I have been in sales for over 20 years and every once in a while I hear the words “prospecting is dead” or “it’s a waste of time”. Well, I agree and disagree. Why you might ask? Have you heard of the phrase “retail is not dead, only bad retail is dead”? – from my friends at the RobinHood Snacks podcast (highly recommend you listen to them for market news). Similar to that, prospecting is not dead, only bad prospecting is dead.

What do I mean by that? I mean the traditional way of prospecting is not an effective or efficient use of time. Gone are the days when you could grab a phonebook or prospect list in <your CRM of choice/ SFDC for me> and dial away hoping you get someone to pick up the phone and get a deal going that way. Much like Will Smith in the Pursuit of Happyness. I find that traditional prospecting only gets you minimal traction on finding opportunities for business. Yet, why do so many companies ask you to just that – well, because they don’t know better. They feel the need to do something which is good, just misdirected.

So you should never prospect and wait for leads from marketing to come in, right? No, I’m not saying that either. I believe smart prospecting is the right and only way to prospect. What is smart prospecting you ask? Well, it’s a lot of things working together. It’s marketing and sales working together to drive people to events (virtual, physical, etc). These events then give people something in return for listening to us. It can be initiated by sales or marketing, by

leaders or individual contributors. Everyone is used to tuning out ads and salespeople, so you have to give them something in return for their time and attention. The old WIIFM (What’s In It For Me). This is the most effective way of prospecting. 

Why doesn’t everyone do it? because it’s hard. It sounds simple, but most organizations have a really hard time getting their own teams to work effectively on tasks. With this approach, you are asking what are normally two different organizations to work hand in hand, day in and day out. It is extremely difficult to achieve a good working relationship that produces results, but when you do- the results are amazing.