Being able to attract and conquer new consumers is among the main challenges of marketing and sales teams. Today, a consistent strategy depends on executing good customer prospecting techniques.
Despite being aware of this aspect, many managers have difficulties in structuring an efficient commercial action, as well as in defining the most advantageous practices for their business.
To give you an idea, the Maturity of Digital Marketing and Sales in Brazil 2019 report reveals that 32% of institutions recognize that their strategies are not effective and 62% declared that they have something to improve.
In this sense, there is no remedy, it is necessary to optimize processes and adopt digital transformation to improve sales flows. That’s because, according to information from Sirius Decisions, 67% of the buyer’s journey happens digitally.
However, just adopting a new tool is not enough to increase negotiations or intensify an organization’s relationship with its prospects. It is necessary to reassess all commercial planning, as well as establish really significant changes in internal flows.
To help you in this mission, we present below the main customer prospecting techniques and the importance of these procedures. Check out!
How important is customer prospecting?
With the increase in competitiveness among B2B companies and the spread of technology, professionals now have access to a wide range of tools and means of communication and information, which is why the sales process needed to be overhauled.
In practice, this “new commercial normal” totally broke the paradigms that experts knew until then.
Traditional procedures were gradually replaced by practices that considered not only the sale itself, but also the customer’s perception, their needs and, mainly, their results with the products or services purchased.
That is, sales occupied a more advisory space in society. For example, the idea of offering a cell phone was replaced by the concept of presenting ease, technology and mobility. Well, if you remembered Apple, it looks like Steve Jobs accomplished his mission.
In this regard, the adoption of new customer prospecting techniques meets market and public expectations by enabling the continuous generation of leads, ensuring revenue predictability and accelerating the sales funnel.
Thus, it is possible to ensure that the company succeeds in its sales strategy and promotes a series of benefits, such as cost reduction, minimization of commercial processes, competitiveness and better relationship with the ideal customer.
How to prospect customers in the B2B segment?
B2B companies face even greater challenges in prospecting leads, because the pipeline is built in a different way than the B2C segment, in addition to the conversion process following different characteristics. However, it is possible to optimize this flow in an agile way.
In general, lead generation in the B2B segment can occur through two very assertive strategies, they are: Attraction Marketing (also known as Inbound Marketing) or Active Prospecting.
Inbound marketing
Attraction Marketing is known as a passive prospecting technique, because the company creates mechanisms for the user to find it through search engines or social networks.
This action is developed based on some strategies, such as Content Marketing, Optimization for Search Engines (called SEO) and the use of Social Networks.
The central intention of this process is to establish a connection with prospects with the help of relevant, up-to-date and informative content that is capable of generating value and inspiring actions within the site, such as contact requests or quotes.
Active prospecting
Active prospecting, as the name implies, is a dynamic technique for generating new contacts.
Different from the previous procedure, in which the organization systematizes ways for the client to find it, in this action, the company develops artifices to search for the ideal client.
This occurs through the identification, validation and qualification of prospects. That is, the strategy detects which are the qualified leads through Big Data and commercial intelligence. This process is always based on the company’s ICP and the consumer’s purchase journey.
After collecting this information, the organization establishes complete cadence flows, which occur through automated and personalized emails, cold calls and certain social networks.
These are previously defined commercial approaches to contact, engage and convert the lead, according to their needs, pain points and online behavior.
What are the best customer prospecting techniques?
Now that we understand the main ways to generate leads, we need to clearly understand what are the best customer prospecting techniques and trends in this market.
It is worth emphasizing that this type of process must be developed by a qualified team, both in pre-sales and in marketing, to guarantee effective results. With that in mind, learn about 8 customer prospecting techniques:
1. Build the ideal audience profile
The first step in active prospecting is to define the ideal customer profile (ICP), which basically summarizes the main characteristics of the brand’s potential buyer.
In this way, managers can develop practices that are more aligned with the target audience, ensuring personalization of the experience and, consequently, greater success in sales.
The ICP can be obtained from the evaluation of the current customer bank, considering those who buy repeatedly, see value in the brand, recognize the benefits and believe in the results obtained.
The collection of these data must contain all the information about this ideal consumer, such as their preferences, online behavior, their elementary doubts, difficulties, pains, size of the company in which they work, positions and other similar issues.
The more detailed these inquiries are, the simpler the strategic planning to reach that customer will be and the better the returns will be.
2. Set goals and objectives
The definition of goals and objectives is crucial for any commercial strategy, as it is directed at the performance of the entire team, making it more focused.
Objectives are classified as the company’s medium and long-term goals, where it really wants to arrive in a given period. For example: increase the conversion of qualified leads into sales by 30% in a six-month period.
The goals are the quantitative definitions to achieve the goal and are divided into smaller periods, as well as shared among all employees who are part of the implementation of these strategies.
Example: each salesperson must convert X qualified leads into sales per month and the marketing analyst must bring a list of X contacts.
3. Use technologies in prospecting
Currently, the success of customer prospecting techniques depends on the adoption of technologies that automate and facilitate the management and execution of these practices.
In addition, the digital transformation has been underway for some years in our country and has made a total difference in the results of companies that open their doors to it. Among some important tools in this process, we can mention:
- Big Data: enables the collection, storage and analysis of large amounts of data, being used to raise contacts of potential customers that are added to the prospecting mailing;
- Artificial intelligence: allows evaluating the information collected from the contacts to define if they correspond to the ICP and the purchase potential;
- Automation: enables the scalability of the solution by automating process steps, such as sending emails, classifying customers according to cadence, and others.
- In addition to the technologies themselves, employees must have efficient customer relationship platforms (CRM), activity management and interaction with consumers at their disposal.
4. Assemble a sales script
The sales script is the document that summarizes all the relevant data that the pre-sales professional must know before a commercial approach, as he is responsible for directing the conversation with the prospect.
It includes topics that should be covered, such as company introduction, solution benefits, applications, and other similar information.
With a complete and effective sales script, the SDR is able to create rapport by presenting the necessary specifications at the right time and adapting tone and language to the prospect’s profile.
5. Use prospecting email
Cold mail aims to initiate the first contact with the customer using a cadence of systematized data. In this first interaction, the objective is to attract the attention of the lead so that he wants more information about the solution or product provided.
Recommendations are that the email be direct and short, explaining the benefits of the brand and the solution. For this, it is valid to use mental triggers to demonstrate authority and credibility, in addition to market research, success stories and testimonials.
It is important to emphasize that this frequency of contacts must have a logical sequence, like a conversation between two real people.
In addition, it needs to be fully automated and personalized, as the lead must understand that your organization is interacting directly with him and with the pain he has.
6. Cold calling
Cold calling is also an option for initial contacts with the prospect. This approach should be objective, always segmented according to ICP and collecting additional information about the potential customer to personalize and improve their experience.
In general, it is characterized as telephone conversations or applications that allow instant interactions, such as videoconferences. This action is very useful to clarify doubts and explain more diffuse applications of your solution.
7. Adopt follow-up techniques
The objective of the follow-up is that the pre-sales team does not give up too easily after an initial negative response from the customer or due to the lack of response.
For the success of customer prospecting techniques, the recommendation is that at least 5 follow-ups be applied. They can be carried out in different channels, such as email, telephone, social networks (LinkedIn) and other usual platforms for your target audience.
The goal here is to determine enough follow-ups to engage the prospect and show them the value of your business and solution.
8. Be prepared for objections
A well-planned and executed sales prospecting strategy has the potential to considerably reduce objections, as it improves communication with the lead and clarifies information about the service, brand and benefits.
Still, they can happen and pre-sales must be prepared to deal with them. One of the main strategies here is the objection matrix, which structures the most common questions from prospects based on where they are in the buying journey.
As well, it is essential for your team to keep up with market trends, surveys, changes in the industry, alterations, competitor behavior and any other characteristics that may raise objections from customers.
The more information you gather, the lower the chances of your SDRs being caught off guard and the better the actions to work around these aspects in an agile, simple and effective way.
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!