The Easy Way To Find New Leads

Quite regularly I’m told, “Dew, I just don’t have enough leads!” As a salesperson, it’s hard not to panic when your sales funnel is drying up and fewer and fewer proposals are going out. You need to grow your prospect list and get more leads to call on—but it seems impossible.

Stop right there! There are ALWAYS enough leads!

Unfortunately, sales professionals often fall into a scarcity mindset and miss out on abundance. Feeling like you’ve “tapped your market” is a perfect example of scarcity thinking.

Keeping your prospect list full is crucial for your sales funnel and can drive an abundance mentality through your entire sales process.

Power Prospect Brainstorming

The lack of prospects came up in a sales team meeting I was in recently. Everyone was wallowing in the woes of, “I just don’t have anyone to call!” It was like a competition to see which salesperson had it the worst!

Complaining isn’t going to get you or your team anywhere. But there’s a quick fix that anyone can do, and it works wonders for rebuilding a prospect list. I call it Power Prospect Brainstorming. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Turn on music (it takes off the pressure of sitting in silence).

Step 2: Set a timer for 10 minutes.

Step 3: Perform a “name dump.”

A name dump is when you jot down as many names as possible that you can think of that could either be a prospect or a referral partner that could give your names. I prefer starting by simply going through your phone contacts, but you can use any source (e.g., LinkedIn, your CRM, etc.). You can jot down these names in a notebook, Word, or a spreadsheet. Just start writing!

Like any brainstorming session, the key here is not to sweat the small stuff! When you’re doing the name dump:

• Don’t get lost in the weeds worrying about small details or categorizing names.
• Don’t worry about having their contact info—you can get that later.
• Don’t try to remember if you’ve called that person before.
• Don’t stress about where to start—just start!

You Are Your Best Source For Leads

After listening to everyone’s grumbling, I had my client’s sales team try Power Prospect Brainstorming. For 10 minutes, I watched them jot down names. Some struggled, some used their phone contact list or flipped through their notebooks, some used their CRM, and a few jumped on social media sites (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.). One of them just got busy writing names off the top of her head as quickly as possible.

The result? 11 people came up with 489 names!!! 489! This was a group of people who had just said they didn’t have anyone to call, but after only 10 minutes they had 489 people to start calling. The winner? The person who got busy writing. She didn’t worry about anything except writing down names, and she came up with 112 by herself! I opened my wallet and gave her $20—112 names are worth celebrating!

I’ve done this with teams in all sorts of industries. It’s not only a great way to build your prospect list; it’s a great way to find new recruits. One branch manager I worked with had her team brainstorm for names of potential new salespeople. As a reward, she had $20 gift cards for anyone who came up with five names and a $100 gift card for whoever came up with the most. By the end of the session, she had more than 40 great candidates to pursue.

Prospects Are Out There!

Whenever I feel like my prospect list is getting short, I do a Power Prospect Brainstorming session. It’s always surprising how many new names I can come up with. It’s the best, fastest way to identify people who can either help me grow my business or who would be good clients. (In fact, while writing this, I took a quick 10-minute break and wrote down 49 names of people it was time to call—I guess my prospect list is done for this week!) 

Drop the scarcity mentality. There truly is an abundance of prospects out there—and you already know their names! I hope you try Power Prospect Brainstorming the next time your sales funnel is running low on leads.

Until next time—go sell some stuff!