Your Buyer Persona ultimately determines your prospecting strategy

There is a lot of advice out there about prospecting, and 95% won't work for you. Several experts have written books about different approaches and strategies. There are people like me, who have written several blogs about their experiences, and despite the fact that most of the advice is really good, most of it won't work for you. Here's why.

You have a unique situation. The advice you are reading might be from someone who sells a sales automation tool to VP/Directors of Sales at companies with 11 - 500 employees, so they will write about how "phone calls work so much better than emails" and the perfect cadence is 8 touches in 2 weeks. But this works specifically because sales reps tend to check email and answer their phone very often.

If you are selling a SaaS product to teachers, they don't even have a desk phone, and they only check emails a few times a day, so your cadence and strategy needs to be different.

That means that the buyer persona and the psychographic profile of your prospects play a huge role in how best to approach and secure a meeting with them. Therefore don't just try to blindly copy what has worked for someone else.

So the question that arises now is: "How will I determine what works for me?"

And the answer is both, simple and time-consuming: "No one knows until you test a lot of things"

However, I like giving practical advice (here and here), so let's go a bit more in depth. There are a few things you will need to understand about your buyer and your users before you can start testing prospecting techniques that might have a higher chance of succeeding. I'm not only talking about the methods (email, phone, fax, handwritten notes), but also about the approach (bottoms up, top down, across departments) and the messaging (value proposition, length of message, social proof, etc).

I'll give you examples of 2 companies and specific examples of what I would try on each.

Company #1: ShareFile.

Tech and target: ShareFile sells document sharing technology to SMBs (Think Dropbox on steroids) at a ~$1,300 ACV. They target small Accounting, Engineering, and Legal firms, among others. They usually sell to the owner, or GM.

Approach to try: Cold calls to the decision maker.

Reason: The decision maker at these companies spends a lot of time in the office. They constantly meet face to face with clients and get calls from current and potential new clients (call a new accountant to see if he can do your bookkeeping), so they are very likely to pick up the phone. Their preferred method of communication is voice, not text. They also have receptionists, which you'll need to learn how to navigate.

Better Approach: Cold calls with local social proof and industry specific mentions.

Psychographic profile: These buyers know their local community, are familiar with other companies that provide the same services in their city and might read national magazines or publications specific to their industry.

Example of what to say: "John, we are working with XYZ Accounting down the road from you in regards to secure file sending. I just wanted to check if this would be relevant for you. How do you send and receive bookkeeping files with your clients?"

After their answer, respond with "well, we were just endorsed by {recognized person} at {famous company in their industry}, and seems like this would be a great fit for you. Do you have 20 minutes to look at a demo on Tuesday at 10:00 am?"

Why it works: You incorporate elements that tap into the psychographic profile of the person.

Company #2: ChatMeter

Tech and target: Chatmeter sells online reputation management and local SEO software at a ~$20,000 ACV. They target companies that have various locations, like chain restaurants, apartment management companies, healthcare companies, etc. They usually sell to the VP of Marketing or CMO and the end users are Directors of Digital Marketing and regional marketing managers.

Approach to try: Email + call cadences across marketing offering webinars.

Reason: Marketing people enjoy feeling like they are 'thought leaders.' Therefore they are intrigued when you say you are "holding webinars about the latest technology in online reputation management". Since you have more than one possible target in an account offer them to all come to a personalized webinar.

Better Approach: Top down emails that mention competitors, mixed with calls after 3+ email opens with no reply.

Psychographic profile: Marketing people are always talking funnels, conversion rates, and trying to benchmark themselves against others in their industry. When they hear their competition is doing something they are always curious.

Example of what to do: send an email with the subject "{competitors name} increased in store traffic by 37%". In the body keep it brief "John, I thought you'd find interesting that {competitor} has used online reputation management to improve their location ratings and increase local SEO, driving more traffic to their locations. We are just hosting some webinars about this, who at {company name} should attend?"

You should also follow up via phone if they open the email multiple time (or FW it around) but you get no response. This is a much warmer call now.

Why it works: You incorporate elements that tap into the psychographic profile of the person.

Conclusion:

I could write 20 pages of examples of how different products require different approaches. The most important variables you will find (in no particular order) include:

• Product ACV
• Target level of buyer (C-level, VP, Dir, Mgr)
• Department making the purchase (Marketing, Sales, IT, etc.)
• Psychographic profile of the decision maker (work routine, setup)
• Company Size
• Industry
• Pain experienced by the organization
• Benefits from using your product
• etc.

There are more factors that get even more granular according to your specific situation.

So don't just take any advice you read on books or LinkedIn, not even mine. Do some research, strategize your approach and start measuring KPIs before you decide what works best for you. It is all much more complicated than most prospecting gurus make it seem.

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