New Sales. Simplified.: The Essential Handbook for Prospecting and New Business Development

by Mike Weinberg

Many veteran salespeople are victims of their own past success and easier times, when they could make their numbers while operating in a reactive mode. Others were carried along by their company’s momentum and favorable economic conditions that created strong demand for their products or services.

They never had to go out and find business. In addition,

sales hunter to go out, open doors, and identify opportunities for new business.

Most people employed in sales positions today have never truly had to “hunt” for new accounts or new business.

good people who excel at many aspects of selling (relationship management, customer service, problem solving, or client retention)

do. And it isn’t even their fault. Many

people in sales have never been forced to find new business. Taking care of existing customers has consistently been a reliable way to grow revenue. In good times, there was plenty of demand, and as long as we met the needs of existing customers and maintained a solid relationship we picked up business and everyone was happy.

Value-Added Selling.

Prisoners of hope describes salespeople who have, for the most part, stopped working the sales process and ceased pursuing new opportunities because they are so hopeful the precious few deals in their pipeline are going to

Instead of doing the wise and responsible thing—spreading their effort across target accounts and opportunities in various stages of the sales cycle—they lock up, becoming prisoners to deals in the pipeline that are now getting stale and starting to grow mold.

Salespeople fail to grab a prospect’s attention because they can’t “tell the story.” The sales story is our single most important weapon because we use it every day, all day long.

It’s all about the salesperson and his great company or offering. Frankly, I’m continually disappointed by salespeople’s lack of passion and power when they speak. Let’s be honest. If you’re not

salespeople fail to develop new business because they’re wandering aimlessly.

often, they’re not locked in on a strategically selected, focused list of target customers or prospects.

my personal sales experience and what I’ve seen from other top performers, new business success usually results from a combination of perseverance, creativity, and resilience while staying laser-focused on a well-chosen, finite list of target prospects.

Salespeople who are not proactively working a finite list of target accounts often find themselves in situations where they are late or last to an opportunity.

When we’re late to the party, we’re stuck reacting to, rather than leading, our prospects. Their initial opinions may be already formed. They’ve probably begun to define their evaluation process.

Instead of being perceived as a value creator or problem solver, we’re now selling uphill, and already being viewed only as a potential

supplier or vendor (I hate ...

Sales winners take full responsibility for results. They don’t whine and complain. Those who underachieve at developing new business tend to have a list of solid excuses close at hand.

People buy from people they like.

people buy from people they like and trust. Part of our job is to ensure we are likable and trustworthy.

not having a well-constructed plan is that the salesperson ends up talking way too much.

Sales calls are ineffective because the salesperson often forgets the purpose of the meeting; namely, that we are there to find pain, potential problems we can solve, and opportunities we can help capture.

Many salespeople

regularly confuse “presenting” wi...

talk a disproportionate percentage of the time and don’t ask en...

majority of those in sales prefer to overserve their existing accounts at the expense of prospecting. It’s New Sales where most people need the help, not managing existing relationships.

you’re not growing, then you’re dying.

business development are hindering your success? 1. You haven’t

had to prospect, don’t know how, or haven’t seen it modeled well for you. 2. You spend too much time waiting—waiting on the company or waiting for new materials, clearer instructions, or leads.

You allow yourself to become a prisoner of hope to a precious few deals and stop working the process to create new opportunities. 4. You can’t effectively tell the sales story. 5. You have done an awful job selecting and focusing on target accounts.

You are late to the

party and end up playing an already-in-progress game. 7. You have become negative and pessimistic. 8. You are either faking your phone effort or could be much better on the phone. 9. You are not coming across as likable or are not adapting to your buyer’s style.

You are not conducting effective sales calls. 11. You babysit and overserve your existing accounts. 12. You are too busy playing good corporate citizen and helping everyone else. 13. You don’t own your own sales process and default to the buyer’s.

You don’t use your calendar well or protect your time. 15. You have stopped learning and growing. 16. You just aren’t built for prospecting and hunting for new business.

learned a long time ago that what sounds like whining and excuses from an employee is often considered brilliant counsel when presented by an outsider. Same thoughts coming from a different person in a different position. A prophet is not welcome in his own home? As true as ever.

Sales is supposed to follow strategy. The sales team’s job is to take a

strategy and execute it to perfection in the market. Salespeople should not be making it up as they go along.

chief exec...

to determine and articulate the company’s strategy. It’s essential to be able to inform the sales team about: Our reason for existence The direction the company is headed and why it’s ...

Which markets to pursue and where we are positioned in those markets The competitive landscape and how we stack up against competitive offerings, and why we’re better or different Why our pricing model is appropriate for the value we create in the markets we’re pursuing and against the competition we’re facing

sales team spends very little time proactively working target prospects for new business. Earth-shattering conclusion: little effort = little results.

placed a heavy service burden on the salesperson. Each of the businesses is completely different from the others, but all three are asking their people to invest an inordinate amount of time servicing customers

hybrid hunter-farmer sales role is the model that dominates small and mid-size companies.

complain that we aren’t catching as many fish as we would like, but our best fish catcher only gets to fish 25 percent of the time. And we ask him to do ten other tasks that others are capable and willing to do.

If you cannot improve the client’s condition, then you should stop taking the client’s money.

THE NEW SALES DRIVER A. Select targets. B. Create and deploy weapons. C. Plan and execute the attack.

selecting targets is the first piece of the puzzle and first aspect of our new business framework. I’ll offer

planning and executing the attack.