Prospecting is the key to your sales career. If you have noprospects, you will fail—guaranteed.

How about you? Have you ever examined your pipeline only todiscover you have too few qualified prospects? This sets off adownward spiral that eats away at every aspect of your success andcareer as an insurance producer:

• It can undermine your attitude. It’s difficult to projectpositive confidence when you’re not sure you have any opportunitiesfor success.
• It erodes your positioning. You appear more and more desperateto your dwindling prospect list.
• It cuts into your ability to demand full price; you can’tafford to lose any sale when you don’t have another prospectwaiting in the wings.
• Your selling skills may start to dull. You don’t have theopportunity to use and develop them with real live prospects on aconsistent basis.

Of course, facing these conditions can only do more damage toyour confidence, leaving you caught in a vicious cycle that’s hardto escape.

Related: Read the article "Sell to the Four BasicPersonality Types" by Richard Dunham.

The only solution is to make prospecting your No. 1 priority. Ifyou’re like most producers you may be thinking:

• "I have to work on renewals today."
• "I have this big presentation today."
• "I need to turn in my pipeline reports this week."
• "I have to pay a visit to one of my biggest accountssoon."
• "I need to get back to the underwriter on the account."

The problem is, all of those things are urgent; they haveshort-term consequences that you just can’t ignore. However, if youdon’t make a conscientious effort to set aside time and energy forprospecting, it won’t be long before you don’t have any bigpresentations to give, no expenses to report and no accounts tocall on.

Think of the old-fashioned well pump thatrequires a little water for "priming." The sales presentationyou’re going to deliver tomorrow is like the urgent need for water;you just can’t ignore it. But focusing all of your attention onyour immediate tasks is like drinking that last cup of water—you’llsoon run dry.

You must go beyond the numbers and the activities of prospectingto build a consistent and long-term pattern of success. Building aneffective prospecting program also depends on your understanding ofthe importance of maintaining a clear perspective of and a passionfor what you are doing.

Clear Perspective

Over the years, I’ve spoken with and interviewed hundreds ofproducers who have average results, despite putting in hard work.As any agency owner can tell you, when it comes to sales, there isno future in being average.

They are continuously baffled by their lack of sales successbecause they are "always prospecting."

Related: Read the article "Giving Back is GoodBusiness" by Ed Lamont.

Sure, they can produce lists of prospects, some of which they’vecalled. They can show letters and email and can produce fliers thatthey’ve sent to hundreds of prospects.

Although the producers have been busy, they haven’t beenefficiently prospecting. Instead of prospecting, they have createdfliers, written letters and emails, attended non-qualifiednetworking events and developed call lists. Like many salespeople,these producers have confused preparatory and busy work with theactivity of prospecting.

Producers tend to focus on activity; after all, activity is whatgets you in the door, gets you the business you must have tosucceed. But activity alone is fruitless. Activity for activity’ssake is just as sure a way to mediocrity as inactivity.

Prospecting isn’t preparation to prospect; it isn’t finding easyways to feel like you’re getting your message out; and it isn’tsimply being busy all of the time. Nor is it doing easy but verylow-return lead generation like plastering parking lots with fliersor sending out thousands of spam emails. Those may be easy,non-threatening activities, but they also are career killers.

Prospecting is a very specific and targetedactivity. It is connecting with a decision maker whom you can helpin some way and that requires a physical connection.

If you cold call, that means being on the phone, not gettingready to get on the phone. If you network, it means actually beingin front of and meeting prospects. If you use references, it meansobtaining introductions to prospects from referral partners, notresearching events or even spending time at non-qualified eventswhere you’ll meet few, if any, prospects. It means connecting withquality prospects through highly targeted and personalconversations, letters and email communications, not sending outthousands of pieces of spam hoping that someone will read andrespond. It means creating a highly targeted and well- researcheddirect mail campaign, not just sending letters to a purchasedlist.

Related: Read Tom Barrett's article "StructureCreates Revenue."

As important as the above prospecting activities are, thepreparation and research time is not prospecting time and should bedone only during non-productive prospecting hours.

Fundamentally, producers have three very basic duties:

1. Finding and connecting with quality prospects
2. Working with those prospects to satisfy needs or wants and tosolve real issues
3. Insuring that clients are taken care of during and after thesale.

Everything else is busy work and busy work doesn’t make a sale,doesn’t generate income and doesn’t move you toward your sales orincome goals.

Investing time and energy in the wrong activities has killed asmany sales careers as inactivity has. Before you engage in anyactivity, consider whether that activity is income producing ornot. If it isn’t directly producing income, does it really need tobe done? If not, move on to an activity that will directly lead toa sale.

Don’t Forget the Passion

Having passion is the most undervalued and underused sales toolin the producer’s toolbox. It’s hard to measure and even harder todevelop. You can’t teach someone to be passionate about what theysell; they have to find it for themselves.

Genuine passion isn’t artificial and can’t be faked. It’sevident in producers who genuinely care, who have a drive tosucceed and a willingness to take the time to serve theircustomers.

It is an unmistakably unique combination ofdesire, commitment and energy. It’s that strong force that pushesyou to succeed by demanding more of yourself. The passion ofsuccessful producers is so evident that it won’t let them rest andit won’t let them quit.

A passion for prospecting and sales is the differentiator intoday’s changing business climate. Having a passion for what you’reselling is vital to sales success. If that were not enough,consider that passion is contagious. It will infect otherproducers, your CSRs and your prospects, and it produces positiveresults.

Successful producers prospect with passion; when they find theirpassion, they find success.

Successful producers who really excel at prospecting go farbeyond just setting aside time for it. For them, it’s a passion.They have an insatiable thirst for finding new opportunities and aninquisitive nature that helps them uncover those opportunities. Andthey never stop prospecting, no matter how long they’ve beenselling or how many prospects they have lined up.

Their quest for finding new prospects is rooted in the beliefthat they have a product or service that is truly valuable. That’swhat motivates them to keep searching high and low for everypotential prospect and also helps find prospects that othersalespeople overlook.

Passionate producers genuinely believe that what they sell trulyhelps their prospects and they can’t wait to find as many prospectsas they can.

Next time you are in front of a prospect ask yourself: Are youpassionate about what you are doing? Producers who are passionatetruly believe what they do helps people. They challenge prospectsin a nurturing way because they know they are in business for areason.

The secret to successful prospecting goes beyond the numbers. Itlies in your ability and willingness to keep things in perspectiveand to pursue every day with a passion. Leave no stone unturned.Keep asking questions of yourself, of your colleagues, and of yourclients. Never stop digging for answers that might lead you to yournext prospect. The day you stop prospecting is the first day of adownward trend in your sales success.