Monday, August 11, 2008

Prospecting: The Foundation of Sales

As a Sales Professional, Sales Manager and student of Sales from the Telecommunications and Software Industry, I found it ironic that a Real Estate book on sales could resonate with me.

My husband - Dan Corcoran, recently joined Keller Williams and one of their suggested readings is "The Millionaire Real Estate Agent" by Gary Keller.

What is fascinating about the prospecting methodology from the book is that I can literally take the formula's and apply them to a software sales team.

At Netsuite we study our top performers and one of the key contributions to their success is their ritual of prospecting even when they are busy.

Similar to the Keller Williams philosophy, lead generation and prospecting have to be top priority no matter how busy or successful you are. It should be scheduled into your calendar and every day you should remind yourself - I am in Sales! Prospecting, Qualifying, Providing Solutions and Closing.

The Keller Williams model of converting the number of people you have not met, into people you have met is a numbers game. They just make it sound better and outline an actual plan of action. It is about increasing your sphere of influence and being able to create leverage from these people.

The 8 X 8 Marketing Plan: An 8 Week step by Step set of actions and the 33 Touch Plan can be modified for any business.

I suppose that the reason that there are so few Millionaire Real Estate Agents, just as their are so few Sales Reps over quota is that anyone can read a book, but very few can turn it into a repeatable action process.

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