As sellers, we want to keep as many options open to us. We want to be able to pursue business with anyone who has the potential to buy from us. But doing this actually has a boomerang effect and reduces your sales effectiveness.

Here's what you need to do to get more hot prospects in your sales pipeline:

You must focus, focus, focus.

Focus on certain types of customers. Put together a campaign and go after law firms. Or, think about what the school districts might need. Or how about mid-sized manufacturing firms. The more focused you are the better your message resonates.

You can also focus on certain types of decision makers. Immerse yourself in the challenges faced by HR Directors and contact them. Or General Managers. The more focused you are, the stronger your messages.

Finally, you can focus on any one of your products/services. Rather than trying to sell the whole shebang, take just one of your offerings. What's it's value proposition? How does it help companies? What problems does it address? Craft a message around that.

The worst thing you can do is to try to go after a broad base of customers. You'll sound like a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. Prospects want experts. So again, focus, focus, focus. Be the expert.

What do you think? Has focusing been effective for you -- or not?