Welcome to Selling Skills for Professionals: Part 1 Prospecting. If you are an accountant, a lawyer, a consulting engineer, a surveyor, an actuary, a management consultant, an events organiser, an HR professional, or any other form of professional businessperson, and you need to identify and develop new clients, then this course is for you This is part 1 of a two-part course on selling skills for professionals. In Part 1 I cover prospecting, that is identifying potential future clients and making the initial approach. In Part 2 of Selling Skills for Professionals, I cover the sales process once you have made contact with a potential client. Selling Skills for Professionals covers high involvement purchases where the commitment is a significant one for the purchaser. This covers relatively expensive business investments, but also purchase agreements that the purchaser feels will have a significant impact on their business – for example engaging an accountant or a lawyer, or a management consultant, and so on. With a high involvement purchase, the client typically will consider a range of alternatives; will review a variety of information sources; and will evaluate product and service attributes in detail. This means that there is a relatively high barrier to surmount to get the potential client’s attention. A solid approach to prospecting and a well-structured sales process can increase that conversion rate and enhance your success in securing clients who will remain with you for the long term. That is the purpose of this course. I hope you enjoy the course.