Sales Prospecting Tools

Sales prospecting tools are found in every industry and every business. But not everyone might realize what they’re using is essentially a sales prospecting tool. Consider that one of the most popular B2B prospecting tools is just “LinkedIn.” It might be a social media venue, but it provides a wealth of information regarding the structure of a corporation, and it’s consequently one of the best free sales tools out there.

Sales tools for sales reps can do a few things. They can connect people to contacts, score leads based on viability, or simply organize the sales professional’s information. Free prospecting tools abound in social media: Even Twitter can be used for sales prospecting. But when it comes to actually connecting to anyone, it’s time for more robust tools. Outbound sales software can do everything from tracking communications to automating a lot of touch points. With outbound sales tools, sales teams are able to connect to more leads than ever before, and really focus on the leads that are most likely to pay off.

Sales tools and techniques, of course, also go beyond raw prospecting tools. But sales tools for B2B and B2C sales are an essential part of the process. They are what makes it possible for sales professionals to separate the wheat from the chaff and really make use of their time. Today, people are trying to automate and personalize their marketing more than ever before, and they are finding it increasingly necessary to devote more time to each client account. Technology makes it possible for a single representative of the company to complete these numerous touch points with clients as needed.

So, how do companies find the right sales prospecting tools? Usually companies have an entire suite or ecosystem, and they work to find out which tools are best for their own work flows, processes, and habits.

Sales Process

All companies are unique and have their own sales processes. But at its simplest, the buyer journey is going to be similar. First, there’s the initial touch point. Either the customer will come to you (inbound) or you will go to the customer (outbound). The process of sales prospecting involves going outbound, while the process of content marketing involves bringing customers inbound. Prospecting for network marketing is very different from prospecting in B2B, so it needs to be considered that the sales process is going to vary by industry. In the B2B world, virtual prospecting is now a reality.

So, let’s take a look at the virtual prospecting process.

Types of prospecting can range from being very involved to very limited. Sales professionals may cold contact people through LinkedIn based on their position in a company. Sales professionals may likewise hold seminars and webinars, and connect with those who respond. They may look up virtual prospecting tips or how to recruit for network marketing using Facebook and other social media accounts, because virtual prospecting is still quite new. Prospecting in network marketing is, at its core, simply a conversation.

But it’s procedural. A network marketing prospecting techniques PDF will go through it step-by-step, from how to approach a prospect in network marketing, to the core network marketing tools for success. Prospecting stories for network marketing will further illuminate the most important network marketing tools and techniques, and prospecting tools in network marketing can be tested in the form of demos to determine which is best for your own process.

Marketers today have to be willing to reach out to prospects online, communicate with them effectively, and be remarkably resilient. Online communication differs significantly from face-to-face contact, as it isn’t always possible to see how someone is reacting to a pitch. Because of this, it can take marketers some time to find their footing. But when they do, they often find that online marketing is far more effective because it can be so easily scaled.

Sales Prospects

If you’re selling above ground pools, you’re not selling them in Alaska. Understanding your product and your sales prospects is one of the most important aspects of prospecting. You have to be able to pare down your audience to the ideal buyer, because the better your buyer is, the less time you need to spend on each prospecting presentation. And the importance of prospecting research and analysis cannot be understated: The more preliminary work you do, the less work you need to do later.

Your sales prospects will look vastly different depending on your industry or vertical. B2B is different from recruiting, which is different from banking and finance, which is different from hotels and tourism, and so forth.

So, what are the best places to prospect for recruits?

As mentioned, bank prospecting will be different from hotel sales prospecting, and so forth. For high value accounts and high customer lifetime values, you’re likely to need to engage with customers more frequently, and more in-depth. Because of this, you need to dig down into your industry and understand what is expected of you. React to your customers: See what they like and don’t like, and what gets better responses. A/B testing or split testing (trying different things with different targets) can tell you which approaches are working better.

Because sales prospecting is so dependent on the company, it is a continual process of exploration and fine-tuning. All that together makes it essential for businesses to start early.

Prospecting Methods

It’s important for every sales prospector to have a strategy or a method before they begin. Strategies help lay out goals, measure success, and determine the steps to get there. Without a strategy, you only have an abstract idea of where you want to go. You don’t know how you’re going to get there.

Your strategy can be weekly, monthly, or quarterly, or by theme, audience, or event. What’s most important is that it enables you to track your most important metrics.

As with all of sales prospecting, prospecting methods and prospecting strategies are going to vary depending on vertical. B2B prospecting methods tend to be long-term and more involved compared to B2C prospecting methods. Likewise, your outbound sales best practices are going to vary from your inbound sales best practices. How to get more customers as a car salesman is going to differ from how to get more customers as a dermatologist.

Consider that with dealer leads, the dealer generally knows that someone is in the market for a car. The customer themselves may find the dealer through a car sales leads app or other car sales prospecting tools. The dealer may also find the customer looking at other dealership sites (through display ads). If a dealer wants to know how to increase car sales for salesman prospectors, what they really want to know is how to secure the sale. The sale itself already exists. So, how to prospect for car sales begins a little easier than some other sales.

Meanwhile, if you look at retail prospecting, you can see that many sales taking place may be unnecessary. The customer may need to be convinced that they want the product; not the specific product, but that they want the product at all. That’s a different type of prospecting altogether, and it’s far less likely that the leads will come directly to the business.

Sales Prospecting Techniques

Like a strategy, sales prospecting techniques are absolutely critical for developing a reliable sales process. First, you need to understand your prospecting personality. Not everyone is an aggressive sales professional. Some people prefer to make friends, network, and let people come to them. Your prospecting tactics have to mesh well for you as a person. An outbound sales definition simply means reaching out to leads, but it doesn’t govern what you do when you reach those leads.

Outbound sales techniques can vary. Sometimes it’s as simple as sending people information you know that they will value. Other times it’s as complex as identifying customers that are likely to make a big transition soon, and finding ways to sell them the products and services they will need in the future. While the outbound sales definition will vary, and the outbound sales techniques will, too, sales prospecting techniques PDF documents can cover most of them.

Many sales professionals will need to work with a multitude of techniques to get the best possible results. Having a lot of tools in one’s toolbox is the easiest way to get around challenges that are being presented, and to make sure that one is always heading in the right direction. Because sales prospecting is so complex, it’s absolutely vital that everyone track their processes and methods, and optimize and evolve them over time.

Some techniques will also work better on different prospects and different audiences, and that’s an area in which personalization and customer relationship management is essential.

Prospecting Ideas

Once you understand the basics of prospecting, where do you go for prospecting ideas? Prospecting ideas, such as a sales template, can be a good way for an inexperienced marketer or sales professional to get started. There are cold prospecting email templates that you can look at (HubSpot even offers 21 proven sales email templates), and B2B sales email templates will let you get started now and see what works for your business.

A sales prospecting template you choose to use should relate closely to your company’s industry. Otherwise, the sales proposal email template might not cover the right pain points and challenges. You can also find a LinkedIn sales message template, creative prospecting emails, fun prospecting ideas, and even a sales prospecting template Excel where you can track your success.

Consider: It’s not that important where you start, it’s important where you end up. You can take a template from virtually anywhere and start working with it now, because you’re going to evolve over time to use those templates more and more effectively. You’ll be able to see how you need to adjust depending on your audience’s reaction, and you’ll eventually end up with something that is perfectly suited to your needs.