Here’s the single biggest mistake you can make when prospecting in 2024: 

Prospect a little bit to a lot of people. 

Here’s what I mean: 

Let’s say your territory consists of 50 prospects.  

Most people will identify a few key contacts in each account to target (let’s use 3 for this example). 

This gives them a list of 150 people across 50 accounts. 

On average, they will contact each unique person 1-3 times before moving on (usually via e-mail only). 

So in a best case scenario, they will contact 150 people 3 times each for a total of 450 touches. 

Here’s why this doesn’t work: 

According to the latest research from Rain Group (Top Performance in Sales Prospecting), it takes an average of 8 touches to get an initial meeting with a new prospect. 

Even for top sales performers, it still takes 5 touches. 

Regardless of the quality of your message, if you stop after 3 touches it’s highly unlikely you will book a meeting. 

Instead of taking this spray and pray approach, try this instead: 

1. Pick your top 20% of accounts and focus there. In this same example, that’s 10 accounts.

2. Identify at least 5 unique contacts in each account to prospect into (50 total contacts)

3. Research and develop a unique Point of View as to how you can help each account and/or person.

4. Touch each contact at least 9 times across multiple channels (e-mail, phone, and LinkedIn video). My preferred mix is 6 e-mails, 2 phone calls, and 1 video. 

Then watch the magic happen. 

Notice that the second approach has the exact same number of touches (450) as the first approach, but they are focused on 50 contacts (9 touches each) rather than 150 (3 touches each). 

Even if you have a large territory, this is still the best way to go! 

Less is more when it comes to prospecting. 

Instead of prospecting a little bit to a high number of people, prospect a lot to a low number of people.

Less is more!

What you focus on magnifies. 

Finally, don’t send junk – each message should be high quality and build upon the previous message. 

This becomes much easier when you are focused only on 10 accounts rather than 50. 

Next week I will share the exact content you can use for each message to maximize impact. 

In the meantime, I’ve put together a free Masterclass Video which you can watch to learn how to prospect effectively in 2024, completely free and ungated.