Prospecting for new business is a painful duty relished by very few business owners. No one likes to cold call or cold email. Because of this, far too many companies fail because they don’t keep their sales pipeline full of highly qualified prospects.
In my earlier days, a VP of Biz Dev at a regional advertising agency, I once had to call on a prospect 52 times before our agency was invited to pitch for anything. Conversely, the last client I picked up at my current firm, Converse Digital, took exactly one call and a meeting over beers.
Exact same result. Far less effort and expense.
So what am I doing differently today to create that streamlined, one meeting and a beer pitch?
Simple, I’ve invested in the creation of Youtility.
I’ve stopped being trapped inside a prospecting database, focused on working my leads via cold calls and cold emails. Instead, I spend my time creating great content in the form of blog posts, white papers and helpful marketing and sales tips and techniques.
Let’s be clear. I’m not advocating that you destroy your sales prospecting database or cease all traditional outbound business development efforts. Yes they’re inefficient but they do work. So don’t toss out the baby with the bathwater.
