Selling is the objective of all companies, whether an e-commerce company that wants to sell its products or a company that seeks customers to provide its services, in the end, the objective is the same: to close a deal and sell.
For this to happen, it is necessary to find and prospect new customers who may be interested in closing a deal with you. However, prospecting for new customers is not an easy task, according to a study carried out by HubSpot, for 42% of sellers, prospecting is considered the most difficult moment of the sales process.
That is, knowing how to prospect new customers is fundamental to the success of a company. Therefore, in today’s article, you will understand once and for all: what is prospecting for customers, how to prospect for new customers and the most common mistakes you need to avoid in prospecting.
What is customer prospecting
To avoid mistakes, you need to have a very clear understanding of what customer prospecting is.
Prospecting for new customers is the stage of the sales process where your sales team comes into contact with potential customers who are interested in your product or service.
At this time, sellers call the most qualified leads who have the greatest chance of closing a deal and who are at the end of their shopping journey, ready to receive a proposal.
As we mentioned in the introduction to this article, many sellers consider prospecting for new customers as the most difficult step in the entire sales process.
This can be explained by several factors, which will be addressed later in this text.
How to prospect new customers
There are many ways and strategies for prospecting new customers. It is extremely important that you have your prospecting strategy very well defined. The main forms of prospecting are: outbound, inbound, indication and mixed. Let’s talk a little about each of them.
Outbound
This is the more traditional prospecting model, in which the lead is not waiting for your contact and, perhaps, does not know your company yet. This contact can be made through telephone calls, telemarketing, TV and radio advertisements, etc.
Inbound
Also called attraction marketing, this prospecting strategy aims to make the customer find the company and not the opposite. This is done through the availability of free content on the internet, such as articles, webinars, e-books, infographics, and many other examples.
Recommendation
Good old-fashioned referrals still play an important role in sales, the best publicity you can have is a satisfied customer who will recommend your company to others.
Mixed
The mixed strategy involves all the previous strategies, using each one in a complementary way to the other.
5 mistakes when prospecting new customers
Finally, it’s time to talk about the main mistakes that many companies make when prospecting for new customers. With this, you will know everything about how to prospect new customers and you will be prepared to do this in your company.
Not defining the ideal customer profile
The first mistake is not defining the ICP to use as a prospecting guide. ICP means Ideal Customer Profile, or in Portuguese, Ideal Customer Profile. With it you can understand which leads really have possibilities and interest in closing a deal with your company.
In addition, the ICP allows you to identify the customers’ main pain points and use this to show that your solution can solve these problems, increasing the chances of closing a deal.
Not knowing your lead before making contact
Another very common mistake is contacting the lead without knowing anything about them. Having a previous study facilitates the conversation and can indicate to the salesperson which solution is the best for that lead, what his possible pain points are and if he corresponds with the company’s customer profile.
Focus on your business and not on your customers’ pain
The main element of prospecting for new customers is the customer himself. Therefore, it is essential that he be the focus of the conversation and not your company. Focus on how your company can help that lead, what benefits it will have when closing a deal with you.
Not having a defined customer prospecting process
As we mentioned earlier, there are several strategies and processes that can be used to prospect for customers. However, your company must have a well-defined process, so that the commercial team can proceed smoothly.
Unprepared sales team
Last but not least, the fifth mistake is having an unprepared sales team. It is important that the commercial team is well aware of the services and products offered, knows all the processes and has received adequate training.
Count with ASB Marketing to increase your sales
If you want to implement demand generation strategies in your business, it is of paramount importance to start with planning.
In this scenario, understand your audience, online behavior, preferences and, especially, make an analysis of your competitors and current demands of the market.
Then understand how your sales process works and what characteristics need to be changed to meet your ideal customer profile.
In addition, it is essential to keep in mind that demand generation does not only occur by paid media, on the contrary, inbound marketing actions (attraction marketing) and demand generation generate very advantageous results for organizations when well employed.
Finally, you can count on an experienced marketing and sales company to support the implementation of these strategies, such as ASB Marketing.
With the best innovative methodologies and tools, ASB Marketing finds its ideal customer and qualifies them through fully automated and personalized email cadence.
When the lead arrives at the purchase decision phase, we only passed on to your commercial team to close the negotiation. With this, we guarantee increased sales, reduction of trade cycle, cost optimization and support in long -term business expansion.
Do you want to know more? Go now and see how ASB Marketing can help your business!