To up your sales prospecting game...

Prospecting – find the man with the problem. – Ben Friedman

Sales prospecting is essential, but it can be challenging. Surveyed sales professionals even ranked prospecting as more demanding than closing. That's why you need a Sales Prospecting Process.

What is a Sales Prospecting Process??

Sales prospecting occurs at the beginning of the sales funnel. Sales professionals find, track, and communicate with potential customers in the hopes of gaining a meeting, creating an opportunity, and eventually converting them into a client. To level up your prospecting efforts, you need a proven process, which is outlined below. Let's get into it.

Define Your Stages?

Work with your marketing team to establish the difference between leads, prospects, opportunities, etc.?

You might take it for granted that your team knows how to categorize the status of the companies they are pursuing. To convert a lead to a prospect, the salesperson has to engage the contact in a conversation that proves the client can benefit from what the salesperson sells. Only when the contact agrees to pursue better results does the prospect become an opportunity.?

Ensure you’re marking contacts with these stages appropriately and consistently to set yourself up for prospecting success.

Do Your Homework?

Research your prospect. When prospecting, it’s best to build a list of targets of known users of what you sell, eliminating companies and industries that don’t need what you sell. You need a list of contacts that care about the better outcomes you can help deliver. You need their contact information and a theory as to why your prospective client should change.?

Next, ask yourself, are you speaking to the Decision Maker? In the past, you would target the decision-maker. Now, however, you need decision-makers. This change in how buyers buy makes it easier to get a meeting with a stakeholder, followed by the challenge of building consensus. With a powerful theory as to why the client should change, you can start the process of creating an opportunity. Be careful not to over-research—do the right research. You can always do more research on the company and the stakeholders you are meeting once you have a confirmed date on your calendar.

Use Available Tools?

To prospect effectively, you’ll want to use all the tools you have at your disposal. Track your prospects in your CRM. The CRM is the record of your communications with your prospective clients.?

Keeping notes on who you called and the result of the conversation can help you adjust your approach over time, eventually booking a meeting. If you are pursuing a number of stakeholders, these notes will help you know who you talked with and how long it’s been since you communicated with them. Prospecting is an exercise in persistence. Additionally, use sequences for nurturing emails and other similar communications. The reason you use a prospecting sequence is that it allows you to be patiently and professionally persistent. It also creates an opportunity to provide a preview of the “why change” theory, gaining some mindshare and increasing your chances of commanding a meeting.?

Personalize Your Approach?

Effective prospecting is never generic. Approach your prospect and provide value upfront. The most important variable when it comes to prospecting is trading enough value to command a meeting. Your pitch cannot be about you sitting down with them to talk about your company or your solution. Instead, the value proposition should be about how to improve the client’s results.??

Before making the call, know why you’re calling (what you hope to achieve in this one call), and how you plan to accomplish your goal for this specific prospect. For some sales organizations, the intention is to have a discovery call. Others may need to schedule a face-to-face meeting. If you need a meeting, you’ll want your team to avoid doing discovery on a cold call.?

Gear the conversation to their pain points and struggles. You will do well to suggest that you are going to be able to provide a conversation that will leave the client better prepared to tackle their challenges and overcome the obstacles that prevent the better results they need.

Find The Right Fit?

You don’t want to find just any prospects: You want to find the right ones. Don’t pursue poor-fit customers. Sales is a two-way process, if the customer isn’t a good fit for your company, their business could end up being detrimental in the long run. In short, don’t be afraid to prune poor-fit customers: It makes a clearer pathway for the best-fit ones.?

Close The Sale?

After you’ve followed steps one through five, you should be set up for success in closing the sale.

Closing is one of the most difficult parts of selling, but by following the above steps you should be able to create an opportunity for an easier close. The best way to make closing easier and faster is to facilitate your contact’s buyer’s journey, helping them to have the conversations they need to have to make a good decision and improve their results.

The bottom line: You may think the close is the end of your sales process, but you wouldn’t be quite right! Completing the prospecting process is only the beginning. You’ll want to hone your process over time to make it as effective as possible. So keep an eye on your metrics and be ready to tweak your process to optimize your results and team performance.