Where do I begin?  There is a local bakery-coffee shop near my house that offers hi-quality baked goods, a wide variety of "gourmet" coffees, they installed a "drive-thru" window, but they don't open until 7am on weekdays!  Meanwhile, at 6:30am the line at the Dunkin Donuts is so long, cars are backed out onto Route 1. No offense to Dunkin Donuts, but those cars aren't lined up for gourmet donuts.  But they are open to serve the large number of customers who are on their way to work before 7am!

Another example: My wife wanted to order a bunch of boutonniere's for my daughter's wedding.  Every florist shop she visited, told her what was wrong with what she wanted.  (I don't know boutonniere's, but she said she just wanted something simple.)  It took her going through a list of several florists, before she found one, described what she wanted and they said "Sure, no problem."  Why did all the others want to tell her what was wrong with what she wanted and tried to talk her into something else?  Beats Me!

I keep hearing how we should support local businesses.  I don't think we should "support" them, they should support the customer.  That's why they're in business.  If a local business can provide me with what I need and at a competitive price, I'll buy from them.  But too many small businesses seem to want to do everything on their terms, rather than the customer's terms.  Mr. and Ms. business person, you have to be willing to be open when the customer wants to buy, and provide the customer with the product or service they seek.  It's not just small businesses who are guilty of this, almost every bank in the United States still operates like it's the 1920's.  Bank branches are retail establishments, yet most of them close at 4 in the afternoon, some even at 3.  That's great for the person who gets out of work at 5!

If you are going to be in business, be prepared to work for your customer.  That's why you are there.  The media seems to hate Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart's parking lots are full.  They cater to their customers. 

Let me say something positive about a small local business.  The hardware store at the corner up from my house, has continued to thrive even though Wal-Mart is only about a mile down the road.  Why? In my own experience they help the customer, provide a decent selection of products, and guess what?  Their prices are competitive with Wal-Mart.  They take care of their customers.  I'm done ranting.  I feel better now.

In the sales world we have the term "Call Reluctance", a person just can't bring him or herself to make the necessary sales call on a new prospective client.  Everyone suffers from this to one degree or another, but any successful salesperson overcomes it.

I don't think there is a business in existence that doesn't require its sales people to prospect for sales to one degree or another.  If you don't find new clients, the day will come where you may not have any, or just a few.  Clients do come and go.  Many may stay with you for years, but there will always be attrition.  A valuable contact may leave a company, retire, be promoted, or the company itself may change directions, change suppliers, or possibly go out of business.  For whatever reason change occurs, a good salesperson has to have a plan for finding new clients.

Why do so many sales people resist prospecting  particularly cold calling?  Rejection.  We all hate rejection.  Don't take it personally.  I guess for some people that's easier said than done.  Prospecting is just like any other skill, do it enough and it will become second nature.  I have always thought of prospecting as the "down and dirty" part of sales.  I don't mean this negatively. It's like digging out a foundation before you build your house.  It's the dirty part of the job, but it has to be done.  Build a poor foundation, and your house will come down around you. 

So suck it up, tell yourself that prospecting is necessary.  Set aside a time each day for prospecting, and do it.  If you devote just 1 hour per day to prospecting, that's 5 hours per week, and 240 hours of prospecting per year.  (I gave you four weeks of vacation...probably more than you deserve.)

Whatever happened to the guy with the clean desk?  We learned that instead of making prospecting sales calls, he was going home everyday to watch the soaps, and he would return to the office about 4 in the afternoon.  We quickly made it possible for him to watch daytime TV all day.