5 top tips: Successful sales prospecting

Here are the 5 top tips that our marketing team picked out from our recent Sales Prospecting webinar. Click here to browse upcoming free webinars. 

Tip 1. Differentiate “not now” from “no”

What are you doing with the “not now” prospects? If somebody doesn’t have sufficient budget left, or only requires your services at a particular time of year, they aren't a prospect right now but could be a customer in the future. Build these people into your strategy to make sure you aren’t missing out on sales when their circumstances change.

Tip 2. Make use of events

Are you making use of events to meet people and find opportunities? Conferences, networking events and trade shows can be fantastic places to have conversations with prospects. When investing your time in this way, make sure you have a strategy in place to maximise your impact. Decide how you are going to engage with people, and – crucially – how you will follow up.

Tip 3. Build a customer persona

Who is your ideal client? What are their challenges and needs? Where can they be reached? Putting an ideal customer persona down on paper is a useful exercise to get you focused on who your target individual is and how to appeal to them. Even if you’re B2B, you’ll have an idea of the individuals you are trying to reach.

Tip 4. Personalise it

If you are reaching out on LinkedIn, personalise your message. If you don’t, it will be a turn off. Their profile is right there, full of information that will give you clues as to whether or not they are a strong prospect, so make use of that information to start the conversation.

Tip 5. Use content to position yourself as an expert

Create content to make yourself a thought leader in your industry, to build trust and to build networks. Think about what would be valuable to your potential customers that you could share online. If your clients aren’t ready to say yes because they need to do some research first, can you provide that content, including comparisons with your competitors? Think of ways to get them to the next stage rather than passively waiting.