Why Email is the Only Way to Prospect

Cold calls. Social selling. Emails. Door-to-door. Cold Facetimes. Pitch slapping on Twitter. SlickTok'ing. Direct mail. Trade shows. Sky writing.

In today's world of sales, there are more channels than ever to reach your prospects. But email is clearly the best, right? Or is it cold calls? Or social selling?

Today on Sales Feed, we fuelled this debate by bringing together eight sales enthusiasts to share their perspectives on the best prospecting channels. In fact, we asked them a simple question that may seem impossible to answer:

"If you could only use one prospecting channel, which would it be?"

Here's what they had to say (~3 minute watch):

Without a doubt, there is no single answer to this question, and I love that this video brought that to life. Huge kudos to Kyle Coleman for fundamentally rejecting the question ??

It Depends

The best channel to reach prospects clearly depends on a myriad of factors. And in most cases, the best strategy is a multi-channel approach to maximize your chances of getting the attention you deserve.

That said, here are a few tips on how to determine which channels you should consider focusing on to maximize YOUR chances of successful outreach:

The Nature of Your Prospect

This is the most important thing to consider when planning your outreach channel strategy. It doesn't matter what YOU are good at, or what YOU prefer to do. It's all about what's going to resonate with the people you are targeting.

Some people will be more likely to engage in emails. Some will actually answer the phone. Others will ignore those channels like the plague but respond well to social media engagements. But on which social channel?!?

Consider things like the industry you're selling to, the persona of your prospects, the social channels they tend to be on (and how likely they are to be on those channels for business purposes), the likelihood that they work in an office or at home, etc. Practice extreme empathy for your buyers and that will help you understand which channel(s) are most likely to perform well with them.

The Nature of What You Sell

There's a lot of nuance to this element, but consider the following as a starting point:

If you sell a highly transactional product, or something that offers a free version they can act on immediately, digital channels like email and social may work very well. On those channels you can build curiosity quickly (without the need for live phone calls to explain what you do) and offer low-friction calls-to-action like "if this sounds interesting, go check it out for yourself and let me know what you think!" On the other hand, if you're selling complex solutions to c-level executives at large enterprises, high-touch outreach may be the way to focus: phone, events, even in-person or sky writing.

This may be a gross over-simplification, but hopefully it drives home the point that what, and how, you sell can influence how you may want to focus your prospecting efforts.

You

While you need to start with what your prospects may prefer, there's always an element of your own skillset and preferences to layer into the equation. Some people are just absolute bosses at cold calling, and that becomes their most efficient way of booking meetings. Others are incredible on video, and will use personalized videos via email and social outreach to book most of their meetings. Others who may be more senior in their careers have strong social selling aptitude and understand how to build relationships online that can turn into opportunities.

Don't be shy to lean into your strengths, as this will also make selling a lot more fun and rewarding. But don't get trapped into solely focusing on your own preferred channel or format. Be empathetic to your buyer and try stepping out of your comfort zone to see what else might work. Nothing builds character like getting told to go to hell on 5 consecutive cold calls, only to land a meeting on the sixth.

Who knows, maybe email isn't the only way to prospect after all!