Are you closing out your year? This may be an odd thing to say in May, but this is what should be happening. The stark reality of producing new business is that we work 6 months out. By July 1 you already should have your qualified prospects for the new business you are going to book for 2012 in place. You may get lucky, but the odds are that if you do not know about it on July 1, you are not going to write it this year.

Determine what kind of year you will to have in 2012:

1. Take the total amount of new business you are going to offer proposals on between July 1 and December 31 in your field of opportunities
2. Multiply this by your average closing ratio
3. Add to this number the amount of new business that you already have booked to July 1. This is your number for 2012. 

After July 1, you may find a new opportunity with expirations between July 1 and December 31, which will give you enough time to establish yourself as a legitimate contender. Unfortunately, the likelihood of this is not high, so your prospecting procrastination will haunt you.

Related: Read another article by Fritz Koehler "Natural-Born Salesperson."