No Spin, Be Reel to Get In Front of Hard-to-Find Prospects

There's a phenomenon called "fishing pressure" that anglers can often use as their excuse for no, or very few, fish caught. Pressure occurs when a body of water becomes over-fished. Perhaps a small lake, notorious for lunker bass, has hosted weekend tournaments for several consecutive weeks. Suddenly, guys who were catching 5 pounders can't even get a bite. Does this mean all the fish have been caught, or they're just harder to get in front of now? Does this sound like a familiar sales problem? What does a successful angler or salesman do to get in front of prospects in a saturated market?

You have to be willing to go where the other guys won't go, so learn some new tricks and build up your arsenal. I've certainly had to do this professionally, in sales, and I had to do this with my fishing technique too. But be WARNED: Trying something new can be awkward and uncomfortable!

After successfully fishing for years (with a spinning reel) I started fishing in a few BASS tournaments. These tournaments were just little club tournaments on some local lakes, but pressure was a big problem. Some weekends there would be 5 or 10 other club tournaments on the same lake, so the fish became harder to come by. My boater (fishing partner) would start working some shore lines and docks with his baitcasting reel, flipping and pitching. I, meanwhile, began casting out into the lake where everyone else had already cast- that's all I could do with my spinning reel. With great precision he was placing his lure on sunken tree limbs, over rock piles, under docks and just about anywhere you wouldn't want to get your line stuck. But he maneuvered it deftly and caught a limit of bass. He was willing to go where nobody else was able to go, and he had the skill to do it.

Shortly after that I bought a baitcaster and, awkwardly, began practicing with it. It felt like I had to learn to fish all over again- left handed! But I knew that if I could start doing some of the things that my boater had done I would be a multidimensional fisherman, and would be able to catch fish even when others couldn't.

It's easy to blame the market when you can't seem to close a sale, but step outside of your comfort zone and learn some new sales techniques. Who knows, you may find a big fat prospect just waiting for you to close them!