Why is prospecting important for salespeople?

Prospecting is essential because it helps salespeople identify and initiate contact with potential clients. Without prospecting, there’s no pipeline — and no pipeline means no sales.

What are the common ways salespeople find prospects?

Salespeople can find prospects through introductions, social media, networking, internal referrals, cold calling, email outreach, association memberships, purchased lists, and business networking groups.

What's the next step after finding a prospect's name?

The next step is to make contact — typically by phone or email — to engage the prospect, understand their situation, and determine if they are a good fit.

Why is prospecting so difficult?

Prospecting involves frequent rejection, emotional highs and lows, and a lack of immediate payoff. Salespeople face hang-ups, ignored calls, false interest, and cancellations — which makes the process emotionally taxing.

Do salespeople need to enjoy prospecting to be successful?

No, they don’t have to like it — they just have to do it. Discipline and consistency matter more than enjoyment when it comes to successful prospecting.

How can handling rejection improve sales performance?

Salespeople who are rejection-proof are more likely to ask tough questions, stay objective, push through objections, and recover quickly — all of which drive sales success.

What traits help a salesperson become rejection-proof?

Traits include emotional resilience, active listening, confidence, objectivity, and the ability to bounce back from failure without internalizing it.

What increases the chance of success when prospecting by phone?

Having a solid, distinctive phone approach that doesn’t sound like every other salesperson increases the likelihood of starting meaningful conversations.

Spooky Sales Lessons from the Graveyard of “Think It Over”

Posted October 27, 2025 in Sales Brew

This is Jack Kasel with Anthony Cole Training Group, bringing you our next spooktacular Sales Brew. As you can tell from my poor pun, it’s that time of year again—Halloween! You can tell it’s coming when you drive through the neighborhood and see the gravestones, witches, skeletons, cobwebs, and spooky decorations everywhere.

Like many people, I enjoy a good scary movie. Some of the best ones are classics like Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock or the original Halloween. I remember seeing that one with my brother, and when Michael Myers jumped on the car, I thought my brother was going to flip out of his seat.

We like scary movies because they’re full of illusions, ghosting, and things that disappear. That’s great entertainment—but in sales, it’s no fun at all. So let’s talk about why those things happen in selling and how to keep your opportunities from vanishing.

Why We Get “Ghosted” in Sales

The first thing to figure out is whether your prospect really has a problem. This is where many salespeople chase illusions. The prospect may have a circumstance or a situation, but that doesn’t always mean they have a true problem.

You need to uncover the impact of that situation. Ask the great “S” question:
“Suppose this continues. How would it affect you and your company moving forward?”

If there’s no problem, there’s no opportunity. You must identify what will happen if they don’t fix it.

Next, determine the priority of the problem. Out of everything your prospect is responsible for in running their business or department, where does this issue fall? What needs to happen before they can fix it?

Too often, salespeople move too fast. They try to microwave the relationship when it really belongs in a slow cooker. Relationships take time to build, and your prospect may not have the time, money, or resources to make the problem go away immediately.

The Graveyard of “Think It Over”

Another big reason sales disappear is because we fail to set the expectation for a decision. When we skip this step, our proposals end up buried in the great sales graveyard known as TIO—Think It Over.

Many dead sales lie there simply because we didn’t clarify when or how a decision would be made. Setting expectations keeps your proposal alive and your pipeline clear.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for the Order

When it comes time to present your solution, don’t be afraid to ask for the order. In sales, just like in a scary movie, we can hesitate to pull back the curtain or open the door because we don’t know what’s behind it.

My favorite answer is “yes.” My second favorite is “no.” What we don’t want is silence or indecision. If we fail to ask for the order, we hand over our “candy”—and once the prospect has what they want, they move on to the next vendor.

Two easy, non-threatening ways to close the conversation are:

“Joe, what should we do next?”
“Susan, how should we proceed from here?”

Then be quiet and let them answer.

Final Thoughts

To recap:

Make sure you’re dealing with a problem, not just a situation.
Understand the priority it holds for your prospect.
Set expectations for a decision.
Ask for the order.

As we head into Halloween, I hope you get plenty of treats and not too many tricks. And in your sales conversations, make sure you’re not chasing illusions, getting ghosted, or fooled by false opportunities.

Why We Get “Ghosted” in Sales

The Graveyard of “Think It Over”

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for the Order

Final Thoughts

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