a. STEP #1. Discover where your customer is today. Before you call on a prospect, use the Internet or business contacts find out as much as you can about where the prospect is today, what’s going on with their business, where they’re having problems, how happy they are with the products they’re currently using, how they currently do things which your offerings might help them do better. When you initially meet with your first customer contact, ask open-ended questions to obtain information that fills in the details you couldn’t find out through your research.