WHAT? …you dreamt about prospecting last night? You’re either (a) a sales freak or (b) feeling guilty for not prospecting enough lately. (Both are possible.)

Prospecting is all attitude…the more you groan, the more fuel you add to the "I hate prospecting" fire. The key to prospecting is not taking it – nor you – too seriously.

You’ve pinged Mrs. Super Fancy Title ten times this month, and you’re getting zilch in return. Whatever. It’s her loss. Don’t sweat it. But whatever you do and however you feel…. DO NOT STOP AT TEN! Eleven might be the charm.

You are so much better at prospecting than you think you are! You just get rusty, and then it’s daunting to restart. Days go by, and boom, your pitch-meeting calendar gets lonely. Totally understandable.

It’s not the rejection that serves as an obstacle – heck, you’ve dealt with rejection you’re entire career – it’s getting to the point where prospecting is a habit.

Creating a prospecting habit means you need to focus on incrementality.

There’s a perception that prospecting requires big chunks of time. They say momentum comes when you commit a big chunk of time. (Whoever they are), Nothing against your gramps, but that thinking is as old as he is; momentum can also be generated in short bursts. Modern-day time demands and pressures make it such that you’re on the right track if you can squeeze in 20 minutes of prospecting.

If you commit a 20-minute prospecting block each day, that’s a total of one hour and 40 minutes a week of prospecting…out of, let’s say, a 50-hour work week, that’s 3.3% of your week…is that enough to get you into the TOP 10%? It’s a good start.

Today, gamify your prospecting efforts.

Challenge yourself this morning to see how many consecutive minutes you can prospect. Can you get to 10 without getting distracted or checking your weather app for the 12th time? Ten minutes is good….but you can go higher.

Keep that momentum going at noon, drop everything, and try to beat your morning record. Can you get to 15 consecutive minutes? (You know you can.)

Push yourself for another session this afternoon; don’t get cocky, and try to beat your morning record. Shoot for 15 minutes again.

Instead of following traditional prospecting guidelines, like, 30 contacts equals one booked meeting, change your thinking from outreach to time. How much time does it take you to get a meeting?

Certainly, you should chart all key prospecting outputs – calls, emails, and smoke signals – but when you can track prospecting time against results, you have the formula for the time needed to get your desired results. That’s the formula that will drive your actions and help you plan.

This time-based prospecting approach works best when you maintain your focus for a certain block of time. Start with blocks of time when you can focus 100%… perhaps 20-30 minutes at the start.

Turn off all the junk that will interrupt you – the Slacks about Bobby uploading a new kitchen cleaning schedule, the notifications about the weather in Bermuda, the texts from Etsy telling you 1970s hippie tank top tees are on sale…turn it all off.

You know you can bring your steely focus to the forefront when necessary, so let’s do it today. Let’s find that one prospect who will meet with you!