Your customer is also your prospect. Yes, you read that right. A customer can become a prospect. A prospect is a potential customer, and a customer is a potential prospect. Confused? Stay with me—we’ll unpack this in three points.
The difference between customers and prospects
But first, customers and prospects are, technically speaking, different; but, it’s a fine line. Your customer is also your prospect. There are many ways to prospect, but perhaps because a prophet is never appreciated at home, the one that tends to be overlooked is looking for new business within existing business. This is what I mean: prospecting is meant to get you new business. This can come in two forms—tilling the land you already own (existing customers) and seeking new land to till (new customers). Now, let’s get back to the importance of selling to your customers (prospects?).
1. Jumpstart your sales engine
Continual prospecting is the cornerstone of successful selling. If you don’t prospect, you die. That’s a hard truth. There will be times you falter in your unending quest to find new leads. And as we’ve said before: the most toxic staff member is a salesperson with no prospects. Why? Because an idle salesperson becomes unproductive, and we all know what they say about idle minds.
During such moments, to avoid your professional death, the easiest way to jumpstart your sales activity is to prospect among your existing customers. Because, your customer is also your prospect. For example, if you sell for a bank, invite a customer with a current account to open a money market fund or take up a credit card. You’re not just pushing products—you’re meeting more of their needs. That’s an easy way to jumpstart your sales engineby prospecting at home.
2. Benefits of prospecting at home
Prospecting doesn’t end with identifying potential customers. It also includes qualifying and disqualifying them. Say I’m selling motor vehicle insurance and I have a list of car owners. That’s a good start. But if my firm only insures vehicles that are, at most, 8 years old, I need to filter that list and remove vehicles older than that. That’s disqualification.
When you’re prospecting within your existing customer base, qualification and disqualification become easier. Corporate Bank Relationship Managers are a perfect example. If one of their clients is a manufacturing firm, they can see who that firm pays—and how much. That visibility allows them to identify high-potential prospects from within the client’s ecosystem. Cold leads don’t offer that kind of clarity.
3. Trust is already established: Your customer is also your prospect.
The biggest hurdle in prospecting is trust. With existing customers, this hurdle is already behind you. They’ve bought from you before. They know your face, your voice, your tone—and most importantly, your value. The door is already open. That’s why your customer is the warmest lead you’ll ever have. Indeed, your customer is also your prospect.
So, selling to them again is not just easier—it’s smarter. Whether it’s upselling, cross-selling, or reactivating dormant accounts, trust gives you a head start that no cold call ever will. In addition, sales recovery is much, much easier with customers threatening to leave us, or, worse, have done so because of a disservice on our part. For example:
Prospect: “You must be new so I’ll not bite your head off for your innocence. Still, you should have done your homework. We used to be your customers but after our MD missed his connecting international flight because you double-booked him, we cancelled our contract with you. Now here you are selling to us as if that mistake didn’t happen.”
Salesperson: “You’re right. I should have done my homework. I’m sorry about that just as I am about what happened. Was there anything else we goofed on?”
Prospect: “Actually, until then, we were very happy with your services.”
Salesperson: “Again, I apologize for what happened. To err is as human as we are. I request you judge us not by the mistakes we made but by the way we handle our mistakes. And the only way I can think of to do so is to give us another chance. Is this soothing you are willing to try?”
Long story short, the former customer became a new prospect—and is now a customer again.
Is a customer a prospect? Your customer is also your prospect
Prospecting isn’t always about going out into the wild to find new leads. Sometimes, your next big sale is right under your nose—in your current customer base. You already have a relationship, data, and most importantly, trust. Prospecting at home not only jumpstarts your pipeline, it gives you more control, better insight, and higher conversion rates.
An existing client can become a prospect again—every time you introduce a new product, service, or opportunity that addresses their evolving needs, they become a prospect once more. You’re not just selling to them; you’re selling more to them, or selling again. See them this way—not as a closed sale, but as an open door. A door you already have the keys to.
Check out our short courses and other services here. If you would like to have your sales team sell more, we can help. In order for us to do so we propose a free consultation meeting or a call. If in agreement please complete the form below and we will get in touch after receiving your details, none of which will be public. Thank you.
Views – 14