When you finally start a system of prospecting you expect everything to function like clockwork. You develop your wording and practice it until you know it cold. You determine how many calls you need to make per week and also when you will make them.

As you go about this process you also know that you will not always accomplish your goal with each prospect on that first contact but you know that now, with a system, your success rate will be a lot better than in the past.

Then you start out those first couple of weeks and find out that you aren't ready for retirement yet. Everyone is not buying your products as you expected them to.

You are disappointed and think about going back to your old way of prospecting which was probably whenever it was convenient. But you keep on with your new systematic approach for a couple more weeks. Finally after a couple of months you decide to do an analysis to see if you are really any better off than before.

This is when you make the pleasant realization that your systematic approach to prospecting is a zillion times better than what you were doing before.

You see that the first benefit of your system is that you actually made all of the prospecting calls that you said you were going to do. That, in and of itself should be reason enough to stick with the system approach.

But another realization is that you have made a tremendous number of new contacts that will develop into business for you. Some of these people visited with you when you showed up for your prospecting call, others set an appointment for you to return, still others werent ready right now but will be in the future.

You now realize that as long as you keep doing this you will have a virtually unlimited source of new customers. Now you realize that other parts of your system have great importance. Those are the tracking and follow up systems. You need to know who you called on and when to get back to them.

As you continue, you see that a simple system of making prospecting calls on a regular weekly basis, keeping good records of who you call on and when to follow up with them will yield tremendous returns.

It is about this time that you see that being successful in prospecting is really quite simple. In fact you almost feel a bit naive for not realizing this earlier in your career. However, you see that nearly all of the other sales professionals you know arent aware of this, so you dont feel so bad after all.

Further analysis on your part brings new insights to the systematic prospecting process. The fact that you were not startlingly successful right from the start is not unique. Few people start off achieving the success they want.

The point is your average new customers will dramatically increase. But when you are determining averages you have to take in a fair period of time for determining that average. In most cases a few weeks isnt enough time, especially if you are just starting a new prospecting system. Fine tuning to some degree will probably be required. Even the best baseball players have lulls in their hitting. That is why averages are considered over long periods of time.

Now you can sit back and enjoy the prospecting process along with all of the other aspects of your job. Prospecting is simply another part of your activities, not the horrible thing it once was. As your friends see your new attitude they want to know what has happened. You quickly explain that it is a system for prospecting and the key is persistence at the start really pays off.

Sell Well and Often

Bill Truax

Bill@BlitzCall.com

Copyright 2006 WJ Truax

Bill Truax

Bill is President of TRUFIELD ENTERPRISES, Inc. a firm specializing in Sales Operations Consulting and skill based training programs for Managers, Sales Professionals, and Sales Managers. One of Bill’s unique qualities is that he spends a lot of time in Field Implementation – working with sales professionals and managers in the field.

Bill holds a degree in Marketing from Indiana University where he also earned a Commercial Pilot's license and flew part time as a charter pilot.

After graduation he spent three years as an officer in the U.S. Army where he logged 3500 hours of instruction as Committee Group Chief in charge of demolition and booby trap training at Fort Lewis, Washington.

In early 1972 Bill moved to Cleveland as a salesman with the H.J. Heinz Co. and was selected by Heinz to be a member of their National Sales Training team.

He left Heinz and joined a Cleveland insurance firm prior to founding TRUFIELD in 1978.

Bill and his wife, Sue, co-authored the book, The BLITZ CALL®, A System for Fear Free Prospecting and Making Cold Calls. The book became an international best seller. They have published two more books on Prospecting, two CDs, and they developed and conduct BLITZ CALL Workshops, Seminars, and Train the Trainer programs.

Bill has spent literally thousands of hours in the field making cold calls with sales professionals to teach his BLITZ CALL System. When Bill is in the field he actually makes many of the BLITZ CALLs himself, regardless of the industry. This is to demonstrate that anyone can prospect you just need to know how.

Bill and Sue have also copy written several skill based training programs in the areas of Sales, Public Speaking, and Manners, Courtesy, and Etiquette, which they conduct for corporations throughout North America.

Along with consulting, Bill's focus is in skill-based training, designed to enhance the skills, performance, and promotability of the people with whom he works.

Bill frequently addresses Sales and Marketing classes at universities in Northern Ohio.

When Bill is not consulting or conducting programs he is involved in sales either for TRUFIELD or in the field with client salespeople and sales managers or working with managers helping to develop and share ways to increase effectiveness, motivation, and goal achievement. He has been actively involved in Selling, Speaking, Consulting, and Sales Production since 1972.