Someone said to me recently about their sales team:

“We only talk to businesses when there is a burning platform.”

And I totally get it, prospecting is hard

Cold calling and sending spam emails feel like a waste of time when most of them get ignored

But this approach is dangerous

In a recent post, Kerry Cunningham made a critical point (and I recommend you check out his diagram in the image for this post):

“We've known that buyers spend the first two-thirds of their journeys researching solutions.

But that is not just the 'research' phase, it's the SELECTION phase

As we've reported for two years (and will again this year), that first phase, representing a majority of the buying journey, culminates in a preliminary selection

That preliminary winner is the ultimate winner 80% of the time

You don't want to be in 2nd place at the time of the first conversation with sales

If so, you're making the world too hard for them

We have to get to the top of the shortlist before the buying group is even willing to engage directly”

Kerry also points out that the buying cycle is often 18 months long, while your selling cycle might only be 3 months

This means that if you’re only engaging with companies when there’s a burning platform, you’re probably too late

They’ve already done their research, made a preliminary decision, and most of the time, chosen someone else

And you? You’re wasting time chasing deals you were never in the running for

Imagine a Different Way

What if you could achieve full TAM (Total Addressable Market) coverage, not just with the companies “in market,” but with those still shaping their thinking and building their shortlist?

What if you could do this consistently, in just one hour per week, and scale it, to generate five high-quality ICP meetings every week?

That’s not just possible, it’s the future of effective selling