What is Sales Prospecting?

The term ‘Sales Prospecting’ means to connect and build a relationship with a prospective client.

Inbound sales prospecting is when prospective clients approach the company through various channels such as the company website and email marketing campaigns. A sales representative dealing with an inbound request is able to gain customer knowledge from their CRM System (Customer Relationship Management), such as when the potential client first visited their website and which page they viewed. Depending on how advanced their company’s sales and marketing platforms, they may also be able to see how the prospective client has navigated the company website i.e. the order of pages they have visited or the links within an email they have clicked. By doing this, sales reps will begin to understand the inbound prospective client’s requirements and purchasing objectives before a first phone call.

Outbound sales prospecting is when the sales reps make contact with prospective clients through techniques such as cold emailing, cold calling and social selling. Outbound sales prospecting or lead generation is considered more time-intensive with a lower success rate. However, when starting a business, the company may have no choice but to rely on outbound sales prospecting, because they may not have yet generated enough market traction or brand awareness to generate inbound sales leads.

10 Rules for Sales Prospecting

The execution of sales prospecting is vital to the growth of any sales organisation. Here is a list of rules for successful sales prospecting.

1. Manage your time – Schedule some time every day or on a weekly basis to do sales prospecting. Leads won’t just drop out of a tree; you have to work at them. You will be far more likely to be consistent at generating leads if it is scheduled in your calendar.

2. Evaluate previous campaigns – It’s important for you to do this before you start a campaign so that you can see the areas in which future campaigns can be improved upon. Separating the different types of prospects in to segments such as job role and company vertical can really help you to see previous successes and how to repeat them.

3. Define your target market -Do some research and find who your ideal customer is and what their profile looks like. Categorise them in to top five, most profitable, least profitable and any other categories you think would be relevant for your campaign. For example, just because a client is visible on your database, it doesn’t mean that they would be a suitable candidate for prospecting. Once you’ve defined your target market, you can compare the profile with an existing company list to find prospects to target. Using this technique will allow you to stay focused on the best fruit in the orchard.

4. Get your Social Sell on – 80% of internet users visit social networks, so you need to get your message out there! One of the most effective ways to do this in today is to put out interesting, informative and relevant content on platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Think about industry trends and hot news topics that your prospects will find interesting and engaging. The more people you connect with the more you are likely to sell.

5. Send out great personal content – Create a video to visually grasp your prospects attention. Sending out great content is the key to capturing the eye of a potential prospect. Whatever you do, make it standout and make it interesting! Rather than showing the prospect what your company does, show them who your clients are. Make it more personal! Show the prospect what you can do for them and how you will implement the product to fit with their needs and objectives for their future. Make your prospect feel valued.

6. Build a relationship – Once you have acquired a prospect it’s now time to build on that relationship. Find something that you have in common with them. For example, the countries they have visited, you may both have children or you may both love dogs. It makes it easier for the prospect to trust you if they warm to you. Life isn’t all about talking business, so keep it real!

7. Have a plan – Always be prepared. It helps to have some sort of a plan when approaching a prospect. Have some pre-written questions prepared, write down important bullet notes and try and think of any curve ball questions you might get asked. Put yourself in the position of your prospect. What information will they want from you so that they or their company can make an informed and concise decision?

8. Learn to handle objection – Prepare for an adverse response from the prospect. The prospect may say something like “it’s not something we are looking in to at the moment” or “it’s an interesting product, but we just don’t have the budget for it”. In this instance try and dig a little deeper and get a bit more information out of them by asking a question like “OK, but can you tell me a little bit more about what your strategy is and what you are looking for?”

9. Be trustworthy – Its important that after you have closed a sale that you are also there to support them. By doing this you will increase your chances of selling to your prospect in the future and you will also increase the likelihood that they will refer you to other potential prospects. When you have become a resource of help for your prospect, they will in turn help you. This can be repeated throughout your career.

10. Keep in touch – Its most important to keep you prospect up to date every step of the way. This is another way you will gain their respect and trust. It doesn’t have to be daily, but a call or email once a week to give them an update will go a long way to building a great rapport with your prospect. Even if things haven’t progressed very far you can just check in with them to make sure you are all singing off the same hymn sheet.

Conclusion

Preparation and planning are paramount to sales prospecting. The better thought out your plan, the sooner you’ll see results. The key focus of implementing a sales prospecting strategy is to build a professional and strong connection with your prospect. Trying to sell too quickly without relevance and context will often result in failure. Your priority must always be to build trust with your prospect. Sometimes it may take several emails and phone calls to establish enough trust. Remember, sales prospecting often involves stepping outside of your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to use varying sales techniques for different prospects to find what works best for you.