Those of you who know how we ran the Commercial Sales side of our business, know that we are big fans of Jeb Blount’s book, Fanatical Prospecting.

The book’s premise is that salespeople should make prospecting their primary activity. And the best Commercial Salespeople have a personality trait or maybe a type of anxiety that drives them to continually fill their pipeline.

In my experience, if a Commercial Salesperson takes a week off from prospecting, it shows up in a lack of current estimates about 30 days later. And in a lower commission check in about three months.

Try this: If your salesperson has missed their goal, have them look back one month to see what prospecting they were doing that week. Inevitably, the 30-day look-back will take you to a time, such as the week between Christmas and New Year’s, when the salesperson was off or distracted.

You can read the book for more, but I want to highlight Jeb Blount’s Law of Replacement, because I’m not sure it gets enough attention:

The law of Replacement – Why landing one deal often makes you lose others:

We all track S/R (the number of current estimates that land), but every salesperson has a prospecting ratio as well, for example:

• 1 out of 10 prospects becomes a current estimate

These ratios don’t magically change much, so here’s what I’ve seen happen: 

One prospect becomes a current estimate. The salesperson is elated and shifts their energy to servicing that customer.

But their prospecting ratio still applies.  And in the above example of 1 in 10 prospects becoming a current estimate, closing one deal means the other nine prospects are likely non-starters. Yikes.

Without adding new prospects, their ratio guarantees that they’ll quickly run out of opportunities. 

Hopelessness ensues.  The older leads die off naturally (go cold, choose competitors, lose momentum). Because the salesperson’s prospecting ratio requires new prospects, the absence of that input makes it feel like they’ve “lost everything.”

And that “lost everything” feeling leads to desperation.

Desperation feeds Blount’s “Law of Need” which says: “The more you need something, the less likely you are to get it.”

When a salesperson is not meeting sales goals, the prospects feel the desperation and lose confidence. This is when salespeople start pulling out all of the stops with free add-ons and discounts.

Daily prospecting keeps pipelines full. This leads to more “at-bats,” so the numbers always favor the salesperson.  And they stay confident and upbeat when meeting new prospects.

Never enough: True hunters end every day of prospecting wondering if they could’ve done more.

Now I’m not saying all of this is easy, it’s not.

Especially when your salespeople are more like farmers than hunters.

But finding the salesperson with that “never enough” fire is the first step in making it happen.

During your recruiting process, you’re looking for a person who might:

• Stop by the office to introduce themselves or drop off their résumé instead of applying through your Indeed.com ad.

• Or, follow-up after the interview with a unique thank you or a call.
• Research your company thoroughly and look for shared LinkedIn connections for a personal introduction to you.

Remember, during the interview process, YOU are the prospect. You are seeing firsthand their prospecting prowess.

Not sure if your candidate can prospect? Do a ride-along with them and see them in action.

• Have them research a few prospects the day before or give them a list of a few previous customers who haven’t bought in a while, then go out with them to see how they handle themselves.

• With you at their side, even if they don’t know the technical details of what they’re selling (after all, they’re on an interview), you can chime in with the details.

The idea is to ensure you never hire a candidate who will be hunting prospects without a “Fanatical Prospecting” mindset.

Want more? Read the book Fanatical Prospecting or watch/listen to the author Jeb Blount in his many YouTube Videos and his podcast.