What Aspects Are Important In Sales | #1 Prospecting

1. What Makes Prospecting the Most Important Aspect of Sales?
2. Sales Prospecting: Everything Counts, but Not Everything Counts the Same
   
   

A good salesperson is a jack-of-all-trades. A great salesperson is a master of one.

All of the sales skills are important, but not all of them are equal. You could have the best communication, closing, and customer service skills in the world, but if you don't have clients to serve with them they are useless. There are no sales without potential sales. There are no potential sales without leads. There are no leads without prospects. And there are no prospects without prospecting.

What Aspects Are Important in Sales: Why Is Prospecting So Important? 

The best salespeople understand that there is nothing more important in sales than prospecting. Unless you can gain a meeting with your prospective client, there is little chance you create an opportunity. Without opportunities, you cannot succeed. Everything is downstream from prospecting. It doesn't matter how polished your pitch is if you don't have anyone to deliver it to. That's why the best salespeople spend a disproportionate amount of time and effort honing this essential sales skill.

Discovery is the most important part of selling well. The best salespeople know that doing excellent discovery work demonstrates to your client that you will deliver a top-notch customer service experience. If your prospective customer doesn't enjoy working with you throughout the discovery process, they will not move from prospect to customer.

In a world where distinction and differentiation are diminishing at an accelerating rate, differentiation is one of the most important things you can achieve as a salesperson. The best salespeople are able to pull themselves out of the pack. If you can’t break free from the “me too” and find “me only,” you will struggle to win clients, let alone do so at reasonable margins. The ability to prospect well provides an opportunity to differentiate yourself effectively from your competition.

"But I'm a professional salesperson!" you say, "What could be more important than my presenting skills?" Sure, when you are asked to step up to the front of the boardroom and present your ideas, the better future state you are going to help your prospective client realize, and field all the incoming questions, your showing here can cinch the deal, but all of this is for naught if you can’t resolve your dream client’s concerns. And none of this matters if you lack the negotiating skills to be able to find a deal, but none of these things will make any difference if you don't have a steady stream of dream clients that you are nurturing through the prospecting process.

Sales Prospecting: Everything Counts, but Not Everything Counts the Same

There are some human endeavors where everything is important. One of them is leadership, where you need vision, intelligence, emotional intelligence, energy, and a willingness to be accountable for difficult outcomes. Sales is another one of those endeavors where everything is important, and one where mistakes are magnified. Usually, those mistakes are the result of focusing on the wrong thing. Good salespeople are good salespeople because they focus on the right things.

Sales prospecting is the right thing. You can't hit the target if you don't have any targets. Invest your time growing your prospective client pipeline and your prospecting strategies and you will have a successful career in sales. That is why prospecting is the most important aspect of sales. If you're ready to focus on the right thing and learn how to prospect more effectively, you can check out our free cold-calling eBook How to Crush It, Kill It, and Master Cold Calling Now. You will learn how to utilize everyone's least favorite sales activity to your advantage and keep a steady stream of prospects flowing into your pipeline.