Sales Prospecting: Get Your Message Thru
In the new year, how do you get your sales prospecting call returned? Your email responded to? Billions of dollars of enterprise sales pipeline later, here are some tips from the top sales prospectors on my global teams at Salesforce.
It’s all about the person you are trying to connect with, what they need, and what they are interested in. Seems obvious, but when you look at some of the emails and calls we all get, sometimes it’s clearly not. Long gone are the days of “scatter-shot, broadcast email”. A well-crafted, concise email opener followed by a short, intent-driven call is the best one-two punch. You only have a few seconds to get attention. Personalization is everything.
Some tips from top prospectors targeting mid-size to large enterprise companies:
1. Grab someone’s attention up front: If you get someone to read past the first line, that is money! Social media is everywhere; use it to find an irresistible hook for the targeted prospect. An unconventional example: a very inventive sales rep discovered that his prospect was a keen fan of a sports team with an upcoming game. His email was titled: “Who will win the big game this weekend?” and his first line was “Go Ducks!” Sure enough, the prospect was engaged enough to read and respond based on relevant content following the eye-catching opening.
Another sales rep, prospecting to companies in the telecom/media space, found an online video of his top prospect speaking at a conference, who stated that “one day in the future, he hoped his daughter could get a pizza delivered from her TV”. Guess how this rep started his email?
2. Why is it relevant to them? It’s all about them…their company, their challenges, their priorities. Have you checked out articles about their industry, their company, and looked at their annual report? Searched for company priorities? Looked for quotes? Videos they have posted? Can you find a relevant issue the company is facing where your solution or product can make a difference? Once you get to speak live, listen carefully for their needs. No one cares unless you can show “why you, why you now?” to help deliver what they are focused on.
3. How can you instantly demonstrate credibility? Industry Rules: Has your product been successful at helping companies in the same industry solve problems, improve productivity, show results, drive growth? You need a library of use-cases and results by industry, e.g. “Company A and Company B in your industry were able to drive up sales productivity by X% because they did this, do you want to know more?” Around the world, the most compelling prospecting tactics are relevant examples and knowledge within the specific industry.
4. Connect on any level you can: If someone at the target company is familiar with your company from a prior role, find them! The best possible find is a champion for your solution who has moved to a prospect company. LinkedIn is a treasure trove of current and past roles. Other tools from companies such as Google (Alerts), ZoomInfo, InsideView and Data.com can find contact and/or flag mentions of a prospect for you. Do your research, figure out the strategic “in”. Connect the dots, use one lead to identify the next. Work up and down and across the organization; sometimes mid-level managers can share key information that provides insight. Often, a picture emerges that lets you position your solution better.
5. Unscripted is best: Sure, it is important to have templates with content you can use, such as examples of industry use-cases and ROI from using your product. But a “marketing-y email” is rarely the way, except for mass-market SMB outreach. Similarly for calls, frameworks such as “why you, why you now” are helpful to provide structure, but using scripted calls? Not so much. Unscripted approaches also force a better understanding of the product and the prospect. Customize, shorten and focus.
6. Prospecting is a marathon, not a sprint: Top prospectors talk about how you just have to keep on going. Sometimes, a sales opportunity in a big company can emerge after six months of assiduous prospecting with as many as twenty contacts. Develop a structured approach to the target company. Work the “white space” in a company, targeting relevant roles and divisions that you have not touched before or in awhile. Email your contacts any information they may find of interest along the way. Build a relationship if you can.
Good sales prospecting requires sustained drive, good listening abilities, persistence, great research, concise writing, verbal communication skills and the ability to influence. You will hear “No”, or even worse, hear nothing, many, many times every day. But if you do it well, you will also hear “Yes, let’s talk, I’m interested in learning more.”
Just. Keep. On. Going.
Originally published on LinkedIn