In 1983, I opened the doors to my current company, Leads-Plus Inc. Then, I decided (against the advice of my peers) to narrow focus my sales consulting services rather than become a generalist, as did most of my peers. My niche was then and still is: training b2b sales professionals and small b2b owners how to painlessly and systematically get new customers. Much to the chagrin of my wife, I have passed up other sales training assignments outside of my niche expertise. I even coined the phrase: Power Prospecting® from which I developed a copyrighted formula.

From 1967-1978, I repeatedly tested and perfected my sales prospecting formula. In my early years it was primitive. While it produced results it wasn’t consistently successful. Oh, it worked well enough for me to book enough new sales clients to exceed my sales quotas and to rapidly progress up the corporate sales ladder. I became National Sales Manager for a computer industry leader at age 32 which is still remarkable by today’s career path standards.

Today, several hundred b2b clients later, the Power Prospecting® Formula continues to consistently improve and work its magic even in this lean economy. My point is simply this: dedication, perseverance and patience continue to payoff. When planted in fertile ground, they sow the seeds of prosperity, even in today’s economy. Here’s a case in point.

About 9 months ago, a CPA referred me into one of his b2b clients. The client provides technical OEM services to major corporations in one of the three very competitive growth industries which fuel our Central Florida Economy. Sales were flat, even before the effects of this Recession began to trickle down into our marketplace.

I was hired to work with one sales person and tasked to help him develop new market segments and to grow his prospecting skills. We developed a solid personal chemistry and worked well together. This young man, while lacking formal education, was highly motivated to learn from my experience and to apply my expertise to his selling style.

Since January he has become a first-rate sales prospector with polished, confident phone qualification skills and a disciplined mind for staying on-point and on-purpose, regardless of the sometimes sour attitudes of those he calls on, weekly.

As a result, he has become a sales star by greatly exceeding the expectations of his boss, his peers; and even himself. When we started the process he had doubts. I didn’t! I’d worked with enough raw sales talent since 1983, to have an experienced eye to spot a ‘diamond in the rough’. This young man was hungry to improve himself and to succeed.

I welcomed this opportunity to help him fulfill his destiny and mine, too. In sales, results speak louder than promises. Monthly sales and the size of the individual sales contracts have both tripled over this same period last year. Competition is a distant memory and the sales pipeline is full of qualified new prospects ready to join the ranks of satisfied customers.

Can I take all the credit? No. I was presented with an opportunity and the right set of circumstances with a client that needed my polished and proven skills set. I was ready for that ‘knock’, ‘knock’ on my door.

My question for you is this: What have you done lately to improve your skills set so when your sales opportunity knocks, you will be ready?