by Lucile Gil Lachman, Fractional Sales Director, Team Performance Hospitality
Q1 is coming to a close. The perfect time to remind ourselves: you don’t prospect when things are bad. You prospect so things stay good.
It’s not December, but the end of the first quarter is here. So why not take a first look at your B2B revenue?
Are you behind your January targets? Is the next semester slowing down? Or on the contrary, seeing strong momentum you want to sustain?
In all cases, there’s one reflex we all share: we only prospect when things go bad.
And that’s where everything breaks.
Because in B2B sales, decision cycles are long. Waiting for the alarm signal to start prospecting means setting yourself up to struggle six months later.
The real key? Anticipation.
And the good news: there’s nothing heroic about it. It’s built through 5 simple steps.
Step 1. Block the time. For real.
Prospecting doesn’t happen “when you have time.” It happens when you decide it does and block it in your calendar.
30 minutes a day or 1 hour a week is more than enough to start. What matters is consistency.
Think about sports: if you join a gym aiming to lose 10 kg in a month, you quit by February. But if you commit to 2 hours a week and celebrate the first kilo lost, you stick with it and you improve.
Prospecting is the same. Adapt the pace to your reality: 1 hour in peak season, 5 hours in low season. But stick to it.
Step 2. Analyze before you act
You’ve blocked the time. Now where do you start?
With your data.
Compare your revenue month by month, ideally vs. last year and the year before. Identify your need periods: when are your spaces empty? When are group bookings missing?
Tools like Backyou help you visualize your pipeline by period, both active and confirmed, without spending hours in Excel. But whatever the source, data should drive your actions.
Step 3. Target, define your goal, choose your channel
This is where many sales teams lose time, or burn out.
Ask yourself three simple questions:
- Who? Your target depends on your need. You don’t approach the same people if you need to fill 10 meeting rooms Monday to Friday, versus weekends or school holidays.
- Why? Every action needs a clear objective. Book a meeting? Understand their next event timeline? Generate a lead? Without a clear goal, you hang up like “mission accomplished”… when nothing actually happened.
- How? Prospecting isn’t just cold calling. It’s a creative playground: email sequences, calls, LinkedIn, postcards, discovery invites.
The key: show interest in them before talking about yourself.
Step 4. Choose quick-win actions
Prospecting is always last on the list. 15 urgent quotes, 3 operational crises, and the day is gone. It’s human.
The solution? Simple actions with fast, visible results, so your brain buys in and keeps going.
Three examples:
- Identified need period (e.g. slow September)
Reuse past leads (CONF, LOST, REFUSED over 2 years) and send a targeted email with a strong subject line.
- Slow period with available time
Call back contacts who reached out for a seminar at the same time last year.
- MICE agency partners
You have 10 agencies converting well but barely know them? Go meet them. Create a challenge, invite them. Relationships drive results.
And there are many more. Don’t limit yourself. Have fun with it.
Step 5. Follow-up. The most important (and most neglected) step
You called 100 contacts, sent 15 emails, organized a fam trip… and nothing. Why?
Because a call without follow-up is a message in a bottle.
The salespeople who truly make the difference aren’t the ones who prospect the most. They’re the ones who are consistent, attentive, able to close when there’s no potential, but who never let go when there is.
Block recurring follow-up time in your calendar. Backyou’s notes and task features are your best allies to stay on track.
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In the end, sales is like high-level sports. You prepare, you train, you accept losses… and you keep going. Because at some point, the wins come, and they’re worth it.
Happy prospecting! 🎯
Want to exchange on your prospecting challenges or have a question? Feel free to reach out Lucile: lucile@teamperformancehospitality.com
