How can you balance prospecting, closing, and servicing your accounts in outside sales?

1 Plan your week ahead

One of the keys to balancing prospecting, closing, and servicing your accounts is to plan your week ahead and allocate time for each activity. You can use a calendar app, a CRM system, or a simple spreadsheet to schedule your appointments, calls, emails, and follow-ups. Make sure you have a realistic and achievable goal for each day and week, and track your progress and results. Planning ahead will help you avoid procrastination, distractions, and missed deadlines.

2 Segment your prospects and customers

Not all prospects and customers are equal. Some are more qualified, more interested, more loyal, or more profitable than others. You need to segment your prospects and customers based on criteria such as their stage in the sales cycle, their potential value, their urgency, their needs, and their preferences. This will help you prioritize your efforts and tailor your communication and offers to each segment. For example, you can focus more on prospecting for high-value leads, closing for hot prospects, and servicing for loyal customers.

3 Automate and delegate

You can't do everything by yourself in outside sales. You need to leverage technology and teamwork to automate and delegate some of the tasks that are repetitive, time-consuming, or low-impact. For example, you can use email templates, scripts, and sequences to automate your outreach and follow-up. You can use chatbots, webinars, and videos to provide information and education to your prospects and customers. You can also delegate some of the administrative, technical, or support tasks to your colleagues, assistants, or partners. This will free up your time and energy for more strategic and creative activities.

4 Balance quality and quantity

While it's important to have a large and diverse pipeline of prospects and customers, it's also important to focus on quality over quantity. You don't want to waste your time and resources on leads that are not qualified, not interested, or not ready to buy. You also don't want to neglect your existing customers who are more likely to buy again, refer others, or provide feedback. You need to balance quality and quantity by qualifying your leads, nurturing your prospects, closing your deals, and servicing your accounts with care and attention.

5 Review and improve

The final tip to balance prospecting, closing, and servicing your accounts in outside sales is to review and improve your performance regularly. You need to measure and analyze your results, such as your conversion rates, your revenue, your customer satisfaction, and your retention. You also need to solicit and act on feedback from your prospects, customers, managers, and peers. You need to identify your strengths and weaknesses, your opportunities and threats, and your best practices and mistakes. You need to learn from your experiences and improve your skills, strategies, and tactics.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?