Weekend Warrior Prospecting

Even the most disciplined and high performing salesperson feels like there are not enough hours in the day to service accounts AND prospect. I hear it all the time from the salespeople I train and coach. I also hear it from MYSELF despite how regimented I am with my calendaring. I also take great liberties with the English language but that’s a topic for a different day. And as travel restrictions have started to lighten up I was finding it even harder to juggle it all, much less dedicate any real time to prospecting.

The solution?

“Sometimes we have to sacrifice what we want now for what we want later.” – the infamous Jeb Blount.

Meaning, you might have to put in extra hours to to achieve your goals. For me, those hours happen on the weekend. I work at least one day each weekend, typically this work has been on bigger picture projects (training curricula, marketing, etc).

Recently I started prospecting on the weekends. It was a long shot but guess what? Prospects are actually open to having conversations on Saturdays and Sundays, especially those prospects who truly need your solutions. They too are just as busy Monday thru Friday simply trying to get by. The weekend comes and they either have more time to ruminate on their challenges or they’re playing catch up while desperately wishing the phone would ring at that very moment and the person on the other end would offer up services that solve ALL their problems. Alright, so you can’t solve all the problems for all the people, unless of course you’re a genie in a bottle. If that’s the case, let’s chat. But weekends are when people start doing research, fill out web forms and send emails. They WANT to talk to someone who might have solutions or suggestions.

At Sales Gravy, we’re pretty on top of it when an inbound lead comes in. For us it’s not just about selling to a new prospect, it’s about being of service to those in need. This is super simple to do: pay attention to leads coming into your CRM from opt-ins, info requests, downloads, etc. and respond to those leads! You will complete disrupt and surprise them with a real human presence where they’re used to meeting an autoresponder. When was the last time you filled out an online survey or request and got anything but a “thank you for your inquiry, an associate will contact you shortly” email only to be met with radio silence for days, even weeks? Just pick up the damn phone.

This is also a time to reach out to prospects who may have stalled or simply said no. I did this for a few days and it’s what prompted me to write this article. A simple text reading “Been thinking about you and was wondering how you’ve been doing with that challenge we last talked about.”

She replied immediately and asked if we could chat. This happened on Friday. I said I could make time for her Monday morning or “I’m also available over the weekend if you are.” She jumped at the chance to talk on Sunday. That talk resulted in a RFP for a large scope of work. Not bad for a casual “how are ya” text.

The best part of being a weekend warrior prospector? Prospects tend to be more relaxed and usually face fewer distractions. They’re in weekend mode , their guard is down, AND they’re usually thrilled that you took time out of your weekend for them.