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Choose your Hot Prospects Carefully

by Nigel Edelshain

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The longer I am involved in sales the more I come to believe that one of the most important skills is time management.  Yes, boring old time management.  Not the “gift of the gab”, not being a “people person”, time management.

It’s coming up again this week.  Both for me, my clients, and my colleagues.  I have noticed we are all faced with a similar challenge: preparing for key sales meetings on important pipeline opportunities.  And I notice we are all spending a lot of time preparing.

In fact in some cases we are spending so much time that nearly everything else has stopped!

I think as sales people, sales managers or entrepreneurs we need to think about this carefully for a moment.  Nearly everything else has stopped!  This is serious business.  All the other projects (and opportunities) we could work on are receiving almost no attention.

I have written several times about the importance of preparation for sales meetings.  I believe this to be totally valid.  If you do not prepare, you will not win (or only by blind luck).  But here’s the flip-side: good preparation takes a lot of time.

So be very careful which opportunities you choose to pursue.  Make sure they really fit for you and company.  You will spend a lot of time preparing for sales meetings and you will inevitably forgo other projects and opportunities.  Make a wise selection and don’t fall into the trap of trying to take on everything that comes your way.

Too many “hot prospects” will quickly burn all your time.

Filed Under: Prospecting