"Prospecting plan" — 5 channels that deliver a steady lead flow
In 7 minutes you'll have a quarter-ready prospecting plan — with a clear daily activity target and a simple funnel.
Jean-Luc Médéric
7 min read
In my first year in sales I was chaotic.
I’d wake up thinking “I need clients today”, spend the morning scrolling LinkedIn, then switch to calls, then write emails at night.
End of the month: 200 scattered touches, 3 meetings, 0 closed deals.
My coach looked at my activity and said: “You don’t have prospecting. You have nervous searching.”
Then he gave me a frame that changed everything: 5 channels, a fixed number of actions per day, and a weekly metric.
The next quarter: 47 meetings, 12 closed deals.
It wasn’t magic.
It was a plan.
⚡️ Key idea
Prospecting isn’t “finding clients”. It’s a system of daily actions that produces a predictable flow of qualified meetings. Without a system you’re in survival mode. With a system you’re in growth mode.
Why “finding clients” doesn’t work
Golden Key principle: prospecting is step 1 of the 6-step sale.
If step 1 fails, the other five don’t matter.
No prospects means no qualification. No qualification means nothing to present. The pipeline is empty.
Most sellers make the same mistake: prospecting is “when I have time”.
In reality that means “never”. Time for calm work doesn’t appear by itself.
A working system has three parts:
- Ideal customer profile (ICP) — who you sell to, narrow and clear
- 5 channels — diversified sources so you don’t depend on one
- Rhythm — a fixed number of actions every day, on the clock
Without these three, you’re in chaos.
💡 Rule #1
Prospecting happens in the morning, before ops tasks begin. It’s the most productive part of the day. Give it to growth, not reactions. If you leave it for “after lunch”, you’ll almost never do it. This is tested across hundreds of sellers.
What NOT to do
“Today I’ll just hang out on LinkedIn and see who to message.”
What’s wrong? Chaos with no goal or metric.
At the end of the day you “worked”, but you don’t know how much you did or what worked.
In a week you burn out.
“I’ll try 10 channels at once to find the best one.”
What’s wrong? You won’t master any of them.
Each channel needs 2-4 weeks to understand how it works in your market.
If you keep switching, every channel stays weak and you conclude “sales doesn’t work”.
“I’ll run ads first. Leads will come in by themselves.”
What’s wrong? Ads bring cold leads with zero trust.
Conversion is 5-10x lower than warm touches through networking/referrals.
If you don’t have an ICP and a basic funnel, ads just burn money.
Quote
“Sustainable sales start with prospecting you do every day, regardless of mood. Everything else is reaction. Prospecting is initiative.”
— Michael Bang, lesson #11 "Prospecting"Step 1. Define your ICP
Your ICP is not “everyone who can buy.”
It’s a specific segment with pain, budget, and authority.
Example: “Founder of a B2B SaaS at 1-5M ARR, spending €30k-€100k/year on marketing, struggling with low demo conversion.”
If you don’t have a one-liner, your prospecting will be inefficient.
Don’t skip this.
💡 Shortcut
Take your 5 best clients from last year. Find the overlap: company size, industry, DM role, trigger event. That’s your ICP. Not invented, but real.
Step 2. Pick 5 channels
Not more and not less.
Fewer and you depend too much on one. More and you can’t actually learn them.
Channel 1: Referrals (fastest)
What to do: once a month ask 3-5 current/past clients: “Who else in your network could benefit from this? Can you introduce us?”
Meeting conversion: 60-80%. About 10x higher than any cold channel.
Channel 2: Networking (medium speed, high quality)
What to do: 1 targeted event per week (conference, meetup, business breakfast). Goal: 5 new conversations + contact exchange. Don’t sell on the spot. Just connect and capture interest.
After the event, within 24 hours send a short message: “Great meeting you. I remember you mentioned [their topic] — if you want, I can share a couple of ideas.”
Channel 3: Cold calls (fastest volume, needs practice)
What to do: 25 cold calls/day, morning block of 90 minutes. Use the opener from the guide "I don't have time". Track: pickup rate + hook rate.
Conversion is low (2-5% to a meeting), but volume covers it.
It’s the most underrated channel because most people are scared.
Channel 4: Cold outreach (LinkedIn, email)
What to do: 30 personalized messages/day. Not a template. Each message includes one concrete detail about them (company, post, news). Cadence: 3 touches, then stop.
Reply rate: 8-15% if your personalization is good. Meetings: 3-5%.
Channel 5: Content (slow, but creates inbound)
What to do: 2 posts/week on LinkedIn (or wherever your ICP actually lives). Topics: real cases, mistake breakdowns, practical lessons. No “motivation”. No “5 tips to…” fluff.
After 3-6 months inbound starts.
Slowest, but produces the warmest leads.
Step 3. Lock your weekly rhythm
Each channel needs a concrete number of actions per day/week.
Below is a solid pace for one person.
📊 Daily baseline (solo)
- Calls: 25/day, 90-minute morning block
- Outreach messages: 30 personalized messages
- Networking: 1 event/week + follow-up within 24 hours
- Referrals: 5 asks/month = 1/week
- Content: 2 posts/week + 30 min/day commenting
That’s ~55-60 touches/day.
Sounds like a lot, but with a rhythm it’s easy.
Real dialog
Conversation with my client, a solo B2B marketing consultant. He complained: “I don’t have leads.”
Client:I just don’t have leads. I do everything I can, but nobody comes.
Seller:How many new touches do you do per day across all channels, total?
Client:Hmm… well… I messaged 2-3 people on LinkedIn yesterday. And I posted once last week.
Seller:3 touches/day isn’t “no leads”. It’s “no prospecting”. A normal solo baseline is 50-60. Want to define your ICP and distribute those 50-60 across 5 channels?
Client:50/day sounds impossible.
Seller:90 minutes in the morning = 25 calls. Another 60 minutes = 30 messages. One event per week. That’s 4 hours/week for new touches. If you can’t find 4 hours/week, your problem isn’t leads. It’s priorities.
Client:Alright. I’ll try 90 days.
After 90 days: 12 meetings, 4 closed deals. No ad budget.
6 rules to keep
Morning checklist
- Do I know who I’m calling today (name, company, trigger)?
- Is my 90-minute morning prospecting block protected (no meetings, no chats)?
- Do I have an opening script for cold calls?
- Do I know what metric I’ll measure at the end of the week?
- Am I doing a fixed number of touches, not “working”?
Common mistakes
⚠️ What kills prospecting
- Doing it “when there’s time”. There won’t be time. Block it in your calendar.
- Jumping between channels. Master 1-2, then add more.
- Measuring deals instead of activity. Deals are the outcome. Activity is what you control.
- Prospecting without an ICP. That’s chaos, not prospecting.
- Not tracking conversion by channel. In a month you won’t know what works.
Main takeaway
Prospecting isn’t talent. It’s discipline.
5 channels + a clear rhythm + daily activity + a weekly metric.
That’s it.
The best sellers I know aren’t uniquely gifted. They just do it every day.
And after 90 days they have what “talented” people don’t: a steady flow of qualified meetings.
See also: “I don’t have time” — the main cold call objection, and Closing deals without pressure — what to do once the meeting happens.
Frequently asked questions
How much time should you spend on prospecting per day?
Minimum 90 minutes of blocked time with zero distractions. Better: 2 hours in the morning before ops tasks begin. After lunch your brain is tired and sales activity feels 3x harder. This rule is non-negotiable.
Where do you start if you don’t have any cold list yet?
Start with warm channels: referrals (ask current/past clients for 3-5 intros) and networking (1 event per week with a goal of 5 new conversations). Build your cold list in parallel; in 2-3 weeks you’ll have your first 100 contacts.
What’s a normal number of new touches per day?
For a solo founder/consultant: 15-25 new touches/day (calls, messages, posts). For a sales team: 50-80 per SDR. Less is too slow. More kills quality and you drift into robotic scripts.
What’s a normal conversion rate from prospect to deal?
Depends on price. Up to €5k: 8-15% from first touch to close within 30 days. €5k-€50k: 3-7% over 60-90 days. Above €50k: 1-3% over 4-9 months. If you’re far below that, the issue isn’t quantity, it’s qualification.
Want to drill this on real calls?
At the masterclass we break down your real calls and messages. You bring 3 situations where the deal went sideways — we replay them live and build you a personal script.
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