While the concept of prospecting may seem simple, not just any strategy will get you new clients!
Sales prospecting requires a combination of wisely chosen methods combined with innovative approaches tailored to your industry.
Whether you are a professional salesperson or just starting out in business, it is essential to familiarize yourself with the best B2B sales prospecting techniques.
So let’s dive into this comprehensive guide that covers the top 8 techniques and tools every salesperson needs to build relationships and close deals.
What is B2B prospecting?
Simply put, B2B prospecting is the process of identifying potential customers, or prospects, for your business. It involves finding, contacting, and engaging potential customers to convert them into paying customers.
This process is essential to maintaining a healthy sales pipeline and ensuring a steady stream of revenue for your business.
The Importance of B2B Prospecting in Modern Business
Here are a few reasons why the importance of B2B prospecting in armenia phone number list today’s business environment cannot be overstated:
→ Customer Acquisition: Prospecting is the first step in the customer acquisition process. It helps businesses identify potential customers and engage them in meaningful conversations.
→ Revenue Generation: Without a steady stream of potential customers, businesses cannot generate new sales and increase their revenue.
→ Business Growth: Prospecting is critical to business growth. It helps businesses expand their customer base and enter new markets.
The Background of B2B Sales Prospecting
The Connection Between Sales and Marketing in Prospecting
In the field of B2B sales prospecting, the roles of sales and marketing are deeply connected.
It is a collaborative effort where marketing provides high-quality leads and sales converts them into customers. This alignment between sales and marketing is critical to effective prospecting and achieving business growth.
Differences between inbound and outbound prospecting
Understanding the difference between inbound and outbound prospecting is critical for any business.
Inbound prospecting involves attracting potential customers through content marketing, social media, SEO, and other strategies. It’s about attracting the ideal customer who is already looking for the solutions your company offers.
On the other hand, outbound prospecting involves contacting potential customers directly. This could be through cold calling, email marketing, or direct mail. The ideal customer for outbound prospecting is one who may not be actively seeking out your solutions but would benefit from them.
Understanding the buyer journey in B2B prospecting
The buyer's journey is a critical component of B2B prospecting:
Start by identifying individuals or companies who might be interested in your product or service.
The next stage involves nurturing these leads through various marketing and sales tactics until they become prospects or show a clear interest in making a purchase.
The final stage is converting these prospects into customers.
Understanding this journey can help companies customize their prospecting strategies and increase sales success.
How to Find Prospects for B2B Sales
Before you reach your potential customers, you need to identify them.
Here are some steps and techniques to guide you:
1. Define your ideal customer profile (ICP)
1. Open the ICP Model and make a copy
2. Find a source of your ICP data
→ Don't have a Product Market Fit (PMF)?
Find traffic volumes related to the problems you are trying to solve. You can use tools like Ubersuggest or Ahrefs to do this.
Hang out on communities or platforms like Facebook , Reddit , Quora , Slack , Circle , Discord , etc., to see if people are having the problem you're trying to solve.
Create more ICPs (using the templates above) based on your assumptions. You created the company primarily to solve a problem. Who might have this problem?
Contact 100 people from each ICP (aim to have 10 to 30 on the phone from each ICP) to network with them, ask for feedback, and see if they are experiencing the problem you are solving.
→ Do you have a product-market fit?
Map your existing customers. Keep in mind that not all of your customers are ideal customers, but it is still very helpful to understand what kind of customers you serve.
3. Collect and compile ICP data
Try to answer all of the following questions (answers may differ from one ICP to another):
About the company:
[] What is the size of the company?
[] What is the industry of the company?
[] What is the revenue of the company?
[] How is the growth of the company?
[] Where is the company located?
[] What is the lifetime value (LTV) of your product or service?
[] What is their Net Promoter Score (NPS)
[] What tools does the company use?
[] You can use tools like Built With or Wappalyzer You can use job descriptions
About people:
[ ] What are their pain points?
[] What value proposition do you have for them?
[] Who is the end user?
[] Who is the manager?
[] Who is the decision maker?
[] Why do they need you? (use their words)
[] What are their professional goals? (e.g. increasing the company's revenue by X%)
[] What are their personal goals? (e.g. getting a promotion in the next X months)
[] What will hold them back?
[] When do they need you?
[] Find the triggers that can help them reach out to you at the right time
[] How important and urgent is the pain?
2. Prioritize your ICPS into levels
Once you have completed your ideal customer profiles, sort them into levels.
→ Level 1 will be the ICP that will bring you the highest turnover,
→ Level 2 will be intermediate,
→ Level 3 will be the ICP that will bring you the lowest turnover.
Structuring your KPIs into levels helps you clarify your priorities and shows you where to spend most of your time.
For example, you should focus more on writing email copies for the first-level person since they will generate more revenue.
