The short answer to this question is ‘no’. It is, however, common for sales people to be expected to do their own prospecting. This is not what they want to be doing or even what they’re good at. They typically don’t enjoy prospecting – they want to close a deal and sell. They’ll squeeze the blood out of the existing client base until there’s not much left. A client base needs to be constantly filled to avoid attrition. The only way to properly ensure that this is done to the best of your staff’s abilities is to employ the correct people to handle specific situations. 



A massive productivity killer is throwing together a bunch of responsibilities under one term or job role. This is what happens to the general sales role and it creates many inadequacies when it comes to results.

Different Prospecting Categories

Prospecting should be done by people who specialise in it. There are two categories of prospecting and each should be managed by a separate team.

1) Inbound Prospecting: 
This basically entails all that is content marketing and involves leads that come through via the Internet. A specialised skill set is needed to manage this because it is a focused and complicated process. This comprises everything from nurturing the leads to handing them over to the sales person once they’re ‘hot’.

2) Outbound Prospecting: 
This is what many sales people do when they cold-call potential clients. Other methods, such as direct mail and dimensional mailers, are also included in this category. This classification involves the initiation of relationships between clients and companies. The persons who manage this should qualify because they know which questions to ask – but they aren’t necessarily sales people.

Time Management

Your sales force should simply go from one meeting to the next – they can’t sell unless they’re standing in front of a client who is ready to buy.

The sales person’s time shouldn’t be wasted on complex administration and prospecting processes. It’s all about time management and employing particular people for specific roles. If a sales person does his own prospecting, he determines his own tempo. If leads come in from another department it’s not possible for him to determine his own tempo. There will be no comfort zone in which new clients aren’t brought in. Productivity will increase if one team supplies the leads, another closes the deal, and yet another nurtures and farms the existing client base.

Each department involves certain difficulties and the sales person should only deal with the complexities in his particular department. The sales collateral should be there, ready to use when the sales person is ready to sell. If another department supplies the collateral, the sales person can simply go in and close the deal. 

Less time should be spent on admin and more time on selling. Sales people should sell, and sell alone; it’s what they do best and what they want to do.


Sound Idea Digital is a full service digital marketing agency that specialises in content marketing. We can develop a comprehensive content marketing strategy for your company | info@soundidea.co.za | www.soundidea.co.za | @SoundIdeaDMA