Have you ever called on a potential sales prospect who is complacent about his business problems?… Is your customer in survival mode?… Is your sales prospect hoping the problems will straighten themselves out on their own? Perhaps your prospect is just plain clueless about the problems he is facing?

Your customer wants to fix his problems, but because he can get caught up in his day-to-day struggles, it is hard to step back and assess the situation. That’s where you step in. It’s time to do some tweaking to your sales prospecting techniques — helping your customer organize his thoughts, assess the situation, and start addressing his business problems — by asking the following two questions:

Nancy Nardin, founder of Smart Selling Tools, asked me to check out her new e-book, Sales Productivity in 2010: Sales Tools and the Path to Productivity Gains. I found this e-book terrific and an invaluable resource for the new year — plenty of great sales tools and productivity resources to put into action for your business in 2010. That’s why I’m excited to share it with you.

Nancy has done a ton of research on the latest tools that will help salespeople meet and exceed demands in this chaotic, yet fast-paced economy.

I just finished an interview with the great folks at EyesOnSales. Their lead editor, Leah Rust, talked with me about the sales prospecting process and how to deal with sales prospects that never seem to make a decision during the selling process. Of course, we’d all prefer sales prospects to say “yes,” but at least when they say “no,” we can move on. Sales prospecting closure, so to speak. The interview is entitled, How to Get the Stuck Sale Moving — the podcast is available at the EOS website.

Fence-sitters and dead-enders can take up inordinate amounts of your sales prospecting time and energy, often with little to show at the end. A big problem is — some of your best customers may also be slow to decide — especially in the early stages of the customer relationship. How do you differenciate?