In my career in sales management, I witnessed too many outside sales reps (OSR) get distracted and lose some top account opportunities. Today, AI can help with the challenge of defining your Top 5 Prospects. AI-Enabled Management can identify the best and most probable prospective closures.
Understanding the customer
A firm understanding of the customer is essential to focused sales momentum. After reading Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in the mid-90s, his principle of “First things first” had an impact on how I viewed prospecting. To enhance the closure rate of my team, I developed a list of 5 factors that should be part of the monthly sales manager’s OSR reviews.
Elements of the Top 5 Review
For each Top 5 prospect, consider these factors:
- Type: Identify the opportunity. Firstly, not all prospective opportunities are new accounts. Overall sales and margin growth may come from expanding wallet share in an existing account or closing a new account entirely. Clearly identifying the opportunity type ensures you apply the right strategy to each account from the start.
- Goal: What is the specific, measurable goal you would like to achieve? Whether pursuing a new account or deeper penetration in an existing one, it is paramount to stay focused on the single most important directive to secure success. Moreover, developing a singular goal with your customer helps avoid confusion and diluted effort.
- Value: Quantify the opportunity. AI tools can determine the potential sales and gross margin for new prospective opportunities. For existing accounts, AI can analyze your current wallet share and identify the highest-value product or service expansion opportunities. Also, without understanding the financial impact of your actions, you cannot properly prioritize your efforts.
- Competitor: To build an effective strategy, you must know which competitor currently has the business. In addition, if there is a significant weakness or gap in your competitor’s offering, there is no urgent incentive for the customer to change. Intelligence drives strategy.
- Current Next Step: Every strategic plan must be broken down into small, achievable next steps with clear ownership. Too often, the OSR and customer become discouraged by trying to accomplish too much too soon. Define one concrete action that moves the opportunity forward.
- Date: Each next step requires a completion date to maintain momentum. When initiating a prospective project, avoid listing a closure date unless only one action item remains. Realistic timelines build credibility and prevent pipeline fantasy.
The Top 5
The Top 5 Prospect list framework succeeds because it imposes disciplined prioritization on the chaotic reality of sales pipelines. In conclusion, require your OSRs to define opportunity type, singular goals, quantified value, competitive landscape, actionable next steps, and accountability dates. Lastly, this methodology separates real opportunities from wishful thinking and keeps you focused on what matters most.
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