Why don't salespeople prospect?

Here at Sales Concepts, we speak with dozens of sales managers every month, and a majority of them lament that their salespeople do not prospect or cold-call enough. Why don't salespeople prospect more?

The top two reasons people give for not attending our workshops are that cold calling or prospecting is ineffective or that they don't have time. This is ironic because for prospecting to be effective, you must put time into it.

We suggest you set aside a certain amount of time on your calendar and make an appointment with yourself to prospect. You treat this like any other appointment you make and put it on your calendar, so you do it. It could be an hour a day or an afternoon once a week, but you must declare the time to do it and stick with it.

Prospecting is effective over time when you make the time to do it and approach it systematically. The trouble is that many salespeople don't do this, and they struggle to win new business.