
3. When do we have the most available time to prospect? When sales are up, or when they are down?
4. Why is prospecting like a physical fitness program?
5. Can we expect to keep all of our best customers forever?  Even in a robust economy?

Whether we love prospecting (does anyone?) or hate it, business development is the life-blood of any business. Never stop prospecting.

Further reading:

• Sales Tips From The Roman God Janus [Post on why we must manage our accounts and continually prospect.]

To receive these sales tips by email click here to receive by RSS click here. ©2009 Scott R. Sheaffer

Related posts:

1. Sales Managers, Prospect with your sales force!
2. What do I need from a prospect? Hint: information
3. How To Correctly Measure Cold Calling Effectiveness
4. What do I need from a prospect? Hint: relationship
5. A Question That Gets Even The Grouchiest Prospect Talking

Tags: manager, Prospecting, prospects

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