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Conkers In Children Hands Representing Prospects

Do you have enough prospects?

“Here’s one, Granddad. It’s lovely!” My two granddaughters and I are collecting conkers in the park. They were right, of course. Their conkers were beautiful with that rich brown hue in a wonderful shiny coating.

Conkers are wonderful, aren’t they? They look so good when they’re newly fallen from the tree and have broken free from their prickly casing. But they can be hard to find sometimes, particularly if you’re not the first under the horse chestnut tree that day. 

It made me think of my prospecting. My coach asks me how many prospects have I got? And I realise the answer is not enough! 

Conkers. Hard to spot, and delightful when you spot one. Bit like prospecting. Wonderful to find a real prospect for your product or service. But you’ve got to focus. You have to know what you’re looking for. 

But it’s one thing collecting all these lovely shiny objects but what are you going to do with them? Because they’ll soon go dull and wrinkly. 

Bit like prospects. You need to do something with them. Otherwise they’ll go cold, or your competition will get them. I’m embarrassed to think of all the good prospects I’ve wasted over the years. I’m not a natural hunter and sometimes I need to push myself to go hunting for prospects. And when I’ve found one to make a good offer and then to stay in touch even if the initial answer was ‘no’. 

My invitation today, in case you happen to be coaching a salesperson, is to make sure they’ve got a good prospecting and follow-up system. And that they’re emotionally engaged enough to follow it with some energy and persistence.

This month we’re running a one-day programme on Psychometrics in Selling on 31stOctober in London. It features the wonderful Empathy Styles model which teaches salespeople how to change their approach for the many different prospects they will encounter. 

But it’s not just the temperament of prospects that’s important; the temperament of the salesperson will also play a major part in their success. For example, whether they really want to prospect, and therefore how well they do that. 

Changing our behaviour is never easy, but the Empathy Styles approach gives salespeople, their managers and their coaches the tools to do that, and therefore to become more successful.

Do come and join us and discover the whole picture of your style as a salesperson. Because we’re all in selling, aren’t we? And we need to be as good as we can be, don’t we? And if you can’t join us but would like some help contact me – I’d love to help you reach your full potential.

For me, I think we’ve got enough conkers now – it’s time to do some more prospecting!

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