2 Common Misconceptions B2B Founders Have About Sales Prospecting
B2B prospection requires more thinking & strategy than it seems
9/27/20263 min read
Many B2B founders have negative preconceptions about outbound sales. Some still believe it's impossible to book meetings through cold calling or cold email. Others think that even if you manage to book meetings, there's no way to actually close them.
Let's address these two misconceptions.
Misconception #1: It's Impossible to Book Meetings Through B2B Prospecting
And yet, plenty of events have demonstrated live, in front of the entire world, that it is absolutely possible to book meetings every day with almost any type of prospect.
Here are a few examples:
The Outbound Cup
Kold Klub livestreams
The many videos of salespeople recording themselves booking meetings live
Apparently, though, most people have never heard of Kold Klub or the Outbound Cup, and don't have a genuinely skilled salesperson in their network...
For many B2B founders, the process looks something like this:
They want to acquire more customers.
They send a few cold emails and LinkedIn messages to people they've never met, perhaps even setting up a few Lemlist sequences.
They call company switchboards.
Surprise: zero results.
And that's it. They've reached their conclusion: B2B prospecting simply doesn't work.
They can't seem to accept that the real problem might be that they're just not very good at prospecting.
Personally, I find it astonishing how little some B2B founders know about sales prospecting.
And yet, prospecting is a skill you can learn.
When I get a B2B founder on the phone and they tell me they don't believe prospecting works, they're essentially telling me that I never manage to book meetings myself.
Even when I've often already booked several meetings that very same day.
I'll admit I take it a little personally!
But anyway, that's not even the biggest challenge.
Even more B2B founders believe that while prospecting can generate meetings, those meetings simply cannot be converted into paying customers.
Misconception #2: You Can't Close Meetings Generated Through Outbound Prospecting
This is where we find companies that have already hired salespeople who managed to book meetings but generated absolutely no sales.
Or businesses that have hired sales development agencies without getting any meaningful results.
And this is where things get particularly complicated.
Because, to be fair, there's no guarantee that you'll successfully close the meetings generated for your particular offer.
The truth is that learning how to close deals for your offer can be almost as difficult as learning how to prospect effectively in the first place.
With the wrong sales strategy, you might be able to book meetings, but converting them into customers will be extremely difficult.
This could be because your offer isn't right for the market, because you're targeting prospects who are simply too difficult to reach or convert, or because your closing process needs to be reworked.
In B2B prospecting, the more expensive your product or service, the longer and more challenging the sales process is likely to become.
Here are a few tips to make closing easier:
Offer an affordable entry-level package: Use it to get your foot in the door, then look for opportunities to upsell if the relationship goes well.
Develop a realistic prospecting strategy: Everything starts with your strategy. Focus on accounts that are less likely to already be working with your competitors.
Have a clear, well-packaged offer: Make it easy for prospects to understand exactly what they're buying and what results they can expect.
Build a clear and structured closing process: Know exactly how to move prospects from the first meeting to a final purchasing decision.
That said, if you're chasing deals worth €30k in ARR, you obviously shouldn't expect a 100% closing rate.
A more realistic target might be 15–20% at most, potentially after three to four months of meetings, follow-ups, and sales efforts.
Sure, it's frustrating.
But that's business.
