No matter what type of industry, there exists many types of prospecting to find qualified leads. Salespeople need to prospect continually-the real question is how? Here’s a list of several common types of prospecting:
Warm Calling
Warm calling remains the most effective way to set up appointments with the right decision makers in your target accounts. If you want to get your prospects attention you need to have something compelling to say, so dig deep to understand them when your gathering sales insights. So much great information can be found on your prospect’s social media profiles and website – be sure to look through them before reaching out. Find the common connections, such as a person, a group, an interest, or anything you and your prospect have in common.
A great way to increase your response rate when making warm calls is to implement the Double Whammy method. This refers to following up a call with another touch-point to the same prospect – whether that be an email, LinkedIn message, text message, or video. The Double Whammy shows persistence and tenacity, which buyers say will get their attention!
Referrals
Referral prospecting simply means prospecting through people that you know, your existing contacts, clients or business partners. Start with a list of people that may know the people you want to talk with (example: business associates, strategic partners or clients, etc.) and ask for an introduction.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent. By providing valuable and educational information to your customers you create a level of trust.
Networking
Networking, like sales prospecting, is a process and not an event. It takes time to develop a network, especially if you’re new to the working world or still trying to establish yourself in your industry. Identify your reasons to network. Is it to find new business, contacts or introducers, or is it to retain and build existing relationships? Identify the people you should network with. Do you know the names of the people you need to develop better relationships with? If you haven’t already met them, can you arrange to meet them?
Email Marketing
Email is free, fast, and available to most anyone. By sharing information about your business through emails, you help customers see how valuable your product or service is. Email marketing will help your product or business remain top of mind to your consumers. You can use emails to establish and nurture a relationship with your customers by providing informative pieces.
It is important for your email to stand out in a prospect’s inbox in order to earn an ‘open’. To do just that, consider the first ten words of your email. These words are often visible in an inbox, without clicking the email open. Craft a strong, intriguing first sentence that will make your prospect want to read more.
Another great way to stand out of your prospect’s inbox clutter; video emailing! Platforms like BombBomb, Vidyard, and CoVideo are fantastic tools for recording and sending short, personalized video emails. Self-recorded videos help to put a face to the name and peak a prospect’s curiosity.
To further assist with your prospecting efforts, download our complimentary 90-Day Prospecting Blitz Activity or schedule a purposeful business conversation with Lisa Leitch – Teneo’s President, Sales Strategist & Coach.
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.