The days of quickly completing a transaction by picking up the phone and calling the next number on a long list of prospects are over.
There has never been a more wary consumer base than we have today. This has made it exceedingly challenging for salespeople to generate new leads. Now more than ever, salespeople must rethink their strategies for connecting with potential customers.
Successful sales prospecting strategies in today’s day of informed consumers can come from a wide array of approaches that use many channels. If you’re on the lookout for the best prospecting techniques for successful sales, then you’re at the right place! Read on and find out.
Best Sales Prospecting Techniques
1. Build Profiles of Your Ideal Customers
Before making any calls or sending messages, you should first create a profile of your ideal consumer.
You can develop a wide variety of ideal customer avatars based on demographics, geography, and consumer behavior.
If you run a business-to-consumer operation, one of your target demographics might consist of young, professionally active women in major US cities who earn up to $100,000 per year, have a pet at home, and make weekly trips to the pet store.
When marketing to other businesses, it can be helpful to specify the average size of the companies you hope to attract and the specific roles within those companies (e.g. CEO, Head of Marketing, Teach Lead).
2. Try Some Warm Calling
Your first encounter with potential customers shouldn’t be ice-cold. Prospects can be more receptive to your first contact if you take the time to get them comfortable with you first.
Before making the initial call or sending the first email, you can boost the likelihood of a positive response by introducing yourself and your firm.
Several methods exist, such as being introduced by a common connection, commenting on something the buyer shared on social media, or “liking” a status update or job change announcement on LinkedIn.
3. Write Interesting, Tailored Emails and Send Them Out
A personalized email campaign is a great way to get in touch with potential customers. Email allows readers to consume your content at their leisure, perform their due diligence, and act only when they are confident in your proposition.
Emails are time-efficient since you may blast hundreds at once or stagger them according to your leads’ activity or time zones.
Modern email marketing solutions simplify the message to the recipient by including details such as their name, past purchases, and birthday.
For instance, you can sort subscribers by their recent actions and utilize placeholders that the system will fill in (e.g., “Hey [fname], how is life in [location]?” would be “Hey Annie, how is life in L.A.?”) (e.g. only send email to those who have a dog or who purchased toys for their kids in the past month).
To further advance leads through the sales funnel naturally and unobtrusively, email marketing may also be used to fortify your relationship with these leads.
4. You Should Consult a Script
A basic script can assist a new salesperson in overcoming awkward silences, speaking appropriately, and handling frequent objections during prospecting.
Salespeople with years of experience say that they sound more genuine and confident when they improvise their interactions rather than sticking to a script.
Some people still use scripts, but they have them so deeply embedded in their brains that they appear to speak spontaneously. Whether or not you utilize a script, it’s important to focus on the demands of your potential customers during the conversation.
5. Put Off the Sale
Prospecting is the initial step in the sales process but is not sales itself. It’s about finding prospective customers to enter the sales pipeline after being prescreened. Once these conditions are met, sales can start.
Successful salespeople in today’s market put a premium on developing connections with potential customers during the prospecting process. If you jump right into making the sale, you can end up putting too much pressure on the potential customer.
The effectiveness of your sales approaches will increase if you and the prospect have established a level of comfort with one another through trust building.
6. Keep Updating
Don’t forget to update the prospect as the deal progresses. Communication via email or phone with your point of contact is useful for developing rapport, establishing logistics for future meetings, and sharing supplementary materials.
It’s a step up from merely “checking in” to see how things are going with the prospect, and it offers you a chance to show them why you’re the best person to help them.
7. Find Companies to Collaborate with on Sales
Is there a company whose products and services could work in tandem with yours? That’s the one; it’s the one for you.
Seventy-seven percent of businesses with a co-selling model report increased revenue within a few months, and 54 percent claim that co-selling accounts for more than 20 percent of their overall sales.
A partnership is like a recommendation; it brings you business from a source your ideal consumer is already familiar with, likes, and trusts. You’d do the same for them.
According to a report from WPThemeExpert, by joining forces, two companies can capitalize on their strengths and achieve greater success. Even among major brands, we can find examples, such as Nike and Apple’s 2006 collaboration that resulted in the Nike + iPod Sport Kit. Although their product lines don’t intersect, Nike and Apple share a big fan base with the same demographic as Apple.
Conclusion
The prospecting process is not amenable to a cookie-cutter approach. Some of these sales prospecting strategies may be more effective than others for you, but that will depend on the size and type of your business as well as the tastes of your ideal customers.
However, even if one or more of these approaches doesn’t seem like a good fit at first, we still urge you to give them a try. We’ve already established that your competitors are likely to stick with tried-and-true strategies, giving you a leg up in your pursuit of the best possible customers.
