Cast your mind back to the last time you’ve seen someone qualify a prospect without batting an eye.
Trying to recall an event that probably never happened? That’s not a surprise. In a perfect world, you’d quickly identify your target, qualify this prospect, and win enterprise-level deals in next to no time. Yet in reality, sales prospecting is a huge undertaking.
This process, now ubiquitous in thriving sales plans, helps you hone in on new potential clients for your business. Successful prospecting, however, is not a done-and-dusted fix.
It takes a little courage and a lot of effort to gain the upper hand in sales prospecting. Every day, salespeople learn why they simply can’t put the pedal to the metal without the right technology stack: in spite of their best efforts, sales representatives might end up chasing the wrong person while high-value prospects slip through the cracks.
Here are a few tools you can employ to prospect smarter and keep yourself on track for long-term success.
Build a Top-Level Prospecting List
A jam-packed pipeline isn’t necessarily an indicator of quick win rates, but a smaller pond that is filled with high-value prospects might be.
How can you skim through hundreds of contact lists to hone in exclusively on the prospects most likely to convert into paying customers?
Given that 75% of B2B buyers use social media to make purchasing decisions, the possibility of finding your ideal audience on LinkedIn is very high. The platform’s Sales Navigator provides a set of advanced search options that help you:
- Reach nearly 690+ million professionals through direct messaging
- Discover the right people at your target accounts
- Get relevant and timely insights on your best-fit prospects
You may gather this information in-house or turn to a data vendor that will take this weight off your shoulders by crafting a high-value prospecting list for your business. The end goal is the same—build a targeted list of prospects that directly connects you with the:
- Individuals that hold influence over the decision-making committee
- Buyers with the highest propensity to purchase your product/service
After the prospecting list is set up, it’s time to find relevant ways to interact with your audience and forge an authentic relationship with each target.
Manage Your Seller-Prospect Relationships
You’ve gathered high-quality contact data and started a conversation with the right prospect. Now, you have to actively track and manage your interactions. Doing so manually and through time-consuming spreadsheets, however, may stunt your business growth. There has to be a better way, right?
Fortunately, there is—and it comes in the form of customer relationship management (CRM) software.
HubSpot’s CRM features several time-saving tools to help you organize your pipeline more effectively, tailor your outreach to each prospect, and focus on building strong customer relationships. With access to in-depth reports on your sales activity, you can analyze your overall prospecting performance to continuously improve your approach and follow-up with the right individuals—all in one dashboard.
When low-tech solutions limit your ability to prospect, CRM technology is a great investment.
Schedule Meetings the Smart Way
Your prospects don’t like wasting time; they want answers quickly—and, to be honest, so do you.
What if you could schedule a meeting with a prospect, but without the back-and-forth emails?
As it turns out, you actually can. Calendly, an easy-to-use scheduling software, helps you connect with your best prospects in just a few clicks. It allows you to distribute meetings according to availability, priority, or equity and invites your prospects to book an appointment with you whenever it suits them most.
Now, to the best part: with intelligent time-zone detection, you’ll improve your scheduling flexibility and never miss an important meeting.
With the Right Prospecting Tools, Sales Success Will Set In
Selling is not a one-size-fits-all activity—and neither is prospecting.
Turning relationships into revenue is a long-term affair that requires many tailored approaches rather than a single, go-to strategy.
As Jeb Blount explains in Fanatical Prospecting: The Ultimate Guide to Opening Sales Conversations and Filling the Pipeline by Leveraging Social Selling, Telephone, Email, Text, and Cold Calling:
“What’s the secret that separates superstars from everyone else, and why do they consistently outperform other salespeople? […] Superstars are relentless, unstoppable prospectors. They are obsessive about keeping their pipeline full of qualified prospects. They prospect anywhere and anytime—constantly turning over rocks looking for their next opportunity.”
Make prospecting your daily routine and aim to leave no stone unturned.
Invest in top-tier technology to know who your highest-potential customers are and significantly enhance your prospecting skills.
