I knew it was happening, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

It’s been mounting for a couple of years. But this year, it became crystal clear as I interacted with sales professionals in the field and in the classroom. (I teach a course in Sales Development Principles at UC-Berkeley. I also train and coach sellers in a wide variety of industries.) What I noticed is the shift from “we need to get better at closing” to “we need help opening sales.”

Opening is the new Closing

Author and speaker Anthony Iannarino nailed it when he wrote “Opening is the new closing.” That’s it! Opening has become the most challenging part of the traditional sales process. Empowered buyers avoid sellers. Getting the initial meeting is more difficult than closing a sale once you do get in front of a decision maker.

So what’s a sales professional to do? You have two choices. You could join the chorus of sellers who bemoan this new reality (it’s becoming a very big and loud chorus!). Or you could differentiate yourself and get a competitive advantage by mastering the skills needed to prospect and open sales.

Fortunately, there are excellent tools and resources to help sellers who genuinely want to get better at prospecting and opening sales. This post will direct you to 15 of my personal favorites — 5 new books and 10 sales hacks. Each is practical and will help you qualify leads, manage your time and/or get more appointments. All you have to do is make a choice and a commitment. No more excuses when you’ve got resources like these!

Step-by-Step Guides for Modern Prospecting

First, the new books that lay it all out. Don’t like to read? Then you’re going to fall behind those who make a choice to read these three books. They’re that good, and they’re so important that I’m going to suggest you force yourself to buy and read them. Or at least one of them. Don’t let the “I don’t like to read” excuse put you at a disadvantage!

You can read all you want to about prospecting, but…

This book hasn’t been released yet. Here’s your chance to get a jump on your competitors. It’s available for pre-order on Amazon, so don’t delay — order today. It’s by Mark Hunter, and it’s aptly titled High Profit Prospecting.

The best thing about this book is that Mark understands “You can read all you want about prospecting. You can build a great plan. But until you actually do something, you won’t get any results.” This book spells it out. Step by step. Eleven rules for leaving a great voicemail… Ten best practices for prospecting with the telephone… What to do at the enterprise level… Easy-to-understand and easy-to-follow steps. No need for excuses after you read this one!

One More Call!

Earlier this year, Jeb Blount released Fanatical Prospecting. He’s solely responsible for my new mantra, “One More Call!” I use it on my business development days. It forces me to push through all the excuses I can generate for not focusing on refiling my pipeline.

Jeb dissects the sales slump. He addresses the love/hate relationship you probably have with your CRM. He reminds us that “the most expensive thing you can do in sales is spend your time with the wrong prospect.” And he helps readers figure out who the right prospect is.

Mindset Matters in Prospecting

Second, here’s a book that will help you develop the winning mindset needed for prospecting and opening sales. If you’re making excuses like “I don’t want to bother anybody” or “I’ll just get voice mail again,” then you need to read this. Stat.

The secret of being a successful salesperson? It’s you.

In The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need, Anthony Iannarino leaves no wiggle room for making excuses. He places the responsibility for sales success squarely on the shoulders of individual sales professionals. After laying it out like this “What’s the secret of being a successful salesperson? Or a great one? It’s not the product or service you sell. Neither is it your competition, the market environment, your price structure, evolving technology, or any such thing. It’s you.”

Don’t worry, Anthony doesn’t leave you hanging. His new book, scheduled for release in October but available for pre-order now on Amazon, will help you replace excuses with what to do about you. How you can adjust your beliefs and behaviors to be more successful in all aspects of selling, including prospecting. Plus, in part 2, how you can develop critical skill sets to rise above the competition.

Please, I’m Begging, Don’t Make Me Cold Call

If you are adamantly opposed to cold calling or believe it doesn’t work for what you sell, that’s no excuse for not prospecting. You just need to warm up those calls.

Cold calling does not work. Warm calling based on sales intelligence does.

Sam Richter, formerly the president of a reference library, knows how to find information! He shares web search secrets in Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling, updated just last year to keep up with current search engine techniques. Sam believes that “Cold calling does not work.” He says “Warm calling based on sales intelligence does, and it can make a dramatic improvement in your and your company’s performance.”

If you read any one page in this book, you’ll get at least one new tip for gathering intelligence about your prospects. Sam dives deep into how to search on Google (way beyond the basics). He also opens up the other 80% of the Internet, the “invisible web” that isn’t indexed in typical search results and can get you much, much closer to your prospects.

But Why Would They Want to Talk to Me?

If doubts about value are keeping you from opening sales, you need to read Beyond the Sales Process by Steve Andersen and Dave Stein.

Customers expect more, and they deserve it.

The authors’ research with buyers will give you the understanding you need to shift the way you’re interacting with prospects. Instead of letting those doubts and excuses keep you from connecting, learn why “it’s time for a change of mindset, a change of attitude, and a change of heart regarding how sellers and buyers engage and do business together.”

One of my favorite takeaways (among many!) is a chart that gives 12 reasons buyers want to engage with you. When you give prospects a reason to engage with you, they will.

I Don’t Mind Prospecting, I Just Don’t Have Time…

Ah, yes. The “not enough time” excuse. The truth is that no one has time to do it all. You have to make choices about how to allocate your time. My first rule in selling is E=O, which is Effort=Opportunity. Your Effort (including time spent) needs to be equivalent to the Opportunity. So the only justification for spending no time on prospecting is if there is truly no opportunity… And if that’s the case, why are you still working at that company?

To make the most of your time, perhaps you need some sales hacks and time-saving technology. For example, have you seen Boomerang’s new AI tool, Respondable? It was just released this week, and it’s pretty slick.

As you write an email (using Gmail), Respondable coaches you and guides you into more effective language and content. It’s free, and it’s very effective.

To get Respondable, you need Boomerang. Click here to get both. Boomerang schedules emails so they can be sent later. It also serves reminders about follow ups, and it pings you if you haven’t heard back from someone via email.

Side note: I should mention here that I’m not getting paid for any of these recommendations. I don’t believe in affiliate marketing because I want to endorse products that truly impress me without any suspicion of ulterior motives.

Respondable and Boomerang make you faster AND better at managing your time. More time to prospect! There are 7 more sales hacks like this available in my BrightTALK “7 Sales Hacks that Will Make You More Productive Every Day.”

I can explain all seven more fully if you jump onto that recorded, on-demand webinar. If you like it, subscribe to my BrightTALK channel and check out the one called “Should I Leave a Voice Mail? 20 Cold Calling Tips in 20 Minutes.”

For those of you who are counting, that’s 14 resources to help you improve your prospecting and to free up more time for prospecting. I owe you one more.

I Connected with a Prospect. Now What?

If you want resource #15, you’ll have to work for it. No excuses! This little bit of work will be worth your time (E=O)!

When you connect with a prospect, you want to ease right into a natural and productive conversation. Easier said than done, right? Well, I have a bonus tool that will give you 8 opening questions that actually got prospects talking. These didn’t come from me. They came directly from sellers who had read my book DISCOVER Questions® Get You Connected and were applying what they learned from it.

For anyone who emails me, I will send you two things: You’ll get the first chapter of my book plus 8 field-tested, buyer-approved questions that grabbed a prospect’s attention in the first minute of a sales call. I’ll add you to my mailing list so you can keep getting sales hacks, book recommendations and bonus content, too. To get resource #15, email me at deb.calvert@peoplefirstps.com

15 resources, 0 excuses. That’s how you can stand apart from other sellers and break through to connect with more prospects.

About the Author: As President and Founder of People First Productivity Solutions, Deb consults with her clients on building organizational strength by putting people first. This work includes leadership program design and facilitation, strategic planning with executive teams, team effectiveness work, and sales productivity solutions. Deb is a Certified Master of The Leadership Challenge® who also works with executives, managers, sales trainers and sales reps as a Humanistic Performance Coach. She is certified as an Executive Coach by the Center for Executive Coaching and the ICF.