How to Warm Up Your Prospecting: It's About Persistence and Variety

Almost no one actually likes to prospect.

Chances are you’ve got an inconsistent approach — or you’re just plain winging it — and the results fail to fill the revenue pipeline with winnable opportunities. 

On a conceptual level, salespeople know that prospecting is vital to long-term success and that it takes time and tenacity to connect with potential buyers. Unfortunately, too often sales professionals approach prospecting all wrong.

What’s the fix? Respectful persistence and strategic multi-channel cadences.

Respectful Persistence

According to a survey of 160 sales professionals on B2B sales prospecting conducted by media company Selling Power on behalf of ValueSelling Associates:

• One out of two B2B sales reps fear making cold calls. 
• Consistently making cold calls ranked lowest-scoring among skills used to prospect.
• More than half (54%) of initial meetings required more than five touchpoints — such as email, phone calls, social media outreach — before a rep got the desired response. Another 10% reported it taking 10 or more touches.
• Only 18% of sales reps spend nine or more hours on weekly prospecting.

The results show that sales reps who are landing initial meetings stay dedicated and determined, displaying “respectful persistence” — properly pacing their outreach and staying steadfast in keeping opportunities “warm” until buyers are ready to talk.

Too often, salespeople give up too quickly on prospecting after only one or two outreaches. Research shows that it takes more than five and sometimes more than ten touchpoints to secure an initial meeting.

The key is to stay consistent. By never going more than five business days between touches, you’ll stay top-of-mind and significantly increase your odds of connection. 

Now that doesn’t mean sellers should call repeatedly or send 12 emails within two weeks. The idea is to use a multi-channel approach that enables buyers to connect how, when, and where they prefer — and to do that successfully, you have to put in the research and put the buyer first.

Strategic Multi-channel Cadences

How are you going to get busy people that you don’t know to accept a meeting to discuss something they don’t think they need?

You’ll need to take a strategic approach that identifies their preferred communication channel, primes their memory, and, above all, adds value. 

Use multiple channels.

When trying to connect with someone new, you don’t know their preferred method of communication. Reaching out via different communications channels and networking opportunities is proven to increase the number of connections made and meetings set.

There are six different ways you can engage with prospects:

1. Phone
2. Your network of first-degree connections
3. Email
4. Groups (both professional and personal such as volunteer groups or charities)
5. Social media
6. Events 

For example, you may start by liking and commenting on a prospect’s LinkedIn post, and three days later, send an InMail with value-added information like a relevant article from an analyst firm. Four days afterward, you can follow up with a phone call. Wait another two days and send an email that speaks to the likely challenges on their radar and shows how your company has helped similar prospects in the past. 

Throughout it all, never forget to add value. The first few touches should always be focused on thought-leadership and value-added content. 

Yes, this method is designed to help you identify a prospect’s preferred form of communication — but this isn't a one-size-fits-all approach. Building successful prospecting cadences begins with quality research.

For example, recent research by LinkedIn shows that prospects are 65% more likely to accept an InMail if they switched jobs within the past 90 days. With these potential buyers, it’s a safe bet to start with InMail. On the other hand, if your primary prospects are manufacturing leaders, you should start with a phone call. 

Prime the memory 

Creating a vortex of activity will help to prime the memory of prospects. Repeated exposure increases familiarity. The more that you present yourself as a thought-leader and an expert problem solver, the more a prospect will gravitate toward you. 

Remember that you don’t have to start from scratch. Leverage your company’s sphere of influence to increase familiarity with your prospects. 

The sphere of influence is all the ways your company impacts the market, increases awareness of its brand and offerings, and provides assets to influence potential opportunity creation.

The key is to build on this sphere of influence and make it your own. It’s not enough to simply share your company’s content. To truly differentiate yourself, share the relevant research that interests you in your outreach — the articles, ebooks, or white papers that allow you to share a personal take instead of merely a summary.

For more tips on prospecting methods that bolster modern sales pipelines, keep up with the LinkedIn Sales Solutions blog.