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...

Fanatical Prospecting Summary Channel #1: How to Prospect In-Person

Although prospecting has become increasingly remote, Blount notes that in-person prospecting remains integral—especially when selling to higher level executives, whom you’re less likely to get a hold of via other means. In this section, we’ll examine Blount’s strategy for executing in-person prospecting, both in preparation and in the moment.

What to Do Before In-Person Prospecting

Before you’ve met your prospect, Blount highlights three pivotal tasks that you should complete: determine your goal; analyze your prospect; and tailor your approach.

Task #1: Determine Your Goal

Blount writes that before prospecting in person, it’s crucial to decide ahead of time what your goal is since that goal will shape your plan. For example, are you attempting to close a sale with a prospect, or are you merely attempting to build name recognition and gather further information about them for the future?

Task #2: Analyze Your Prospect

Next, Blount points out that you should analyze your prospect before prospecting in person. This process involves collecting any information that could be relevant to you as a salesperson—for instance, their role in the company or any recent...

Fanatical Prospecting Summary Channel #2: How to Prospect Via Telephone

Blount notes that, while prospecting in-person allows you to spend time face-to-face with your prospects, prospecting via the telephone allows you to speak to prospects with unparalleled efficiency. For this reason, telephone prospecting is arguably the salesperson’s most powerful approach. To do so effectively, Blount recommends implementing a four-step process that’s similar to his in-person approach, but with a few small tweaks tailored toward phone conversations: Hook your prospect, state your name and intention, give your prospect your reason for calling, and make your request.

Step #1: Hook Your Prospect

Once your prospect answers the phone, it’s important to hook their interest by using their first name. According to Blount, most people are hard-wired to respond upon hearing their name—it naturally draws their attention, meaning they’ll be less likely to immediately hang-up the phone.

Step #2: State Your Name and Intention

Blount writes that, immediately after calling your prospect by their first name, it’s essential to state your name and give your purpose for calling. Just like during in-person prospecting, providing your name and purpose is an act of...

Fanatical Prospecting Summary Channel #3: How to Prospect Via Email

Although telephone prospecting has long been a staple of sales, Blount relates that prospecting via email is becoming increasingly common. To that end, he recommends that to craft a compelling prospecting email, implement these four steps: Catch your audience’s attention, demonstrate understanding, explain how you can help, and make your request.

Step #1: Catch Your Audience’s Attention

Blount explains that the first step of email prospecting is to ensure that your audience actually reads the email you’ve sent them, rather than deleting it on the spot. To do so, he advises that you catch their attention by writing a gripping subject line and opening sentence that are clearly relevant to them. For instance, if you’re writing to the manager of a family-owned bookstore, your subject might read “Small Bookstores Suffocating Under Pressure From Amazon,” and your opening sentence might read “Many experts predict that family-owned bookstores are a dying breed.” This subject line and opening sentences are immediately relevant to your prospect and compels them to read further.

(Shortform note: In addition to grabbing your audience’s attention, others suggest that you try to...

Fanatical Prospecting Summary Channel #4: How to Prospect Via Social Media

While email prospecting has been around since the mid 1990s, prospecting via social media platforms—especially LinkedIn—only burst onto the scene in the 2010s. However, Blount cautions that social media isn’t useful for directly selling to prospects, as people use social media to connect with one another, not listen to pitches from salespeople. Rather, he contends that social media is best for fostering name recognition with prospects.

(Shortform note: According to salespeople, social media is more effective at fostering name recognition than traditional modes of prospecting (such as cold-calling) because social media feels like a more personal and authentic way to connect with prospects. For example, prospects who receive a cold call likely know nothing at all about the salesperson on the other line. By contrast, those who connect with salespeople via social media will have more insight into their company and personality, making it easier for them to build awareness of salespeople.)

Consequently, Blount lists an array of strategies for making your prospects aware of you and your company. Specifically, he...

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?