I hate prospecting

Don't you hate prospecting? Cold calling, fighting your way past receptionists, leaving never-to-be-answered voice mail, scouring the yellow pages.. maybe some people actually enjoy that (thrill of the hunt?) but I sure don't.

Which might explain why I've never done any.

Well, that's not true. Before I worked for myself, I had jobs where I had to do that kind of thing. But that was a long, long time ago. For my consulting business, I've never done it.

Ah, gosh, that's not quite true either. I have done prospecting, but I did it indirectly: I let other people do it for me. For example, back in the early days of small computers, there were stores like Radio Shack that sold systems. The salespeople didn't really know much, but they wanted to sell. I'd visit the stores, and hang with the sales team. I let them know what I could do to help them sell, and they did the rest. No cold calling for me.

In more recent years, I don't bother with any of that. Oh, if I happen to be in a computer store, I'll drop off my card, but I don't go out of my way to do it. Nowadays I rely entirely on word of mouth and contacts from my web sites. Often that bypasses the sales types and the actual customer calls me, but the better sales people are involved in their customer's problems so I sometimes get calls from them also.

I guess I really don't hate prospecting - I just do it differently.

Life is too short to be doing things you hate. On the other hand, some things just have to be done. You need something that brings in new work, and if cold calling is the only way that's going to happen, then that's what you have to do. But don't resign yourself to an unhappy chore without at least trying to find alternatives.

Maybe a web site would work for you, or a web site combined with web advertising. Web advertising (Google or Yahoo ads such as what you see here) can be as inexpensive as you need it to be, and it's easy to track the effectiveness of it: you know how many clicks you paid for, and you know how many of those turn into new business.

If it doesn't work, well, pick up that phone and get back to the cold calls.

Comments?

More Articles by Tony Lawrence - Find me on Google+

Jump to Comments

Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them. I resell or can earn commissions from the sale of some of these items. Links within these pages may be affiliate links that pay me for referring you to them. That's mostly insignificant amounts of money; whenever it is not I have made my relationship plain. I also may own stock in companies mentioned here. If you have any question, please do feel free to contact me.

Specific links that take you to pages that allow you to purchase the item I reviewed are very likely to pay me a commission. Many of the books I review were given to me by the publishers specifically for the purpose of writing a review. These gifts and referral fees do not affect my opinions; I often give bad reviews anyway.

We use Google third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.