Guessing Who Won't Buy Will Cost You Sales

Have you ever been surprised to learn that some unlikely person was a real live prospect for your products or services?  Have you ever kicked yourself when some other salesperson sold a prospect you had passed up?  Before you cross anyone off your list, interview him or her first.  That's the only surefire common sense way to avoid missing live prospects and new business.  When in doubt, interview and find out.  This isn't a slogan it's a practical way to operate.  It's often easy to assume that someone probably isn't in the market for what you have to offer.  The assumption seems logical and avoids wasted time.  But the fact is you're going to guess wrong now and then, and those bad guesses can cause you plenty.  If there's any possibility that there might be some business hiding in those woods, make a call and find out.  Don't guess!  Eliminate all doubt by the simple expedient of calling on all conceivable prospects.  Find out for sure.  This might seem like a tremendous waste of time.  Actually, however, it will often uncover a lot of business you didn't believe existed.  This doesn't take as much time as you may think.  If they aren't prospects, there's no need to waste much time.  If they are, you've uncovered new potential customers.  Even if you don't sell all of them, you're ahead.  This of course is the thorough way to go about covering your territory.  It takes care, planning, and persistence.  It means resisting the temptation to make a quick guess.  It mean going through with a certain number of calls you're sure will turn out to be perfectly useless.  But if you  persist,  you'll be amazed at the amount of new business thorough coverage of all potential customers can put on your books.  Why do you suppose that new salespeople will sometimes produce business from accounts the company has never served before or accounts that have long been inactive?  Could it be that they simply didn't know where not to call?  Could it be that they simply knocked on doors no one had recently bothered to enter?  That could be the reason, in fact, it usually is.