Success in prospecting is dependent upon the sales person's ability to (a) get in front of enough qualified prospects and (b) say the right words to develop interest, gain confidence and close the sale. Therefore, if the objective is to increase the number of sales it can be said that one of the following or a combination of may be true.  

The salesperson is either: (1) Not getting in front of the right prospects (2) Not getting in front of enough of the right prospects or (3) Not saying the right thing when in front of the right prospects.
Other considerations can include: (4) the competitive position of the company in the marketplace (5) economic conditions that influence buying power.

If a sales person believes the problem is #2- not getting in front of enough of the right prospects it may be beneficial to review each of the prospecting activities and ask the following:

(1) Is the activity successful but changes could be made to increase productivity?
(2) Is the activity successful; however, a different approach might lead to better success?
(3) Is the activity unsuccessful to the point that it is questionable as to whether the salesperson should engage in this activity?  

For each sales prospecting activity, (as identified above), answer the following question;

(1) Based on a percentage identify the amount of time involved in the activity
(2) Based on the ability to convert the prospect to a qualified lead, rate the “perceived” success ratio of the activity

The next step involves reviewing a list of successful sales closings to determine the origin of the lead. For example, if one of the activities listed is “cold calling”, review the list of closed sales to determine how many of the leads originated from the activity “cold calling”. In doing so you may find that the greatest amount of time is invested in the least profitable activity.

The purpose of the above activity is to identify the amount of time that is invested in relation to the amount of success, the ROI (return on investment) for the prospecting efforts.

Every minute invested in front of unqualified buyers or wasted doing inefficient tasks, is a minute lost towards achieving the next sale.

Moreover, every little improvement in sales skills (sales knowledge, language and closing abilities), marketing skills (research, lead generation and market penetration) and in time management (organization and efficiency) adds another minute towards achieving the next sale.
For information about a purchasing a sales activity evaluation email request to: contactus@BusinessSimplyPut.com