What is Sales Prospecting and What are its Methods
Without new contacts for commercial approaches, the number of sales is greatly restricted to those consumers actively seeking the company to close a deal.
Do you need to improve your customer prospecting approach?
Then you’re on the right page!
In this article, we’ll talk about this stage of the sales flow, who the ideal customers are for each niche, and tips to make your prospecting more powerful.
Keep reading.
What is Sales Prospecting?
Within sales processes, there are several stages until the moment of closing. Sales prospecting is one of them.
This stage of prospecting clients involves searching for, identifying, and building a relationship with consumers who match the ideal customer profile and who may become customers of the company.
Who is the ideal customer?
The ICP, Ideal Customer Profile, or Ideal Customer Profile, represents, as the name suggests, the ideal customer for the company.
This means that the profile needs to match with the person who would be served by the solutions offered by the brand, who will buy your product or service.
Leads vs. Prospects
When your company gains contact information or personal data from a consumer, such as name, email, or phone number, you start calling them leads, and these leads make up the contact base, the database of your company.
Interested in something your brand offers—and it’s not always the product or service—this consumer provides this data as an exchange.
Prospects, on the other hand, are contacts or leads who have already shown direct interest in the product or service offered (such as a conversion in a free trial or demonstration hook)—or have met the qualification criteria defined by your brand.
Therefore, prospects are more qualified leads for commercial approaches and for sales.
Why is Sales Prospecting important?
Customer prospecting is essential for the success of the sales process and the business since it reaches the right people at the right times, brings contact qualification, directs where teams should dedicate time and effort, speeds up the sales cycle, and generates business opportunities.
What are the stages of customer prospecting?
As we mentioned, customer prospecting is a stage of the sales funnel.
Within it, there are several stages fulfilled by the sales department and commercial representatives.
Research
In the first phase, the responsible teams must locate potential consumers.
Furthermore, the maximum amount of information, challenges, and ambitions about each consumer must be obtained, for better preparation of the representatives who will later make contact.
It’s the research phase that will also help define which leads are better qualified, those that the sales team should prioritize.
Prospecting
The first contact is then made by the representative on the part of the potential buyer.
The seller needs to be able to create space to present what the company offers, focusing on the needs and opportunities of the consumer.
This is just the beginning of the conversation.
Connection
It is common that often it is necessary to make contact with people who influence the purchase decision, with whom the sellers need to speak before reaching the decision-makers.
It is at the connection stage that this happens, especially in the B2B market.
Education
A seller’s job needs to be constant and persistent.
Not always a sale is closed on the first commercial approach.
Sometimes it is necessary to make several contacts, especially in the case of higher contracts, to show the full potential of the offered solution, address possible doubts, and stimulate the interest of the potential buyer.
Depending on the type of product or service, samples or demonstrations can be offered, in addition to sending a quote if the lead is open to it.
Closure
Closing is the final stage of prospecting, and contacts become real business opportunities and, finally, brand customers.
It is important that the sales representative knows the right time to offer this closure and that, even after it happens, they remain close to assist the consumer and make the relationship even more solid to stimulate new purchases.
What are the main methods for Sales Prospecting?
What are the ways to prospect customers?
There are several ways, alternatives, and channels for customer prospecting to happen.
Check out the main ones here:
Outbound
The Outbound version is the most traditional in the sales process, where commercial representatives actively seek new contacts.
This method is more costly, suitable for companies with a high volume of sales.
This is because often, to reach a qualified lead, the seller needs to go through approaches to many contacts who are not interested.
Solutions such as cold calls and telemarketing, emails, approaches at events, on social networks, etc., are part of this method.
Materials like flyers, direct mail, and presentations also enter the outbound strategy as sales support.
Inbound
The goal of the Inbound method is to attract visitors and generate leads by offering content, to then build relationships, nurture and qualify these leads, directing them through the sales funnel.
The brand acts as a problem solver until identifying those qualified leads or opportunities that can generate sales, then passing on these contacts, more likely to close a deal and with a greater interest in the solution offered, to the sales team to take action.
Channels
The method by channels is when customer prospecting uses third parties for this commercial approach.
Some examples in this scenario are affiliate marketing or service companies that outsource part of the solutions offered.
Thus, often the company that makes the sale is not the same company that provides the product or service.
Referral
Referral is also a way to prospect customers.
It happens when satisfied consumers recommend your brand to friends, colleagues, and other companies, in the case of the B2B market.
Solutions like referral programs also enter here, which increases the volume of new contacts coming through consumers who gain some benefit from the referrals.
Mixed
The mixed method, as you might imagine from the name, is one that uses solutions from more than one of the options mentioned here for customer prospecting.
When well-constructed, this mixed option can boost lead generation and sales.
What is the best way to prospect customers?
Check out 8 essential tips for customer prospecting:
Be patient and don’t expect results too quickly
Prospecting is a laborious process that requires time and effort.
You will face many “noes,” and that cannot discourage you.
Work with realistic expectations and understand that closing requires persistence and time.
Don’t write very long emails
Be concise in your email communications—consumers’ time is scarce.
Also, try to personalize your messages as much as possible so that leads understand how you understand their real difficulties and needs.
Be comprehensive rather than deep
Use communication that covers problems and solutions but does not dwell on specific points, especially in the initial approaches.
This will only make your communication tiresome.
Don’t give up quickly on customers with the ideal profile
Sales objections will arise, even in those consumers who have the desired profile to become customers.
Know how to overcome these objections, do not accept the first “no” as a definitive answer, and understand what prevents the consumer from finalizing the purchase.
Give up on non-ideal customers in time
On the other hand, if the objection is real, such as timing, budget, or a purchase already closed with the competition, insisting is a mistake.
The same goes for leads that do not have the buying profile: prospecting them will only be a waste of your time.
Focus on activity indicators instead of processes
Sales processes are important, but you cannot analyze them subjectively.
Therefore, identify the metrics linked to the results and focus on tracking them for improvements.
Act accordingly
The posture of the sales representative also greatly influences the results of the approaches.
Therefore, always listen to the prospect, put yourself in the shoes of someone who wants to solve the problems they have, do not be pushy, and maintain a professional posture.
Always establish what the next step will be
Have in mind what the next step will be for all the paths the commercial approach can take.
This way, you will be prepared to deal with yes and no, provide more security to the consumer, and improve your sales arguments.
Best tools for prospecting customers
There are several tools on the market that assist sales flows and processes.
In the customer prospecting stage, we highlight:
RD Station
An automation solution for marketing and sales, RD Station offers functionalities and tools for lead generation via Inbound, such as Landing Pages, forms, pop-ups, email dispatch, nurturing and qualification flows, Lead Scoring and Lead Tracking, besides allowing access to the history of each lead and the integration of this data with CRMs.
The platform even has its CRM, called RD CRM.
HubSpot CRM
HubSpot also has an automation platform with the same functionalities mentioned for RD Station.
But we highlight here HubSpot CRM, a free CRM option, so you can track the evolution of leads in the sales funnel, distribute contacts, schedule meetings, set reminders, and generate comprehensive reports.
MailChimp
If you’re looking for a simpler tool for email automation, MailChimp is a cost-effective solution with features that will facilitate this type of contact and relationship with your lead base.
LinkedIn is a very useful tool when it comes to prospecting customers.
You can use it to contact consumers of your interest (especially in the B2B market), but also in the research phase, to gather relevant information that your contact shares on this social network.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts, as the name suggests, is a tool created to configure and receive notifications.
If you’re following a prospect, it may be interesting to explore it to track all the mentions and citations made about them on the internet, especially if your prospect is a company or someone in a decision-making role there.
Conclusion
Customer prospecting is one of the steps to the success of a company’s sales.
With the tips we’ve shared here, you already have the knowledge to start or improve your strategies in this sector.
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Thanks for reading!
