Make your prospecting time count.
Four steps to have the right people and the next move ready when it’s time to sell.
Karl Schaphorst spent 20 years selling HVAC before becoming a Sandler trainer. Lisa Schnare helped four tech startups build sales-development teams from the ground up. Their experience speaks to a familiar problem: the prep work has swallowed prospecting. You’ve set aside the time, but you’re still gathering data when you should be making calls.
In this guide, we take excerpts from our interviews with these two sales pros to deliver a quick, practical tutorial on how to prepare your prospecting in four steps and keep deals, meetings, and admin from taking up your prospecting time.
Read on, then put their advice to work with the accompanying worksheet. You’ll know who to contact, what happens next, how to refill the list, and what needs to get out of your way.
Have someone ready to contact.
Karl separates getting ready from getting in touch. If you still need to find a number or work out why someone belongs on the list, that’s preparation you haven’t finished yet.
“The system has to be there ready to turn on.”
A big database can still leave you with nobody ready to call. For each person, have a role, a checked way to reach them, and a reason to talk. Keep an unconfirmed need as a question.
An illustrative entry: Morgan, operations lead; opening a second office; work number checked; ask who is arranging IT support for the new site. As a founding AE, you could build these entries with the founder, starting with one customer segment.
That prep is real work. With Topsail ONE, we prepare the contacts around your customer criteria. Sourcing, qualification, research, and verification happen before they reach your queue.
Know what happens after each touch.
Karl calls his working list a prospecting box. There’s room for a set number of people, a rhythm for contacting them, and a clear reason to move someone out. You’re giving each call somewhere to go.
A meeting
Move it into your pipeline. Record the agreed next step.
A clear no
Remove it from active outreach. Respect the answer.
No response
Follow up as planned. Check that they still fit and you can reach them.
Karl calls his established network weekly. That’s his rhythm; yours may need a different pace or channel. Applying his example, “Tuesday: no answer” becomes “call next Tuesday,” with a review if the contact no longer fits. A result needs a next move.
Before you start, choose your follow-up channel, date, and stop or review condition. An explicit no ends active outreach. An unanswered call does not tell you whether the person needs you.
A plan is easier to follow when it’s in front of you. Topsail ONE gives you a focused daily queue and the next step. You make the outreach and have the conversations.
Finish with the next block in mind.
Good prospecting makes room on the list. Meetings move into your pipeline. Clear nos come off. Now someone needs to fill those spaces, or next week starts with less work ready to go.
Karl’s example: 30 becomes 20
Karl aims for at least 30 calls a week. His example starts with 30 people, contacted weekly. After the yeses and nos, 20 remain.
Ten new people need to be ready before the next round. Leave that until the next calling block and you’re back where you started: finding people instead of talking to them.
Karl draws on referrals, former clients, and years of talks and training. Thirty is his number. Choose a list size and pace that fit your market.
Fix what keeps taking the hour away.
Lisa has seen active deals push prospecting aside. The cost shows up later, when new conversations dry up. Put your calendar next to your pipeline, she suggests, and ask what would free up time:
“How can I enable you in more ways?”
As a manager, Lisa asked to skip meetings where she wasn’t presenting and get the update afterwards. A specific request for time back.
Book prospecting and preparation separately. If a deal needs your prospecting slot, move the block to a named replacement time.
Ready for the next block?
Give the next hour a quick check. Any empty box tells you what still needs attention.
Start with the first unchecked item.
One-page, fillable PDF · No email required
If managing the data, tools, and daily work has become a second job, take a look at Topsail ONE. We prepare the contacts and organize the next steps. You get on with the conversations.
Keep listening with Tailwind.
Tailwind brings the conversations and expertise. Field Guides turn those insights into practical resources you can use.