Proactive New Business Development: Fill The Pipeline!

There are several skills that require mastery to be successful in Sales, but none is as important as finding new opportunities. Proactive new business development must happen. Every day. The inability to do this causes more problems for Sales Management than anything else. Stay ahead of the curve with a simple, executable plan to fill the funnel.

The key to success for any salesperson, whether they’re new or they’ve been in the field for years or decades, is proactive new business development. I spend four days a week doing so, filling the top of the pipeline with new opportunities

A few things that you’ve got to commit to:

  1. First, dedicate the specific time to prospecting. Put it in your calendar and don’t move it if it’s one hour a day. Don’t let other things encroach in that valuable time.
  2. Second, do you have the tools ready to drive those conversations? Calling on the key players in your market segments? Do you have the dialogue ready to engage them in conversation?
  3. Thirdly, do you have the technology or the tools like a CRM and the other email follow-ups, whether that’s through LinkedIn, etc. whatever it is, have it ready to go in your efforts.
  4. And then lastly, structure accountability. I’m not concerned with how many dials or contacts you make, how many connections did you get through? Hold yourself accountable to that. If you do these things, the pipeline’s going to fill up.

I’d love to hear what’s working from you. Good selling.