Sales experts will agree that effective prospecting is a numbers game -- the more prospecting calls you make, the more qualified prospects you will have. It’s also necessary to use as many prospecting methods as possible.

These three methods work best for direct salespeople:

• Face-to-face
• Telephone
• Asking for referrals

Telephone Prospecting

As you know, the telephone can be a powerful and efficient tool for contacting people. Consider the benefits of using the telephone as one tool in your prospecting arsenal:

• You can make more contacts per hour than face-to-face prospecting, thus saving your time and providing efficiency

• You eliminate waiting time (while retailer is taking care of customer, for example)

• Quite often, it is easier to get past a gatekeeper via phone than face-to- face (especially with the right technique!)

• When you set an appointment over the phone, you now have a prospect that has been qualified and will meet you (at your convenience) with positive expectations about your meeting

• You avoid getting “trapped” into lengthy face-to-face presentations with unqualified prospects that simply take time (as can occur when you walk in “cold”)

• Telephone prospecting is a great change of pace from face-to-face prospecting. You should be doing both to make your job more interesting and to maximize your effectiveness