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Talking and circling to see if there is any business out of a new contact is all part of the game. Sometimes it takes several meetings either in person or over the phone to discover whether the relationship will go anywhere. Once that examination of discovery is over, business should be conducted or it is time to move on. The ideal, of course, is that business is conducted.

The question is, "How long should you keep the discover phase going before cutting off the conversation?"

Many sales managers suggest cutting it off after a couple of calls before it becomes a big waste of time. I tend to agree. You should have a process in place (or a check list of items) to qualify potential business and through the meetings and discussions, compare notes to the list.

I have worked on potential projects that never materialized for far too long. When I think back, I realized that I was concentrating on the potential and not looking at the real facts. I had not used a checklist and was not qualifying my contacts. Therefore, I was losing business in other areas because my time was spent chasing and talking to the potentials.

It seems that there are many cases where the potential business simply wants to discuss business without any action. It could be they are not at the right level within the organization and really have no authority to hire you or use your products. The answer is qualifying the customer according to your own criteria and not theirs.

Talk is not really cheap, it costs a lot of lost business in the form of production and servicing paying clients. Your actions in cutting off the relationship cost nothing, but they do reward you with gaining time which cannot be replaced.