I coach a lot of small business CEOs with BIG visions. Visions of tremendous growth. Visions of huge impacts. Visions of organizations with amazing cultures. Visions of….delegating the prospecting to other people.
Here’s the thing. Small business owners can never stop prospecting. Even as businesses grow, there is no one that can connect with potential customers, communicate a company’s value proposition, and move past gatekeepers, like the business owner.
Unfortunately many business owners dread prospecting. The idea of sitting at a desk dialing for dollars is torturous.
How can a business owner breathe new energy into the prospecting activity? Here are a few tactics I created for Ati Williams, Founder and CEO of DC Homebuzz, a progressive and innovative real estate firm focused on the DC market. Ati has big growth plans for her firm, so she absolutely must increase her prospecting activity. Here are four ways we are moving Ati towards her goals.
1: Create visual motivation. Two of Ati’s primary motivations for doing well are her kids, and her love of travel. She has purchased a digital photo album and created a caption, “Why am I prospecting?” under the album, and placed it near her computer. Every time that feeling of procrastination rears its head, she simply looks at why she is doing this.
2: Analyze time usage. We are closely analyzing Ati’s priorities and overall flow of each work day to see how her open time blocks align with her energy, and with the best availability of her target prospects. We want to ensure that the time that Ati invests in prospecting activities yields as high of a ROI as possible.
3: Create quantifiable accountability. Ati has now committed to a specific number of calls each week, as well as a specific number of appointments per month. She knows that a certain number of monthly appointments on a regular basis will justify the investment of an additional hire. Since her goal is growth, this accountability yields a positive, measurable result.
4: Institute a Personal Reward. Ati is going to reward herself with one Friday off per month once she makes her self-imposed quotas.
I hope these four ideas spark your prospecting fire, and get you out there to connect with prospective clients. What other ways do you motivate yourself?
Please provide your ideas in the comments section of this post.
Keep growing!
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About Successful Culture
We work with business owners, CEOs, and leadership teams that want to achieve their greatest personal & organizational potential. Through coaching, strategic consulting, retreat facilitation, and workshops, we equip leaders & emerging leaders with the mindset, tools, strategies, and processes they need to excel.
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Please check out my Inc. Magazine columns on my Author Page too.
– In my latest Inc, article, I share The Essential Guide to Avoiding Workplace Text, Email, & Social Media Disasters.
– Learn about the 9 Leadership Behaviors that Lose Employee Trust & Respect here.
~Marissa Levin
CEO, Successful Culture
“Taking Leaders from Triage to Transformation.”
photo credit Stuart Miles via FreeDigitalPhotos.net
photo credit Stuart Miles via FreeDigitalPhotos.net
