This activity is important because organizations should understand how each step of the prospecting process works in order to make it more efficient. Sarah recently joined a local television station in Pocatello, Idaho, as their Director of Sales. From her industry experience, Sarah knows the process begins with lead generation. As not all leads are created equal, salespeople must prioritize the leads and then qualify them to determine which are actual sales prospects. From there, to ensure effective time management, salespeople should prioritize their prospects based on importance. Last, once they have a list of prospects that are ranked by importance, salespeople should plan calls$-$taking the necessary steps to ensure they are prepared to meet with the sales prospects. Sarah has asked for an update on what each of her salespeople are currently doing, and she has to figure out which step of the process they are currently at$.$

The goal of this exercise is to select which step in the prospecting process each of the station's eight targeted accounts are currently at to decide how best to proceed over the next couple of weeks.

Read each of the pieces of information Sarah receives about targeted prospects and match them to the step in the prospecting process where each account currently is$.$