Prospecting is the answer to the question, "where can I find someone to talk to today who might be interested in my product or service?"

Prospecting is an activity we have to do regularly, and the questions it raises are things we should be asking ourselves periodically as well.

The reason why it's important to ask these questions is because without a paying customer, there will be no business!

Without a paying customer, all we have is a hobby.

Traditionally prospecting was done by "canvassing" which is going up to people physically to start a conversation with them.

Businesses still do that today because the last time I was at Ceddi plaza in Abuja, a rep for a real estate development company walked up to me to see if I was interested in some flyers and projects they are rolling out around the city.

Canvassing and "face to face" hustle is really hard work!

That's why we have to make sure that we do the right amount of "targeting" up front.

We want to be sure we are approaching the right people from the beginning. This increases our chances of having conversations with people who are actually interested and might be ready to take action reasonably soon.

With this in mind, is it a good idea to approach members of the public randomly? Maybe not! (although random activity might be better than nothing in the early days).

The trick with canvassing and "face to face" is to make sure we have some rough cues that can serve as clues for who might be interested in what we do.

Back to the lady at Ceddi plaza selling real estate development...

Should she only approach people who drive SUVs? That might be a sign that they have disposable income and might be able to afford a plot in a project under development.

Should her company enter into a partnership with a bank so that they have access to people who have about 5M in fixed deposits maturing soon? That might mean they have spare cash sitting around with no ideas of where to spend it.

Or should she approach people who are members of the board for REIT/ Real Estate Investment Trusts and see what opportunities for business arise?

These are the sorts of ideas and creative thinking that we should mull around from week to week to get the needle moving in our businesses.

The better we get at "prospecting", the better our chances are for having productive business conversations.

By the way, I didn't take the lady's flyers. I don't have disposable income now, and I'm not interested in real estate at the moment.

It's not that talking to me was a waste of her time, it's that she didn't properly target to begin with.