When Prospecting, Have a Strong Process in Place

Today I’ll show you how to do prospecting by using a structured approach to get money. Beautiful, green, tasty money.

Prospecting. If you’re in business for yourself, you simply have to do it. It’s the most common goal of people who have joined my Get-it-Done Groups. They want more business, and they’re willing to do what it takes to get it.

What it takes isn’t that hard to accomplish. It’s a numbers game. You need to find the person or company for whom you’re the answer to their problems. But that’s not quite enough. You need to find them right when you have time in your schedule for them, and they want what you have to offer. What are the odds you'll succeed? Low.

This strategy applies even if you’re an individual looking for a job. 85 percent of jobs are found through networking, not a public listing. You need to find the employer you’re a good fit for, at the moment they’re ready to hire. This is a pretty tall order.

Plan for Repeated contact

You need to do outreach. A lot of outreach. When I was building my coaching practice, I met the amazing C.J. Hayden, author of the superb book, Get Clients Now. I mentioned how hard it was to get clients. I’d come home from a conference with a dozen leads, and none would pan out. I’d call them as many as three times apiece and …

She interrupted. “Three times?”

“Yes. Why?”

Then she told me the secret to everything. “For my business,” she said, “it takes around seven contacts before someone will buy. If you have a hundred prospects and contact each one three times, you’ll make 300 calls and get zero clients. But if you have 20 prospects and contact each one seven times, you’ll make 140 calls and get 20 clients. That’s less than half the...

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