I marvel at the number of excuses producers come up with as to whythey don't spend more time doing the cornerstone activity of theirjob. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Hardly a day goes by when I don't discuss the most commonproblem faced by producers: Not enough opportunities in their pipeline.

There are only so many prospecting ways of putting newopportunities in your pipeline, so we start going through thechecklist to evaluate their situation. Prospecting and marketingare two different activities. Marketing is about keeping pipelinesfilled over the long-term. Prospecting is the ability to putopportunities in the pipeline now.

KevinTrokey is founding partner and coach at St. Louis-basedQ4intelligence.

Ranking of opportunity

The highest quality opportunity is when the salespersonspecifically asks a client for a referral. The close ratio on theseopportunities is five to seven times higher than if the sameopportunity was created via a cold call because of the credibilityan existing client has when speaking on your behalf.

I ask: "Are you asking clients for referrals orintroductions?"

Producer: "Um, no"

I'm talking about opportunities where the producer asks for aspecific referral/introduction, which is way different than therandom and occasional referral that comes unsolicited. Thoseopportunities, while still decent, rarely meet the definition ofyour ideal client and are usually just price shoppers.

The next best source of referrals and introductions are thosespecifically requested from non-client centers of influence (COI).They still have incredibly high close ratios, but they do fallshort of the credibility that comes from existing clients.

I ask: "Are you asking COIs forintroductions?"

Producer: "Well, sometimes."

As I said, there are only so many prospecting activities togenerate opportunities. If you aren't gettingreferrals/introductions from clients and COIs, the only thingthat's left is cold calling. That's only because hoping and prayingfor opportunities to come to you is not a legitimate activity.

While not the favorite option of most, it works and is notoptional if you're not generating referrals.

Again, I ask: "Well, if you're not asking forreferrals/introduction, you must be cold calling,right?"

Before I can even finish my question: "Hell,no!"

Let's take inventory

I marvel at the number of excuses producers come up with as towhy they don't spend more time doing the cornerstone activity oftheir job. I can't get them to change their behavior unless I canget them to change the way they view prospecting.

My next question has the most predictable response of all. "Doyou believe in your heart or your gut that you can truly make asignificant and positive impact on prospects who becomeclients?"

With passion and confidence, I always hear,"ABSO-FREAKIN-LUTELY!!"

If you won't do it for you, do it for them

If you have the ability to improve the results of otherbusinesses, you have a fundamental responsibility to make itavailable to those who need your help. And, this has to start withreaching out to let them know it's available.

If you're hung up on the idea of prospecting, start calling it"an offer to share valuable business advice." Or call it whateveryou want, but stop holding out on your buyers! It just isn'tfair.

Read more: 

• 5 marketing tips to keep the client pipelinefull
• Sorry, not sorry: How to stop the silent businesskiller
• The 10 commandments of prospecting: 2020edition