Prospecting Or Closing? Which Is Harder To Do?

I would say prospecting.

Why?

I was talking with my fellow Personal Trainers a couple of days ago going over sales books we all bought, and what we thought were the good ones.

And one thing we all agreed on that we wished there was more of was prospecting books.

There are tons and tons of books on closing, so those are easy to purchase. And alot of them are pretty much the same.

But a really good book with solid information on different prospecting strategies, that would be like gold.

We have about 12 diffrent main strategies that we use to get leads/prospects for our Personal Training business, but we are always, always open to more ways to bring customers through the door.

Prospecting....

You will have a far better job closing if you are closing the right kind of prospect.

And, I agree with Shane, there are a good amount of books on selling and closing.....but not so much prospecting.

I am not sure it is either/or...

In my experience, I became much better at prospecting when I became better at closing. There is something about being able to talk your way through a sale that helps the prospecting process. Its as if you begin to see a "Golden Thread" that leads you all the way through from prospect to close.

Also, the more you are closing, the more prospects are sent to you from the folks you have closed. If you can work from close to close this way, the prospecting cycle is greatly shortened. This is especially true of B2B sales...B2C the networking thing is usually a little more difficult.

I don't see them being at odds with one another, they are two sides of the same coin. Write one book about both!

Hi Claude, I suspect...

For many, I think the hardest part, it's neither prospecting or closing.

I think the hardest is having the correct mental attitude in wanting to make the call and use cold calling as a route to market.

having said that, if they can get over the prospecting hangup, it will only take a matter of time having gotten through to the the right person, asked and listened to the various questions, responses and objections before they tweak their pitch and successfully close.

In working with a client, we identified key areas they wanted to address (all of equal importance to them)...

1. Closing
2. Qualifying
3. Budget
4. Think-It-Overs
5. Gatekeeper
6. Price Objections
7. Decision Maker
8. Other Objections
9. Sales Cycle
10. Referrals
11. Selling System/Process
12. Prospecting

Different folks have different strengths, what amazed me about this woman was in 3 years selling blinds for conservatories, (average sale was £12,000 if I recall), she had never ASKED for a referral.

I suspect that's probably hard for many too for a number of reasons.

regards


Fraser

I don't find either particularly difficult but I will say that
I put most of my effort into sifting, sorting and qualifying
so the closing is pretty much a foregone conclusion.

When you put the right message in front of the right target closing is simple.

So... I guess my vote would be prospecting.

When I use a TO system there is a team of "closers"... They are the ones who suck at cold calling.... so I have to turn them into mere order takers.

Would never take a good cold prospector off the cold sales floor and make him a closer.

Prospecting and "pitching" is more hardcore and more valuable. Closers... they get the easy part.

-John

Harder to do? I dunno.

Which book will sell more? One about closing. It is sexier.

I find closing more difficult
But the true cause behind this problem is how I prospect

It's prospecting.

It's not that hard to close a deal when you already have started the process. Why quit when you've already found your target?

So, again, prospecting gets my vote.

Finish them both and package them together, be different

I like the old adage of selling them what they want and giving them what they need (and of course including what they think they want.)

To me, a good book is like a good salesletter in that each part (starting with the title) is compelling to read and drives the reader to the next section.

So I like the idea of including both prospecting and closing.

A book that I bought years ago (because of the title and a skim of the contents) is List More, Sell More by Jerry Bresser with a subtitle The most effective Listing & Selling System in North America.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Marvin

JD is right, there are prospectors and closers and they're two different skill sets. Lots of people are very happy to meet prospects face to face, but give them a phone and ask them to call out and they freak out.

A few people really enjoy reaching out to others and starting the process, but don't feel a need to take it any further.

True salespeople can get really depressed with the so-called "rejection" of making calls, and so it may be best to keep them for closing only. That way their self-esteem can't get beat up as easily.

In my opinion, prospecting is the harder of the two.

I can stick just about anyone in front of living, breathing prospects and they'll get the business every so often. Even if they have strange mannerisms. And it'll be a higher percentage of success than those who make the calls experience. The two games are different, though; the standards are different, what constitutes success is different, and that is what needs to be understood.