4 Steps for a healthy prospect funnel

How healthy is your prospect funnel?

Prospecting and cold calling are some of the more difficult selling skills for salespeople to master. I am often asked to help salespeople improve them.

My first question to them is always, “Tell me about your prospect funnel?” And guess what? Many do not have one.

That becomes problem number one. You need to create a funnel that you continuously develop.

Build it:

Physically build it in whatever automated program you choose. Excel, Word, Salesforce or any other CRM program you might have access to.
Please don’t tell me that you know everyone in your territory or that there are no prospects or that you can keep it all in your head. Those are either bad excuses or you aren’t digging deep enough into who should be considered a prospect.
And if you can keep a lot of information top of mind, that skill becomes difficult when you get very busy.

2. Sort it:

It has to be manageable at your speed of life. If you have 2,000 potential prospects in your territory or your targeted area of operation, that’s great. However, most salespeople can’t focus or manage that many. The ability to connect and move 2,000 prospects through the stages of prospecting is a bit overwhelming.
You need some method of sorting them down to a manageable size. That’s where the automation comes in. I prefer to have three categories:
- Top 10: kept on a 3X5 card and evaluated daily. Doesn’t have to be 10, but make sure your primary focus is on this list. They are the closest to becoming customers.
- Hot List: I keep mine on Excel and review weekly. Roughly 20-40 on this list.
- Cold Case: I keep these in a file folder with my notes on them. If I need to put more of them into my Hot

3. Move it:

Avoid a clogged funnel. Another struggle for salespeople is to understand their funnel needs to keep moving in order to stay healthy. If prospects get stuck in the funnel and are not progressing towards becoming a customer, then move them to the “Cold Case File”. Maybe someday down the road, they will warm back up and you can put them right back into the funnel. However, don’t let them block the faster moving traffic in your sales funnel.
A stagnate funnel becomes boring, draining, and ineffective for salespeople. There is nothing that will kill your prospecting efforts faster than looking at your list of prospects and feeling that no one is progressing towards the end goal of becoming a customer. The lack of progress will kill your motivation to prospect.

4. Update it:

Keep it active and fresh in your mind.
The only prospects I want to think about on a daily or weekly basis are those that are on my first two lists: Top 10 and Hot List
Sort your list based on your follow up date. That is the next date you plan to contact them. By doing so, you only need to complete a few items each day. It allows you to manage a bigger list of prospects AND, not drop the ball.
Keep filling it. One of the biggest struggles for salespeople is that they don’t have enough new prospects flowing in.

When examining problems with prospecting, there can be a multitude of issues. Fear of making cold calls is one of the biggest. Not knowing how to start conversations with a brand-new prospect is another. Feeling pushy, not bothering prospects, and wanting them to want us to call on them are also a few of the top problems salespeople tell me all the time.

The road to prospecting confidence and success is through a healthy funnel. If you are struggling in this area, please take the first step and start building it.