3 Effective Sales Prospecting Techniques, Tips & Tools

Sales Prospecting for Modern Professionals

Sales prospecting is a labor-intensive process requiring a strategic approach, commitment to following best practices, and thoughtful utilization of available tools and technologies.

Being effective in your sales prospecting means something different than it did in the past. It means delivering messaging so resonant that it can stand up to the intensified rate of change decision-makers experience today. Customers need meaningful conversations that develop their long-term sense of confidence in the sales professional and the solution.

3 Effective Sales Prospecting Techniques

Here we share three tips to help you improve the outcomes of your prospecting efforts.

1. Prepare and Deliver a Relevant Value Statement that Speaks to the Customer's Needs.

Linking the value of your solution to your customer's most pressing challenges helps distracted customers see the link between the solution’s capabilities and their needs means crafting a value statement in four parts:

• Demonstrate that you understand what is important to the customer by articulating the nuance of the challenges they face. Be diligent in your research to ensure you accurately pinpoint top-of-mind challenges.
• Demonstrate that you value your customer’s time by keeping the message concise. Cutting the wording down to size requires multiple revisions, so it is important to allocate plenty of time early in the process to get the phrasing right.
• Demonstrate the ease of doing business together by offering specificity when explaining how your organization's capabilities connect with the customer’s business.
• Answer  the question “So what?” By answering this question you underpin the value of the solution. While the solution might boast numerous outcomes, keep the list focused on those that will resonate with the customer. To understand what metrics matter, revisit the underlying problem and ask yourself, “Which outcome of the solution offered connects most directly to the challenge?”

2. Use Available Technology to Stay Top of Mind

Gaining a customer appointment has become more difficult as decision-makers' time becomes increasingly limited. Fortunately, technology offers some unique tools you can use to stay in touch with your prospects.

Making use of technology involves more than simply connecting with your prospects on social media. For example, you can record a personalized video with a strong message to grab their attention or share a video that you find that might speak to their current needs. Embedding these videos into emails can be effective. Additionally, planning drip campaigns that share periodic thought leadership via automatic emails can keep top of mind. Don't forget to make scheduling time to talk simply by making yourself available using a calendar or booking application in your email signature.

3. Ask Existing Contacts for an Introduction to Senior-Level Decision Makers

Uptiering is critical today because, in a challenging economy, purchasing decisions often consolidate and move up, fewer people have the authority to spend, and this smaller sphere often consists of people higher up on the ladder.

Sometimes it is useful to ask for referrals online. Here, LinkedIn is an especially useful tool. Sales professionals can determine if any of their previous customers are connected to anyone in the prospect’s organization. If so, the previous customer may be willing to introduce the sales professional to the prospect virtually.

Conclusion

The circumstances of today demand smarter prospecting because unprecedented economic uncertainty has left many customers more hesitant to commit to a decision as new information continues to change the picture.

Therefore, to be effective you must contextualize outreach messaging, use a variety of tools to connect in a  customer-centric manner and formulate a plan for uptiering to senior-level decision-makers.

The result is a conversation that underpins the long-term value of the solution even within a setting characterized by constant change.