Prospecting is extremely important to most salespeople. Salespeopke. Salespeople who do not regularly prospect are operating under the assumption that the current customer base will be sufficient to generate the desired level of future revenue. This is a shaky assumption in that market conditions may change, causing existing customers to buy less. Another possibility is that customers may go out of business or be bought by another firm, with the buying decisions now being made outside the salesperson’s territory. The salesperson may simply lose customers due to competitive activity or dissatisfaction with the product, the salesperson, or the selling firm. Becausr there is typically a considerable time lag between the commencement of prospecting and the conversion of prospects to customer status, salespeople should spend some time prospecting on a regular basis. Otherwise, lost sales volume cannot be regained quickly enough to satisfy the large majority of sales organizations-that are growth oriented.