6 Sales Prospecting Tips for Today’s Sales Professionals

 

 

1. Book time in your calendar to prospect every day

Just as you would block a consistent time in your calendar for your workouts every day, it’s just as important to book a consistent time in your calendar to prospect every day.  Unless you’ve won the lottery, leads just don’t fall into your lap.  You’ve got to pick up the phone for something to happen.  And since prospecting isn’t always the most fun of activities, booking this time with yourself will go a long way in ensuring that this activity happens on a regular basis.

2.  Find and focus on your target market

It’s a big ocean out there.  There are different types of people, industries and company sizes.  You can’t boil the ocean all at one time, so where should you start first?
Take some time to find out what your ideal customer profile looks like and do some research in your own database.  Who are your top five customers?  Who are your worst five customers? Which customers are the most profitable?  Which ones are the least? Create profiles for each of these groups. Don’t assume that just because a company is in your database that they are fit your ideal customer profile.
Once you have done this homework, you can use both the profile and your existing company list to find other businesses which match these criteria.  This tactic will help you to stay focused on the best fish in the sea.

3.  Actively work your call lists

You’ve got the warm call list and the warm lead list, and even a lost lead list.  Prioritize each list and then take some time each day to call the people on your list. See where they are in their decision process.  Are there any questions that they have?  Is there any information that you can send them?  Invite them to a webinar or seminar that you’re hosting.
Call to touch base again in 6 weeks or 6 months.  It’s all about keeping in touch and top of mind.  By working the list consistently, you’ll be able to turn warm leads to warmer leads and then hot leads.

4.  Ask for referrals

Nothing is better than a happy customer because happy customers spread the happy word.
In a 2003 Harvard Business review article, “The One Number You Need to Grow”, it was quoted that “the value of any one customer does not reside only in what that person buys. In these interconnected days, how your customers feel about you and what they are prepared to tell others about you can influence your revenues and profits just as much.”
The best time to ask for a referral is immediately after the sale is made because this is when the experience of the sale is still fresh in the customer’s mind.  His enthusiasm, excitement and good will (if the experience was good) will show through.
It’s also important to keep in touch with your existing customers to ensure that they are still happy with your product/ service and with your company.  Remember to send them a birthday greeting.  Set up a meeting to just to say hello and see how things are going.  You can also send them invitations to events, share white papers, and other content that you think would be valuable to them.

4. Build your social media presence

If you haven’t figured it out, social media is here and it’s growing like hotcakes. Let me share some statistics with you:

source:superoffice.com