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Here’s the answer: Successful small businesses – and salespeople – continue to\u00a0look for new customers every day. Unsuccessful\u00a0businesses – and salespeople – stop prospecting for new business.<\/p>\nWhy do some businesses grow, prosper and continue to thrive, while others hit a sales and profits plateau?<\/p>\n
Okay, here’s another question,\u00a0why do some salespeople \u00a0grow, prosper, and thrive while others never make it?<\/p>\n
These are questions I’ve been pondering for the past 30 years.Here’s the answer: Successful small businesses – and salespeople – continue to\u00a0look for new customers every day. Unsuccessful\u00a0businesses – and salespeople – stop prospecting for new business.<\/p>\n
Simple enough!<\/p>\n
But why do people stop looking for new customers?<\/p>\n
They lose their focus. They get bogged down in paperwork,\u00a0proposals, meetings, and other administrative tasks. They spend most of their time doing miscellaneous ‘stuff’ and\u00a0less than 10 percent looking for new customers.<\/p>\n
They’re so busy they’ve no time left to get on the phone and look\u00a0for new customers or even keep in touch with their existing customers.<\/p>\n
Don’t Let This Happen To You?<\/strong><\/p>\n A few days ago I had a disturbing conversation. It prompted\u00a0me to write today’s newsletter, because I don’t want what\u00a0happened to Tom to happen to you.<\/p>\n Tom has owned a specialty products company for many years.\u00a0In his best years, sales were $3 million. But with time\u00a0there has been a slow erosion of his customer base.<\/p>\n * His primary contacts at some of his best customers have\u00a0left the company and the person who replaced him has\u00a0brought in his own suppliers.<\/p>\n * Some of his customers have themselves experienced a slowdown in business, and reduced the size of their orders.<\/p>\n * Some of his customers have stopped ordering completely\u00a0because their business is off.<\/p>\n * And other customers have been acquired by a\u00a0larger company or gone out of business.<\/p>\n The loss of business is always gradual, but cumulatively it’s devastating.<\/p>\n Today Tom’s sales are down more than 50 percent – off more\u00a0than $1.5 million – and he’s struggling. Profits are down even more. Why has this happened? Because Tom’s stopped looking for new\u00a0customers. In fact, it’s been so long since Tom’s looked\u00a0for new business, he’s forgotten how to do it.<\/p>\n He’s now trying to do something he hasn’t done in years,\u00a0and was never very good at in the first place.<\/p>\n That’s why he called me.<\/p>\n Looking For Customers<\/strong><\/p>\n When Tom and I began working together, the first thing we discovered\u00a0?was that he was spending a lot of time with people who weren’t buying.<\/p>\n His closing ratios were about 15 percent. That meant 85 percent\u00a0of his time was being wasted. (If he only wasted 75 percent\u00a0of his time his sales would double.)<\/p>\n We came up with a more targeted approach. He started asking\u00a0more detailed and specific questions to better qualify his prospects.\u00a0He insisted on working directly with the decision makers.<\/p>\n He made being on the phone – EVERY DAY – his #1 priority, and\u00a0scheduled 60 to 90 minutes each morning for the sole purpose\u00a0of looking for new business.<\/p>\n He quickly discovered that at least 50 percent of the people he had\u00a0previously been making presentations to weren’t legitimate prospects.<\/p>\n Many were price shopping.<\/p>\n Others called – usually with a request for a rush quote – because\u00a0they needed a second or third bid so they could tell their boss\u00a0they had shopped the market. Then they would give\u00a0the order to their preferred vendor.<\/p>\n Because Tom stopped wasting his time on these non-productive\u00a0activities, and stopped chasing opportunities that never closed, he\u00a0had much more time to get on the phone and look for new customers.<\/p>\n He started working his database and prospecting for new business.\u00a0In no time at all he found people who wanted to talk with him. He\u00a0closed some sales. Cash began flowing in instead of flowing out.<\/p>\n Much to his surprise, there were a number of old customers who\u00a0placed new orders with him. One even said, “Tom, It’s been several\u00a0years since you last called on me. I thought you had gone out of business.”<\/p>\n Become A Huge Success?The difference between those who are successful, huge successes,\u00a0or failures is in direct proportion to the amount of time spent\u00a0looking for new customers.<\/p>\n Spend 90 percent of your time looking for new customers.\u00a0And you’ll see more small business sales than you ever dreamed of.<\/p>\n
\nHe’s had to let many of his key people go and has taken a big\u00a0reduction in his compensation. Today, he’s barely able\u00a0to make ends meet.<\/p>\n
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