Prospecting plan
Set your objectives by starting at the end.
A prospecting target is not decided, it is calculated. And the calculation often says uncomfortable things.
In short
A prospecting objective is worked out backwards: start from the revenue you want, divide by your average deal to get the number of clients, work back to the number of quotes using your win rate, then to meetings and finally to first contacts. Divide by the number of weeks and you have the pace to hold.
The calculation, step by step
Take a concrete example. Objective: £48,000 of new revenue this quarter. Average deal £8,000, so six clients. You win one quote in three, so eighteen quotes. You produce one quote per two meetings, so thirty-six meetings. And you get one meeting per ten first contacts, so three hundred and sixty contacts over the quarter, around thirty a week.
Every ratio in that chain is yours, not an average found online. If you do not know them yet, use conservative estimates and correct after a month of real measurement. A rough calculation on your own figures beats a precise one on somebody else's trade.
When the maths returns an impossible number
This is the most common outcome, and the real point of the exercise. If it demands a hundred contacts a week when you can hold twenty, the plan is not wrong: the objective or the targeting is.
Three levers, easiest first. Raise the average deal, which mechanically divides everything else. Improve one conversion rate, usually quote to signature, where follow-up works wonders. Or lower the objective, which is not a failure but an informed decision.
An outcome target cannot be managed
You do not decide that a prospect signs. You decide how many calls you make. That is why the target on the wall should be an activity target, not an outcome one: thirty contacts a week is either held or not, and the answer depends only on you.
The outcome is measured and discussed once a month. Confusing it with the weekly target is the surest way to demoralise a team over a bad quarter it did not control.
Frequently asked questions
Over what period should you set a target?
A quarter. Long enough for a short sales cycle to produce results, short enough to correct without having wasted a year.
What if I know none of my ratios?
Start counting before setting anything. One month of measurement on four numbers (contacts, meetings, quotes, signatures) is enough to produce usable ratios.
Individual or team targets?
Both, but the individual target should be on activity and the collective one on outcome. The reverse creates competition over factors nobody controls alone.
Keep track of every follow-up
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