Your single most important issue.

The single most important daily mission in any business is prospect identification. By making prospecting a continuous process, companies produce a steady flow of new sales leads.

Need new prospects? Try a marketing survey. The approach works this way:

You talk individually with decision makers in your target market and ask each of them a series of questions to learn more about the needs of your market. This is an honest attempt on your part to better understand the prospect’s needs so you can better satisfy those needs, i.e. the types of people who buy your products, what features they find most valuable, how they feel about the competition, and other factors that influence their purchasing decisions.

As a result of these interviews, some of the people you speak with will get to know you better and give you the opportunity to present your solutions to them.

Successful people, the kinds of people with the capacity to make major purchasing decisions, are usually a bit smarter than the average individual, and they tend to have egos to match. Ask a successful person their opinion on almost any subject and you’re likely to get a response.

Thus, the same people who refuse to give you a minute of their time to hear a sales presentation are usually more inclined to talk with you when your stated purpose is to ask their opinion.