Sunday, December 18, 2011

Shirts and Prospects

I received some wonderful sports shirts last year for Christmas.  To this day, I am careful about where I wear some of them.  Exercising in them, in particular, would cause more strain than I want to put on these shirts I still perceive as nice and in good condition.  However, I also recall that last year at this time I felt the same about another batch of shirts which are now in the “anything goes” pile.  Those are shirts from Christmas 2009.  It seems once the new shirts came in, the older shirts looked a little less nice and candidates for soccer, basketball, yoga, the gym or something quick to put on for quick errands.

I notice the same thing about prospects.  Their status is often evident and we can tend to hang on too long to the hope of conversion.  The best remedy is new business.  I keep a list and recently got very liberal at removing prospects.  Why?  Incoming prospects with quick conversion and work I enjoy.  Rather than hold onto hope of conversion in vain, it behooves us all to develop new business.

Prospects are going to convert to clients regardless of the condition of the rest of our business.  However, it sure is easier to set them aside when something of higher value takes their place.