Sales prospecting is something every small business and every sales rep needs to be doing–constantly.
I see sales prospecting as not one task, but two. Task one is the marketing and task two is the selling.
I once had a sales manager that once described marketing and sales to me in this way.
He said. “Marketing is like the eagle. They soar above everything. They look down and see what’s going on. They can see into the distance and plan accordingly. And when they want they choose one thing, like a nice salmon, and swoop in and scoop it up”
Marketing = the eagle.
“Sales though”, he said, “is like the buffalo. They travel in groups and head in the same direction. When one runs, they all run. They can’t be stopped when they are running. They are a force of nature.”
Sales = the buffalo.
Now I can sort of see the analogy but most importantly, I really believe that in small businesses you need to be constantly sales prospecting for new leads. Looking for opportunity. When you finally have attracted a lead in your direction, you switch gears to be more specific and try to move your sales prospect from a lead to a customer.
As Seth Godin would say. “Converting strangers to friends and friends to customers.”
So when you are running your business and rushing around finding the work and then doing the work both, stop for a second and decide . . . will you be an eagle or a buffalo today?
