Find clients
Build a prospecting plan that survives three months.
Four decisions to make once, so you stop making them again every morning.
In short
A prospecting plan is four decisions: who you target (sector, size, area), how many clients you need over the period, how many first contacts that implies given your conversion rate, and the weekly pace at which you make them. Everything else is execution.
Define a target you can count
A useful target is one where you can say how many companies it contains. « Digital SMEs » cannot be counted. « Communications agencies with 10 to 49 staff in the North West » can be, and the figure is public.
That shift from adjectives to numbers changes everything: it tells you whether your local market is big enough, whether to widen the area or the size band, and how many times you can work the same list before exhausting it.
Work back from revenue to calls
Start at the objective and go backwards. You need six new clients this quarter, your average deal is £8,000, you win one quote in three and you get one meeting per ten first contacts. Six clients means eighteen quotes, and one hundred and eighty first contacts, so about fifteen a week.
The arithmetic feels blunt, and that is the point: it turns a vague intention into a quantity you can either hold or not. If it produces an impossible number, the plan is not wrong, the objective or the targeting is.
Set a pace, not an outcome
An outcome target cannot be managed day to day: you do not decide that a prospect signs. A pace can be. Fifteen contacts a week is a decision you can keep regardless of the market.
Block the slot in your diary like a client meeting, prepare the list the evening before, and measure one thing at first: was the pace held. Conversion rates come later, once you have enough volume for them to mean anything.
In detail
The topic, broken into concrete questions.
Read next
- Where to find prospectsThe free sources, the paid ones, and what each really contains.
- Cold callingWhat happens in the first twenty seconds, and how to hold a run.
- Cold emailSubject line, length, follow-up sequence and the legal frame.
- Following upWhen to follow up, how often, and what to say to silence.
Frequently asked questions
How far ahead should you plan?
A quarter. Long enough for a short sales cycle to show results, short enough to correct course without having wasted a year.
How many segments at once?
One, at first. Two segments run in parallel halve your volume on each, so they double the time before you know which one works.
What if the plan is not held?
Reduce the pace rather than abandoning it. Five contacts a week held for three months beats fifteen announced and dropped after ten days.
Keep track of every follow-up
Lea CRM keeps your contacts, deals and reminders in one place, and shows you every morning what needs doing today.