Changing your perspective on prospecting: mindset, motivation, and fear of rejection.

You may be a great sales person – a fantastic rapport builder with unmatched product knowledge who can run a tight sales process and negotiate with even the toughest professional purchaser. But what’s the point if your funnel is empty?

There’s a simple fact that many sales people choose to ignore: prospecting is the origin of all success in sales. You may be able to win a few sales with the dribs and drabs of warm inbound leads from your marketing department. However, without consistent and effective prospecting, achieving a sustainable sales process is nearly impossible, no matter how lucky you might feel. 

While you may rather have your least favourite purchaser stick hot needles in your eyes than prospect, embracing prospecting affords its own set of luxuries. Imagine you lose a big customer. Most sales people panic. But if your sales funnel is full of opportunity, getting back on track is far easier. With more leads, the desperation to close a single deal diminishes. Plus, if you get great at prospecting, you might even afford yourself the luxury of choice. 

Listen to the Luxury of Choice for sales advice delivered direct to your speakers. 

What’s your mindset on prospecting?

When most people think about prospecting they’re transported to the telemarketer who calls a squillion people to try and shift a bogus product. Or the door-to-door sales person that ignores your ‘no soliciting’ sign to interrupt family dinner after a long day of work. 

If you’re peddling miracle cures to pensioners you’re, at best, a nuisance. But when you’re finding people who have a genuine interest or need for your product, when you’re helping academics with their research, or contributing to an organisations ability to life-saving drugs, you are an entirely different kettle of fish. 

We’re not saying prospecting in the life sciences is a pure, virtuous, or noble cause however, it does get you in front of the people who will truly benefit from your product or service. So, if you shift your perspective from “being a nuisance” to “finding people you can help”, you may find a little more motivation to get off the prospecting start line. 

Find your prospecting motivation

Neurologically, we’re wired to seek instant results. Quick wins gives us short-term dopamine hits that set our brains ablaze with warm, fuzzy, happy feelings. We’re coddled by a sense of progress that has us immediately readying the needle for our next dopamine fix, the next quick win. 

Prospecting, on the other hand, doesn’t deliver a lavish meal laced with dopamine and motivation. You’re at the top of the funnel and the distance between a lead and a deal can feel glacial. The bottom of the funnel feels safer and more appealing. You can see the waiter bringing over your food while your cold prospects are still in the kitchen fridge. 

We’re here to tell you that motivation for prospecting won’t miraculously beam down from the heavens and spur you to action. Instead, put systems in place that help you develop prospecting as a habit. Block out time in your calendar and associate that time with an achievable goal. It could be as simple as “find 5 new people on LinkedIn to add to your prospect list” or  “write a draft email template to send to new prospects” or even "read this great article on cold calling and try what you’ve learned on one cold prospect”.

You’ll be much more likely to take action if you’ve carved out the time for prospecting and you’ll get your dopamine fix if you write down and achieve a goal. 

Prospecting and the fear of rejection 

The boogey man in most prospecting nightmares is rejection. The fear of rejection is deeply ingrained in our brain’s evolutionary wiring. Thousands of years ago, social rejection wasn't just a slight inconvenience – it was a death sentence, casting you out from the warm embrace of your tribe into the unforgiving wild. Our brains, ever the cautious guardians of our survival, are hardwired to steer clear of any situation that might so much as hint at rejection or social isolation.

Neuroscientific research suggests that when we encounter rejection, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in our brain lights up, flooding us with waves of discomfort, anxiety, and even physical pain. As if that weren’t enough, the amygdala, the emotional command centre, kicks into overdrive, cranking up our stress levels. It’s no wonder that many of us avoid picking up the phone to make a cold call. 

Unfortunately, it’s not easy to replant a neurological response who’s roots were planted thousands of years ago and embedded by evolution. But if you’re unwilling to face the challenge, you will find your sales career a perpetually anxious and miserable experience. 

The only solution, for lack of a better phrase, is to get used to it. Most fears aren’t real in the way you think they are. They’re just a story you tell yourself so try re-framing the narrative. Remind yourself that a disinterested prospect is not a reflection of your ability as a sales professional, they are simply someone who is not right or not ready for your product or service. Better yet, see rejection as a learning experience. If you’re convinced that a prospect could benefit from your offering and yet they are unresponsive to your outreach, then take the opportunity to assess your approach and fine-tune your messaging.  

Get off the prospecting start line

Prospecting is intellectually easy to grasp. It’s mindset, motivation, and fear of rejection that tend to hold people back. These are not easy things to overcome but as they say “by changing nothing, nothing changes”. 

If you're ready to have a sales funnel brimming with opportunity, the negotiation skills to win over your customers, and the know-how on closing deals then check out our sales training course.

Become a sales success story

Have a question about one of our services?

Not sold on sales training quite yet? If you want a little more information or just fancy a chat about our services, fill in the contact form or send us an email training@georgejamesltd.com and we’ll get right back to you.