You Don't Have a Prospecting Problem
"Hmm… My customers aren't buying as much as they used to."
I start hearing some version of this every March. Q1 is closing out, the numbers look softer than expected, and some low-grade panic sets in. The instinct is immediate and almost universal: we need more pipeline. Get out there and prospect. Fill the funnel. Make some calls.
I understand the impulse. I really do.
The problem is real. You don't have enough leads. But before you fire up your laptop and start building a cold outreach sequence, I want to ask you something.
Why are you taking the hardest route first?
The thing I love about prospecting is that it’s something you can control.
You can make calls, send emails, track activity, and show your boss a spreadsheet full of effort. That sense of agency is real, and it matters.
But confusing the channel you have the most control over with the most effective channel is one of the most expensive mistakes a sales team can make.
Opportunity creation is about so much more than prospecting. Before you dive into that rabbit hole, let’s make sure it’s the right approach to take.
Think about how new deals actually come into your business.
Some come from existing clients who expand their relationship with you.
Some come through referrals from people who trust you enough to introduce you to someone else.
Some come through professional networking, the right conversation at the right time with the right person.
Some come through partnerships with companies that share your customers but don't compete with you.
Some come through inbound, people finding you because of your reputation or your content.
And yes, some come through outbound prospecting, picking up the phone and introducing yourself to a stranger.
That's six distinct channels. Most teams dabble in all of them and commit to none of them.
They do a little bit of a lot, which is just enough to sustain mild growth, right around whatever the market would give them without any real effort, which just makes the whole exercise feel futile to a veteran rep who doesn’t have a bona fide plan to lean on.
They're not failing. They're coasting. And coasting in March, with a pipeline deficit already building, is a dangerous place to be.
It’s worth recognizing that these six channels are not created equal. If you organize them from the warmest relationship to the coldest, from the path of least resistance to the steepest climb, it looks something like this:
Expansion within your current client base. These people already trust you. There's no credibility to build, no cold wall to climb. Are there opportunities for growth here that you may not have uncovered?
Referrals. Because they borrow trust that already exists from the people I mentioned above. Do you have a conversational framework to ask for these?
Professional networking. Relationships with people who know you or know of you but haven't bought yet. Are you visible in the industry? Before you call a stranger on the phone, is it possible to run into them at an industry event or in an online forum?
Partnerships and strategic alliances. This might be the most overlooked channel. Who’s in your industry that sells to your customers but doesn’t compete with you?
Inbound leads. This is a long game that pays off beautifully once the flywheel is spinning, but takes real time and coordination to get there. Where are you in that process? Is that even your process to be a part of?
Finally, cold outbound prospecting. Not because it doesn't work. It absolutely does, but it’s the hardest, most resource-intensive channel you have, and it shouldn't be your first move when there are five warmer options you haven't fully developed.
Maybe the other five aren’t really options. Maybe you’re in a position where you keep no clients beyond the first engagement, and there’s no “land” to expand on. Maybe you work in an industry where referrals and strategic alliances just aren’t a viable growth option.
Maybe you’re doing all you can in those other domains, you have processes in place, and it’s just time to pick up the phone.
Over the next six weeks, I'm going to walk through each of these in detail. What good looks like, what bad looks like, and how to actually integrate better habits into your existing rhythms so this doesn't become another initiative that felt good for a week and changed nothing.
But here's where I want to leave you today: before you try to master all six, pick one or two and actually commit to them.
Don’t dabble. Don’t rotate between them when one gets hard. Pick the channel or two that give you the best chance of results right now, and pour into them long enough to know whether they’re working.
The teams that grow aren't doing six things. They're doing a couple intentionally, consistently, and well.
Where will you start?
