I grew up on a farm and learned that planting seeds in the spring will yield a fall harvest.

This same farming principle applies to sales.

It often takes consistent and intentional effort over a period of time to take a customer from a cold lead, to a warm lead, to a paying client.

Applying this farming principle to sales has worked for me for many years and the many sales teams who have created a Prospecting Sales Blitz. It creates a fun and healthy competition to Be Strategic, Proactive and Brave!

The next 90 days is an ideal time to engage in a prospecting sales blitz to improve your sales efforts for the year and secure potential new customers.

Block 1-2 hours every week for the next 90 days. One hour of prospecting is only 2% of your work week; two hours would be 4% of your time. That’s not a lot of time to sell with purpose and get results!

We have a great 90-Day Prospecting Activity Blitz template for you to download to create your prospecting goals and track your activities and progress.

Here’s your simple weekly step-by-step to prepare for each week’s prospecting calls as part of your 90-day prospecting blitz:

• Create a leads list and identify the 10+ buyers you will be calling/emailing in advance, so you are ready to go. Then you’re not scrambling early in the morning. You will also be more prepared mentally when you know who you will be calling.
• Block the time in your calendar like an appointment. I find the earlier the better, 7:30 – 8:55am before they get into their 9am meeting. It’s also easier to reach buyers on their cell as they are enroute to work.
• Customize your message for each buyer, based on the research you find on their website or LinkedIn Profile. You are looking for common interests, how you can help them, or how you can make their business look good.
• Have your favourite coffee/tea/smoothie to enjoy while doing your prospecting blitz.
• Track your calls/emails.  You must do a minimum of 10. The first few are about getting your mojo going, then you’ll build confidence as soon as you get one live person or email response. Don’t stop – your best success can come from calls/emails at numbers 7, 8 and 9. With 10 calls/emails you should have a few connects/responses.
• You can call or email, I suggest both. It will depend on the generation of your buyers. If your buyers are Gen X or Baby Boomers then the good old fashion call will work. Leave a customized detailed compelling message why they should call you back or make time to meet. Then do the double whammy and follow up with the same in an email message; it will certainly increase your response rate.
• Use social media during your prospecting blitz to apply social selling. LinkedIn and LinkedIn Navigator are great prospecting tools to help you during this prospecting challenge.

Download our 90-Day Prospecting Activity Blitz template to track your successes and/or use your CRM system.

Lisa Leitch, CSP2

Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.