Book SummaryFanatical Prospecting, by Jeb Blount

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Fanatical Prospecting

According to some self-proclaimed experts in sales, the art of prospecting—proactively finding and reaching out to potential customers, especially via telephone—is dead. But, according to sales specialist Jeb Blount, this opinion couldn’t be further from the truth. In Fanatical Prospecting, Blount argues that prospecting relentlessly is essential to reaching the pinnacle of sales.

As the founder and CEO of SalesGravy, a professional sales training company that teaches organizations how to maximize their sales and bottom line, Blount has years of experience fine-tuning sales techniques across multiple industries. Moreover, as the author of several other...

Fanatical Prospecting Summary The Importance of Prospecting

Although many salespeople dismiss prospecting as an unpleasant and unnecessary part of sales, Blount contends that prospecting remains just as important as ever. Contrary to contemporary critics who argue that you can rely wholly on social media to convince prospects to reach out to you, Blount maintains that you need to proactively prospect, or you’ll perish as a salesperson. In this section, we’ll explore Blount’s argument that prospecting is the only way to avoid the death knell for salespeople—namely, an empty pipeline of potential customers.

(Shortform note: Although Blount writes as if new-school salespeople are opposed to prospecting in general, he later clarifies that social media is itself a form of prospecting. So, it stands to reason that these salespeople aren’t opposed to all forms of prospecting, just particularly confrontational forms of prospecting like cold-calling.)

Why Prospect in the First Place?

Blount acknowledges that prospecting is often unpleasant—it exposes you to constant rejection and the...

Fanatical Prospecting Summary General Guidelines for Prospecting

Having seen why prospecting is so important, we’ll now explore some of Blount’s more general strategies for prospecting. In particular, we’ll see how to overcome your hesitations about prospecting, maximize your time when prospecting, and build name recognition with your prospects.

Strategy #1: Overcome Your Hesitations

Although prospecting is essential for succeeding in sales, many salespeople struggle to even pick up the phone to make a prospecting call. Blount contends that these salespeople suffer from over-analyzing each prospect, causing them to delay action and prospect inefficiently.

According to Blount, many salespeople believe that their prospecting strategies must be foolproof before they pick up the phone. In turn, these salespeople assess their prospects constantly to come up with a game plan—they review prospects’ LinkedIn accounts, their age, their geographic location, and so on. Further, they try to develop a perfect game plan for prospecting calls that anticipates every “What if?” that a prospect might ask.

(Shortform note: For salespeople whose perfectionism holds them back when prospecting, sales experts offer [several tips for mitigating that...

Fanatical Prospecting Summary Specific Prospecting Channels

To put Blount’s general guidelines into practice, you need to master each of the primary prospecting channels. To that end, in this section we’ll discuss the importance of prospecting via multiple different channels before we dig deeper into Blount’s processes for effective prospecting in-person, via telephone, via email, and via social media.

Take a Diversified Approach to Prospecting

Having seen how to build awareness with your prospects, Blount’s last strategy involves putting it all together to create a coherent approach to prospecting. Rather than focusing exclusively on what you believe to be your best prospecting channel, Blount advises that salespeople use a combination of prospecting channels.

To show why a diversified approach is optimal, Blount draws an analogy with the stock market. He writes that savvy investors don’t simply find one promising stock in which they invest their entire savings; rather, they diversify their investments across various different stocks to reduce risk, in case one of the stocks tanks. In so doing, these investors not only set themselves up for high returns but also mitigate the risk of losing their savings.

(Shortform note:...

Shortform Exercise: Develop a Script for Phone Prospecting

Blount argues that phone prospecting should involve four steps: Hook your prospect, state your name and intention, give your prospect a reason for calling, and make your request. In this exercise, develop a script for telephone prospecting that incorporates these four steps.

How could you craft a concise introduction that hooks your prospect by using their first name and also states your name and intention?