Knowledge
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Prospecting done the right way
Prospecting is probably the most important skill for anyone involved in sales. If the universal solution to most sales problems is a so called thick and healthy pipeline, then prospecting is the absolute foundation of a strong and predictable sales funnel. If you neglect prospecting today, you will likely feel the painful consequences in the coming weeks or months when new opportunities fail to appear and old ones dry up. That is why continuously adding new contacts and starting new conversations with potential clients is an absolute necessity. Even if your sales process is not yet outstanding and your closing rate is low, the right volume of high quality prospects will certainly help you hit your targets.
What is prospecting?
Let us start from the beginning. It is a set of activities aimed at turning a lead into a preliminarily interested client (a prospect). You could say that prospecting ends when we determine that a potential client is either not a good fit or has shown initial interest in our value proposition. This means that at the prospecting stage we are either disqualifying the person as a potential client or trying to spark their interest in our offer.
How do you know a client is preliminarily interested? Most often they start asking questions or request more information. They may say things like “this is interesting, tell me more” or “and how do you deal with this problem?”. Depending on how your sales process is structured, a preliminarily interested lead should usually be moved into a scheduled follow up meeting where you conduct a deeper needs analysis.
In this guide we will focus on where to find sales opportunities, what the lead sources in B2B prospecting can be and what prospecting stages you can define.
If we are talking about building outbound B2B sales, then prospecting requires several actions:
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refine the value proposition with which you will approach potential clients (USP, Unique Selling Point)
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define ideal recipients for your value proposition (ICP, Ideal Customer Profile)
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determine who within the client’s organization is the right person or group of people to contact
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build a database of well qualified recipients based on segmentation criteria
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create a contact tactic or sequence (single or multiple communication channels)
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initiate communication
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conduct a preliminary qualification (your segmentation assumptions may have been wrong and your value proposition may not be suitable for that organization)
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qualify or disqualify the client
As you can see, prospecting consists of many activities and generally requires significant resources. Depending on who you target, a single salesperson may need dozens or even hundreds of new leads per month. This text does not address the quality and structure of communication, although these factors will strongly influence conversion rates from leads to prospects.
For prospecting to make sense, it must be grounded in concrete numbers. Clear goals and consistent execution are essential. If you have a process that works in real life, it is worth spreading it across the organization and making it a starting point for every new salesperson. This allows quick verification of new hires and generates results fast.
It is best to treat prospecting as a completely separate activity within the sales process. When you focus on building lists and initiating contact, focus only on that. Do not think about selling, revenue potential or possible upsells. Focus on one thing: starting a conversation. That is your goal. Enter a dialogue and check whether your company and the potential client are aligned. Whether what you deliver truly brings value to the client’s business reality. And on the other hand, whether this is the type of client you want to serve. Making compromises here often leads to frustration.
Where to find leads for prospecting?
This is a vast topic. Creativity and non standard thinking often bring the best results. Some common places are:
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LinkedIn, a real goldmine of business contacts
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purchased databases, although their quality varies
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specialized apps that allow searching for clients by industry
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industry associations and chambers of commerce which often publish member lists
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conferences and trade fairs where you can find exhibitor and attendee lists
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online company databases such as those created by banks
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the National Court Register and CEIDG search tools
Building lists can also be outsourced to freelancers. However, you should first have very well defined segmentation criteria. In the long run, it is usually best to build prospect lists internally. This ensures the highest data quality and later results in better conversion rates.
You can support this with various IT tools: from Google Sheets to LinkedIn Sales Navigator to platforms such as Snovio, Hunter, RocketReach or ZoomInfo. The accuracy and effectiveness of these tools can be impressive.
Communication channels in prospecting
Once you have a contact list, you should start reaching out. You have several options. One of the most traditional and still incredibly effective (if done well) is the phone. If you take seriously the idea that the goal of prospecting is not selling but initiating a conversation, you may discover that the phone is an excellent tool for this. A well opened and well led conversation (open questions are crucial) has the advantage of providing immediate feedback. You can qualify or disqualify a lead in a short call.
The second highly effective method is email. A well written cold email, or ideally an entire email sequence, can successfully encourage the recipient to engage in dialogue.
The third natural space is social media, especially LinkedIn as a platform dedicated to business communication. But there is no reason not to try contacting a client on Facebook or sending a message on Instagram. Remember, you are not selling anything yet, you are simply trying to initiate a valuable conversation.
Depending on the target audience, you may use different channels. The most effective approach is often to create multichannel sequences. You can mix channels freely and experiment with different days and times. What matters is that the recipient gets a chance to see your message and that your outreach is not lost among countless other notifications. You should not get discouraged if the first messages receive no response or if the lead is unavailable for a call. Research shows that prospects typically react after 7 or 8 attempts. Sometimes you get a response after the first message, sometimes not even after a dozen attempts.
That is why prospecting must be continuous. A significant number of potential clients simply will not engage for various reasons. Your value proposition just will not be the right fit for them.
Prospecting is a necessity in building outbound sales. The organization and execution of prospecting efforts must be at the highest possible level. Prospecting should work like a machine that consistently and predictably generates a steady flow of preliminarily interested clients.
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