1. 3rd Party Vendors 
2. Suck It Up and Use HQ Phone Numbers
3. Use Social Media 
4. Use XANT Sales Engagement Tool 
5. Find an Excuse to Talk
6. The Out of Office Email
7. Ask Connections
8. Internet Search
9. Direct Phone Numbers to Call Within Email
10. Socialize
11. Host an Event

1. 3rd Party Vendors 

Test vendors like crazy. You have go and try different vendors and test them out. I’m a fan of DiscoverOrg ZoomInfo as we’ve had success with them. There are a lot of vendors out there and most of them suck and sadly you won’t be able to know if if the are good until you give them a try. Don’t expect to get 100% success rate here and I wouldn’t even expect a 50% success rate but you have to test them.

2. Suck it up and use HQ phone numbers

You can usually get an HQ phone number for the company you are targeting. You get this by going to a website or using one of your list vendors.  The key here is being creative when you land on a switch board operator. We’re coming out with a study where we interviewed hundreds of gate keepers to see what they want you to do so more on this later.

3. Use Social Media phone numbers to call 

I don’t believe that 50% of people have their direct dial on LinkedIn (I’d love to see a stat for that if anybody has one) but people do have their contact information on there so it’s worth checking. Don’t stop on LinkedIn, check their Facebook and see if it’s mentioned or see if they responded to someone on Twitter to take a conversation offline and the phone number came up.

4. Use XANT Sales Engagement Tool 

Here is the holy grail! Have you used Waze? Waze gets you to your destination with real-time help from other drivers. What if you could do that in sales? You can. XANT gets you accurate phone numbers with real-time help from other sellers. If a rep from the company ‘ABC’ calls a number and has a meaningful conversation, then the system captures that. If a rep from company ‘XYZ’ then goes to call that same person, the system can tell the rep if it’s a good number or wrong number.

5. Find an Excuse to Talk

I’m not a believer in lying to the prospect so you’ll need to be creative here. At XANT we’ve approached prospects with an offer to be a guest on our podcast using email or LinkedIn which requires us to have a conversation. Who doesn’t want to participate in a podcast?

6. The Out of Office Email phone numbers to call

This is really hard to time but often when decision makers are out of office, they will leave you their number or the number of someone you could call to get their number when you send an email and they are out of office.

7. Ask Connections

LinkedIn is a power tool, but only if you use it. Do you have any connections to the prospect you’re trying to reach? Would they be willing to give you their contact information? If yes, it’s worth asking.

8. Internet Search phone numbers to call

Try searching the contact’s name with the term ‘phone number’ and you might be surprised. If that doesn’t work try searching the contact’s name the area code with an * next to it. The asterisk is a wild-card and might help you get tighter results.
RELATED: HOW TO CONNECT AND ENGAGE WITH C-LEVEL EXECUTIVES

9. Direct Phone Numbers to Call Within Email

A prospect’s email is typically far more accessible to obtain than a direct line. If you can get a lead to answer your email, chances are there will be a phone number to call within their reply email.

 10. Socialize phone numbers to call

There’s nothing better than building relationships in person. If you can attend an event or even an online seminar, undoubtedly, you’ll make connections—swap cards or contact details to build up your contacts to get phone numbers to call later. You can target people or groups by socializing and asking around. If you meet someone that you think is a good prospect, or has links to more opportunities, don’t let them walk away without getting their details.

11. Host an Event

If you think the outlay will be worth it, host an event and invite people on your target list. This might be easier for local connections, but if there’s potential for big deal closure, then the sky’s the limit. You may have to tempt your prospects in some way, for example, a free hotel stay or just a decent spread.
What other ways do you prospect for direct dial phone numbers? Share your tips below.
Up Next:

• GRANT CARDONE’S 7 SIMPLE TIPS TO IMPROVE SALES FOLLOW-UP
• HOW TO CREATE AN EFFECTIVE SALES CALL SCRIPT OUTLINE
• KNOW YOUR SALES ORGANISATION INSIDE AND OUT: 7 WAYS TO INCREASE VISIBILITY

Last week, while working from my new office, aka my dining/living room, I saw a man walking down the other side of the street whom I didn’t recognize. Mind you, I don’t know all my neighbors, or truth be told have an interest in knowing all my neighbors, but there was something about him that screamed “outsider” and my interest was piqued.

Before too long, the “outsider” knocked on my door and within 1.5 seconds I knew he was selling something. Normally I would have “no-thanks’d” the guy before the three second mark, but something made me pause.

In my role at work, I talk about sales best practices every day and my Sales System (located next to my Nervous and Respiratory Systems) were ring-a-ding-dinging.

“I noticed you don’t have a screen on your front window” he said as he backed up six feet, which I appreciated because right now I don’t want to be within 6 feet of my own mother let alone a stranger. And it’s true, I have been studiously ignoring that missing screen for the last four seasons. BUT HE NOTICED. Then he started asking me about the current state of my windows. Yes, the guy was selling new windows in the midst of a pandemic.

After reviewing the conversation and analyzing the experience, I’ve determined that three things are happening here. One, there’s a door-to-door sales rep out there working really hard to make a sale by way of human connection, and he’s not letting a stay-at-home order get in his way. Two, which is most surprising, I was a thousand times more receptive to that human interaction than I normally would be. And three, I really need to replace my screen.

Report Card for the Sales Rep

• A+ – for getting out there and not giving up. You have a very steep road ahead of you with the projected recession. Starting now to build your pipeline will “flatten the curve” but you will still have to fight for every deal and every dollar.
• A+ – for making the pitch about me. I’m not interested in a fake smile and polished recitation of your products. I have problems, thank you for being the one to offer a solution.
• B+ – for the personal connection on my doorstep. Even if it was six feet away, you were still on my doorstep and I’m paranoid about my private space more than ever. Next time, try a personalized video in an email.
• F – for follow-through. You know where I live, but you didn’t ask for my contact info. How can you follow up with me? When I’m ready to buy I may not go through the hassle of tracking you down, which is too bad because your first impression was…impressive.

Report Card for Humanity/Buyer/Me

• A+ – for personal and buyer awareness. We all need to be on the lookout for scams and germs more than ever, but it is a delicate balance between paranoia and prudent caution. The best thing to do is ask questions. Ask about the history of a sellers’ company and their proposed future. Ask about contingency plans. Ask for direct contact info for multiple people at the company and follow that up with an actual call or email. Read the fine print!
• A+ – (Most Improved) for genuinely caring about your fellow human beings. Yes, it’s a scary time right now, but there’s a lot of honest good will going on around the world. And unlike the October – December Holiday Season “good will”, it wasn’t scheduled or pre-empted by retail sales. We are much more cognizant that every purchase we make could impact someone in our community losing or keeping their job. (Write a Holiday song about that!) Being open to human interactions could be caused by the pandemic or working from home in isolation but either way, great job on being a human.
• F – for FEAR. Even though I looked at that man and for once didn’t see him as an interchangeable sales rep, I was still influenced by fear of the unknown.

Failing at Follow-through and Fear

It’s true, I asked the questions and I took the business card, but I have not committed to the sale yet because I’m afraid of the unknown. Caution isn’t going to fix my windows and when I’m ready to pull my head out of the sand will that Sales Rep be the first person I call? Did we make a true human connection? That is what sales teams should aim for to weather this storm.

Your products solve problems that will still be there after this pandemic passes. The question is, will you still be there when I’m ready to sign on the dotted line or am I one of a thousand vague interactions?

Author
Janae Galindo
Business Enablement Manager | XANT

RELATED: 4 Best Practices For Incorporating Twitter Into Your Prospecting Sequence

In this article:

1. Four Things You Need for Scalable and Effective Sales Prospecting
   1. Hypertargeting
      1. Creating Your Value Proposition
   2. Personalization
      1. How to Do Personalization Correctly
   3. Temptation
   4. Viable Comms
      1. Common Mistakes in Sales Prospecting You Can Avoid Through Effective Prospecting Components

Prospecting at Scale | Scale It Right with These Outbound Sales Components

Prospecting Definition: In sales, prospecting refers to the process of reaching out to potential leads or cold leads to create an opportunity for developing a business relationship with them. The sales prospector can use a variety of means to connect with the potential lead.

They can use social media, cold calling, cold emails, and more.

With that said, not all sales prospecting methods were made equal. Some are better at achieving results than others.

To be able to create truly effective prospecting ideas, you need to know the elements that are at the core of effective sales prospecting.

Four Things You Need for Scalable and Effective Sales Prospecting

I used to have the wrong ideas about prospecting. I was once swept up in the sweet promise of easy sales victory. Before, I believed I could write one prospecting letter, then I could blast it to 1,000 people and rely on the “law of large numbers” to carry me to quota.

It’s a fantasy a lot of us tell ourselves when we need to do some lead generation. It’s also not so far from the truth.

In reality, you can find scaled prospecting success through email and other communication without researching your prospects to death. It takes a lot more work than you might want to believe, though.

What are the critical components of great outbound selling at scale?

• Hypertargeting
• Personalization
• Temptation
• Viable comms

I’ll break each of these down below for you.

1. Hypertargeting

Targeting the right market for great sales

If you shoot a basketball a thousand times, the law of large numbers indicates you should make at least a few baskets. It doesn’t work that way, however, if you’re shooting at a soccer goal.

That’s the classic prospecting mistake most of us make, especially when we try to scale up the quantity of our outreach. We aim for the wrong target market for our sales funnel.

To speed up our sales process, we buy a cheap list or the biggest list we can. We go at it like a Tyrannosaurus chasing its next meal, without giving a thought about who gets injured along the way (including our brand).

We’re shooting basketballs at soccer goals, and nobody wins.

Hypertargeting means we get serious about the potential customers we are trying to approach. We need to lock down our value proposition and our parameters for our prospective clients.

Creating Your Value Proposition

When we define our value proposition for prospecting, we need to be as specific as possible. Look at the difference between a basic value proposition and one with the appropriate level of detail:

• (A) “I provide accounting software for enterprise-level accounting teams with multiple departments across multiple countries.”
• (B) “I help Fortune 1000 companies with departments or divisions outside the U.S. to roll up all accounting numbers easily and remain 100% compliant with local laws.”

This matters in prospecting because it tells us how to focus our targeting. In this example, we need to build a list around accounting teams responsible for looking at the company’s total profits and losses, not just one area.

Imagine the difference in conversions with that improved level of targeting.

Now, we don’t want to irritate accounting managers. We’re aiming to help the ones who need our product.

The clarity in your value proposition leads to increased accuracy in defining your potential customers. You’re now better prepared to define the industries, regions, and other indicators that make a company the right fit for your product.

That’s what hypertargeting is all about.

You don’t want to waste any effort, no matter how small, on people who don’t need you. You also don’t want to damage your brand with lazy outreach.

It’s not worth it!

2. Personalization

Another component of effective prospecting is personalization.

Up to this point, you’ve probably nodded off as you were reading. Hypertargeting is easy to understand and logical (even if a lot of sales professionals aren’t doing it right or at all).

Now I’m going to propose something that may upset you. In most cases, researching the specific people you’re trying to reach is a low-value activity.

There, I said it!

Here’s what I mean.

A lot of reps in charge of sales prospecting fly the flag of “personalization” and think it means the same thing as “quality.” What makes a quality conversation between a vendor and a buyer?

• The vendor has a product that solves the buyer’s problem.
• It understands the problem enough to help the potential customers identify it.
• The vendor can clearly explain how the product solves the buyer’s problem.
• The buyer understands the value of the product as a solution to their problem.

Notice how I didn’t list things like these:

• The vendor mentions that it knows what school the buyer went to.
• It knows the buyer’s favorite Spice Girl is Scary Spice (duh).
• Vendor cyberstalked the buyer’s Instagram feed and knows about their recent trip to Paris.

Value is all about a mutual understanding between the buyer and seller that a problem exists, which a product can solve.

How to Do Personalization Correctly

These ridiculous details, though, are the common prospecting techniques of sales reps. For all the “stuff” we post on social media, even on LinkedIn, very little of it relates to our functions within our company.

Almost none of it talks about the problems we are having at work.

Now let’s uncover the truth about how to correctly personalize for marketing prospecting. It’s all about the buyer persona.

If you understand the types of people involved in a purchasing decision (decision-makers) or who are experiencing the problem you solve, personalization becomes easy. You build your messaging (phone scripts, email templates, and even website copy) around the buyer personas.

This way, you know you’re relevant. You know if someone says they’re not interested, it’s not because you didn’t start your email with “Go Cougars!”

RELATED: The State Of Sales Development: What Does The SDR Prospecting Pipeline Look Like?

3. Temptation

Using tempting offers to scale prospecting

If you’ve correctly targeted the business you can help and have crafted your messaging around the buyer persona, you’re halfway to success at scale. The other part is creating a tempting offer to bring your prospects into the sales cycle.

Even if your product solves the problem, you have to remember the prospect didn’t ask you to cold contact them. They need a compelling reason to do anything at all about your message.

Some pretty common offers include free trials, free two-day shipping, and lower fees. All these don’t have equal value, though.

You need to understand your buyer to know whether one of these will work.

Consider the following:

a. Do you require the prospect to make a major shift to take advantage of your offer?

If they have to switch to new technology or platform that takes a lot of migration time or effort, a free trial just won’t cut it.

b. Is the value of the offer significant enough to make the uncertainty of the outcome worth it?

Buyers often put their head on the chopping block by supporting an unknown vendor or solution. It means the proposed value needs to significantly outweigh this risk.

c. Can they negotiate the same offer from another vendor (including their current vendor) if they use yours as leverage?

What you think is a major incentive to switch may just be a great way to get a discount without switching.

If you can’t provide a tempting offer, you’re going to need to educate your buyer into working with you. It’s almost impossible to do it at scale through outbound prospecting though, and will likely fit more in marketing’s wheelhouse.

Disruptive startups are popular for “growth hacking” their way to success.

What is the most common component of these prospecting campaigns? It’s an irresistible offer!

4. Viable Comms

The final part of the formula is a viable communication channel. Viability is equal parts efficiency and effectiveness.

Efficiency, for our purposes, means you can execute a lot of activity in a short period of time. Technology enables an unprecedented level of efficiency in everything from cold calling (a la ConnectAndSell) to emailing (a la Yesware) and even the full stack together (a la XANT).

With regard to communication channels, effectiveness means you can generate a response from a high number of potential buyers in that channel.

When I ran a team that sold to independent insurance agency owners, we found email was ineffective. Phone calls helped us more in sales prospecting.

Please note that viability has nothing to do with how much you or your reps like to sell with a given channel. To reach successfully scaled prospecting, we can’t concern ourselves with personal preference.

It’s exceptionally difficult to live at the intersection of quality and quantity in outbound sales.

That’s what makes it so valuable, however. If you can master this formula, you will:

• Stand out from your competition
• Drive more sales pipeline and closed deals
• Have more fun in a very challenging role

Common Mistakes in Sales Prospecting You Can Avoid Through Effective Prospecting Components

Once you’ve nailed down the critical components of outbound selling, you’ll have a better time prospecting. Additionally, you can use these components to help you create a truly effective outbound selling prospecting plan.

If you don’t think about these essential components, then you might end up committing common mistakes in sales prospecting. The reason why people don’t get the results they want from sales prospecting is that they’re ignorant of these four components.

As long as you keep in mind the four components of scalable and effective outbound prospecting, you should be able to avoid:

1. Not Researching Before Prospecting

Hypertargeting requires sales professionals to research customers to find out if they really fit your business before doing anything else. This can be ideal since you won’t be wasting a lot of time talking to leads that aren’t even qualified for you.

If you want to narrow down your prospecting list, you need to look into which customers need what you’re offering. You immediately avoid the first rookie mistake of prospecting that way: the lack of research.

2. Not Comparing Prospects to Your Buyer Persona

Personalization centers around the concept of a “Buyer Persona.” In fact, the Buyer Persona is the solution towards reducing the research time you need to find your target market.

Unfortunately, people tend to forget that a Buyer Persona isn’t just for formality only. It’s something you use to qualify and measure up your leads against.

As long as you keep the Personalization component in mind, then you’ll avoid forgetting about the importance of Buyer Persona.

3. Not Identifying Pain Points for Your Prospects

The “Temptation” component reminds sales professionals that to be successful in prospecting, you need to have a unique selling point. However, you also need something that will entice prospects to transact and further their business relationship with you.

This is where identifying pain points come in.

Most of the time, rookie sales reps focus more on their own pain points rather than the prospects. By repackaging it as the Temptation component, it makes it easier to remind people it’s about the customer’s needs more than the sales rep’s.

This makes it much easier to think about the pain points of the potential customer.

4. Treating Every Prospect the Same

Last but not least, a viable comms plan is crucial when it comes to creating unique experiences for each lead and prospect. After all, not every prospect or lead is the same, so the means with which you contact them should reflect that.

Cold calling, for example, might work for one lead, but it may be ineffective for another.

Choosing the right medium of communication is one component that bleeds into the personalization component as well. Thus, enhancing your prospecting skills of making sure that you avoid treating every prospect the same and with a template.

If you already tried to scale your outbound prospecting efforts, use this as your guide for assessing where you went wrong. If you were trying to figure out how to get more than a handful of good conversations from your sales prospecting techniques, now you know.

Using these components to guide you in your outbound prospecting efforts already levels your prospecting skills up by a lot. In fact, it will help you avoid the common mistakes that sales reps make that cause their prospecting plans to fail.

As long as you keep these components in mind and incorporate them into your prospecting plan, you should be getting the results that you want.

Happy selling!

What do you think of these prospecting components? Let us know your thoughts below! 

Looking to learn more about selling? Check out my book on Amazon called Outbound Sales, No Fluff.

Up Next:

• The 5 Step Process to Building a Sales Cadence That Works
• The 9 Best Sales Prospecting Tips And Techniques You Can Do Now
• Why Some Companies Win And Why Some Companies Lose

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on January 8, 2018, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.

RELATED: Five Myths Of Prospecting

In this article:

1. Qualify Your Leads
2. Create a Script
3. Don’t Sell Right Off the Bat
4. Do Follow-Up Calls
5. Take Sales Prospecting Seriously
6. Use Social Media to Your Advantage
7. Use Videos in Your Emails
8. Become a Subject Matter Expert
9. Always Try to Connect Again

9 Effective Sales Prospecting Tips to Close More Deals

1. Qualify Your Leads

Cold calling is not really a popular sales tactic these days. You spend hours and hours every day dialing hundreds of numbers, hoping to close one or two deals.

This isn’t efficient, which is why the first of our sales prospecting tips is to qualify your leads.

In the past, salespeople had very few ways of researching their prospects, so they had no choice but to randomly call numbers and knock on people’s houses. But today, the Internet allows us to qualify and narrow down leads so we don’t have to contact every single prospect in our database.

For example, if you have a list of 100 leads, take some time to qualify each prospect and narrow down the list. That way, you don’t have to waste time convincing someone to buy when they’re obviously not ready to.

The reality is, not everyone around you is a prospect. To solve this issue, utilize technology to qualify your leads.

2. Create a Script

If you’ve seen the true-to-life film The Wolf of Wall Street, you’d know how important sales scripts are. In fact, its protagonist Jordan Belfort emphasizes that the success of his firm heavily relied on his powerful, convincing, and thought-provoking sales scripts.

Sales scripts give a sense of uniformity for sales teams when prospecting. Sales leaders will find it easier to discover what works and what doesn’t when everyone is following the same script.

For individual salespeople, it saves them from awkward pauses and dead air. If you find yourself rambling whenever you’re nervous, you might want to stick to your script.

3. Don’t Sell Right Off the Bat

Building client relationships using sales calls

Let’s face it, consumers don’t like salespeople. A lot of them have a notion that behind every sales call is a sleazy, smooth-talking guy that wants to rob them of their money.

So, if you start selling to them right off the bat, you’ll immediately put them off and decrease the chances of you closing the deal. With that in mind, remember to prioritize your goals when sales prospecting.

Before you start selling your brand, you need to build a good relationship with your client first. Gain their trust, learn more about them, ask about their problems, and only then can you begin pitching.

4. Do Follow-Up Calls

One good way to show professionalism is to call them back at the exact time you said you would. This shows the prospect that you’re actually serious about building a relationship with them.

Also, make sure to update your prospects on whatever they need to know. Make sure to tell them if their order has proceeded, there were any troubles, or you need to confirm some details.

Note: By this time, you should already know what the best time frames are to call them. If not, make sure to send them an email or text before calling.

5. Take Sales Prospecting Seriously

Plenty of salespeople mistake sales prospecting for sales calls. In their attempt to close more deals, they end up getting none.

While there’s nothing wrong with wanting to sell to more clients, you should know when the right time to sell is. So with that in mind, make sure to free up some time for sales prospecting.

By doing so, you’ll end up with a list of highly qualified leads who are ready to buy. Compared to calling random numbers all day, this is definitely a more energy-efficient process.

RELATED: LinkedIn InMail For Sales — How To Get More Pipeline With Social

6. Use Social Media to Your Advantage

Using social media to gather information for sales

Social media allows salespeople to do in-depth research on their prospects. This will help in finding out more about the prospect’s job, hobbies, family life, and interests, among others.

After getting those pieces of information, a salesperson can have a clearer idea of what the company can offer. Aside from using calls and emails for sales prospecting, it’ll also be useful to learn how to use various social media channels.

7. Use Videos in Your Emails

Some salespeople avoid email marketing because they feel it’s no longer relevant, but in reality, they’re probably just not doing it right.

The number one rule when sales prospecting is to engage with clients. You can do this by asking questions, giving out freebies, and getting their contact info.

Now, another sales prospecting tool you can use is video.

How can video be used in sales? One example is to record yourself speaking and then send them to your prospects via email.

Compared to a lengthy chunk of text, a small, compact video is definitely more appealing. There’s a larger chance for the prospect to watch a two-minute video of you talking than them having to read a 500-word sales material.

8. Become a Subject Matter Expert

One reason some salespeople can’t close deals is they fail to become a thought leader. Being a subject matter expert certainly goes a long way in making a sale.

For example, if you’re selling life insurance, it’ll be hard to fully convince a client unless the salesperson is seen as a well-versed, reliable, and dependable financial adviser. The same applies to almost every other product or service.

So, during the sales prospecting process, make sure they the prospect knows you’re a subject matter expert. Rather than selling your brand, try to answer all of their questions and inquiries.

This also makes them feel that you’re sincere about helping them find a solution. Become a problem-solving consultant, not a salesperson.

9. Always Try to Connect Again

Connecting with clients multiple times for sales prospecting

There’s no guarantee you’ll get to talk to a client again for sales prospecting. In fact, they can just ignore you the next time you call them if they don’t want to talk or if it’s a bad time.

To avoid that, it’s advisable to continuously connect with them. Set up future meetings and sales calls at a time that’s convenient for both of you.

At the end of every call, make sure to wrap up by asking when’s the best time for them to talk to you again. Of course, make sure to have a clear goal in mind every time you make that call.

Note: Remember to ask for a specific date and time. Don’t settle for a vague answer like “this week or next week.”

These are just some of the most effective sales prospecting techniques to apply. Overall, salespeople should learn to determine when the right time is to pitch and to prospect.

While they may be related, you should never confuse the two with each other. Get to know your prospects, learn more about them, understand their pain points, gain their trust, and offer a viable solution.

Do you think these sales prospecting tips will help you when prospecting? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section down below!

Up Next:

• Prospecting At Scale To Grow Sales
• Cadence Definition: What A Salesperson Should Know
• Six Time Management Secrets of Billionaires w/Amanda Holmes @Chet Holmes International

RELATED: A Comprehensive Guide On Sales Prospecting

In this article:

1. About Gord Smith and Dan McDonald of The RAIN Group
2. A Study on Prospecting
3. Prospecting Myth #1: Buyers Don’t Want To Hear From Sellers Early On In The Sales Process
4. Prospecting Myth #2: Cold Calling Is Dead
5. Prospecting Myth #3: It Is A Challenge to Breakthrough With A Buyer
6. Prospecting Myth #4: Cold Meetings Won’t Convert Into Sales Wins
7. Prospecting Myth #5: It Is Difficult To Add Value To Buyer Meetings

How To Turn Prospecting Myths Into Sales Wins

Prospecting Definition: The first step salespeople go through in the sales process. This involves identifying potential customers for the business, also known as the prospects. Salespeople also communicate with potential customers through prospecting, with the goal of converting them into a client. This is an important part of the sales process, as the success of prospecting can mean more sales wins for the business.

About Gord Smith and Dan McDonald of The RAIN Group

Prospecting is the launchpad of the sales process, and so it is important that it produces good results.

To give us more insight on popular myths in prospecting, we talked to Gord Smith and Dan McDonald from the RAIN Group. They did a study on prospecting and shared with us the results and insights they gathered from their research.

Gord is a Consulting Partner at RAIN Group, and he’s primarily focused on the Canadian market. Dan is their Director of Business Development in Canada.

The RAIN Group is a global sales consulting company. They work with companies to improve the overall sales process and messaging, among others.

They also help developers through different training programs. Smith and McDonald are working on bringing RAIN Group to the various markets in Canada and the United States.

A Study on Prospecting

Almost all organizations struggle with prospecting, and that’s what drove RAIN Group to conduct their first study about it.

Prospecting is a critical part of the sales function and has evolved in recent years. In their study, RAIN Group wanted to learn what top performance in prospecting looks like.

Their research involved a panel of sales leaders from around the world with whom they also shared their insights with. Their demographics were interesting—they talked to 488 buyers and 489 sellers.

Like most of their research studies, they included a global group of buyers and sellers. Their study in prospecting covered over 25 industries on each side.

They involved both sides, so they were able to see things like prospecting and sales types and functions from the perspective of both the seller and the buyer.

As Dan said, the buyer information is absolutely critical in teaching and coaching sellers to get into the buyer’s mindset. RAIN Group makes it a point to value buyer information as one of the critical aspects of their studies.

Prospecting may be what sellers do, but you also have to look at it from the buyer’s perspective.

Prospecting Myth #1: Buyers Don’t Want To Hear From Sellers Early On In The Sales Process

The first myth in prospecting is that buyers go a long way through the buying journey before they reach out to sellers. It’s almost as if saying, why bother with prospecting?

Smith revealed that they were able to determine in the study that 82% of buyers will accept meetings from a seller — people they don’t know. Not only will they accept meetings, but they also prefer to hear from sellers, and to hear from them early on in the sales process.

During the early part of the sales process, before the prospects are actually ready to buy, 71% of them want to hear from a seller. This proves that this prospecting concept is one of the myths a lot of sellers may not know about.

The earlier you can get in front of the buyer, the better. Buyers actually want to hear from the sellers early on in the sales process.

Prospecting Myth #2: Cold Calling Is Dead

The second myth is you can’t do cold calling anymore. RAIN Group’s study reiterated that cold calling is an essential part of a prospecting scenario.

The two most favored methods when it comes to reaching out to a cold market are email and phone call. We’ve all heard that cold calling is dead, but in fact, their study showed that cold emails and phone calls are still relevant.

These two communication methods are still very relevant ways of starting a prospecting exercise and are still very important.

As Smith said, you will be more successful in generating responses and striking up conversations with strangers if you combine different communication techniques.

You should not stick to only one means. It’s about creating a traction campaign that’s a combination of different communication strategies.

Remember, there are some people who may not read emails. Some do not like receiving voicemails or getting phone calls, so it’s important to have a varied strategy to contact your prospects.

For example, you can send subsequent emails to your prospect, leave them voicemails, and connect with them on LinkedIn. Combine those, plan them out, and prepare a really good offer and message to get the highest response rate.

Smith also shared that sometimes, sellers look for one single silver bullet. What he learned though, is that combining different communication techniques into a really good outreach is the best practice to attract prospects.

McDonald gave good advice when he said that sellers should try different methods so they can find trends. When you see a strategy that works better than the others, adjust your plan to go with what’s hot — be flexible.

RELATED: The Seven Rules of Cold Calling

Prospecting Myth #3: It Is A Challenge to Breakthrough With A Buyer

The third myth is the challenge of gaining a breakthrough with a buyer. These days, a lot of organizations focus on communicating the value of their offers, which isn’t the most effective way of gaining said breakthrough.

When they reach out to prospects, they jump right into explaining their offers, and that’s their initial focus. Often, there’s not enough value communicated as to why the buyer should meet with the seller.

Smith revealed that the focus should really be on offering buyers something of value. It could be insights from a research study or best practices they can apply.

Sellers should focus on a message that sells the value of the first meeting and what the buyer is going to get out of it. They should save the value of their offers for a subsequent meeting, once they’ve established credibility.

Smith suggests that, during that first meeting with the buyer, there shouldn’t be a deep discussion about what you’re offering. Simply provide them with insights that add value to them (for instance, what would help them do their job better).

If you apply and repeat this prospecting system, people will start to come back to you. This is how you bust one of these prospecting myths.

McDonald reminded that sellers should always keep their endgame in mind: their conversations with the buyer should move towards where their offers fit in. It’s critical that they are able to blend in their own products and services with the insights they’ve shared.

Capture the buyer’s interest with your insights, then subtly move the conversation towards the point where your offers are part of the conversation.

Through this process, you’re giving the buyer the opportunity to say, “Yes, I understand the problem you showed me, and I can see how you’re going to help me solve that.” This is the moment when you’re able to convert the buyer into your internal advocate and make them your internal salesperson.

Your buyers may already know what you have to offer. What they want to learn is how you can help them.

Sellers should be able to determine when the proper time is to bring up their offer into the conversation.

Prospecting Myth #4: Cold Meetings Won’t Convert Into Sales Wins

The fourth myth is that you can’t convert cold meetings into sales wins. RAIN Group’s study was able to disprove this.

In their research, they found that if buyers see value in what you bring, they will be more open to meet with you. In turn, you can convert those initial meetings into sales wins.

Starting out with cold meetings doesn’t mean it’s not going to go anywhere. RAIN Group saw in their study that sellers can convert that cold start into a sales win.

Prospecting Myth #5: It Is Difficult To Add Value To Buyer Meetings

The last myth is that it’s difficult to add value to your meetings with buyers. Smith shared that there are some methods you can apply to make your buyer meetings more valuable.

They learned that 58% of buyers’ meetings with sellers were not valuable. That means that in 6 out of 10 times of meeting with sellers, buyers don’t get any value.

One strategy you can apply to mitigate that is to think about the buyer meeting as a way to educate them on new ideas. You can provide an insight or a new perspective with each meeting.

In this way, the buyer will gain a better and deeper understanding of their needs after meeting with you, which is how you can bring value to them.

As Smith said, doing that and doing it well drastically increases the conversion of cold meetings to opportunities.

He added that sales prospecting works—it is a viable strategy and it can positively impact your sales pipeline if you do it well.

Organizations should think through their message and outreach strategy. If they execute those well, prospecting can be a huge source of new clients and new revenue.

If you want to learn more about this study, you can reach out to Gord Smith and Dan McDonald through the RAIN Group website.

RAIN Group’s study on prospecting busted popular myths that most sellers may have believed in. Now that you can distinguish these five prospecting myths, you can concentrate on doing what works.

Apply the insights you learned and start gaining more sales wins!

With the knowledge of the five prospecting myths, how can you improve your own prospecting strategy? Share your ideas with us in the comments section below!

Up Next: 

• How To Find Direct Dial Phone Numbers When Prospecting
• Prospecting At Scale To Grow Sales
• Top Tips For Sales Development

Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

– The Five Myths of Prospecting
– The State of Sales Development

Subscribe to the Playmaker Podcast here:

Building rapport with clients isn’t as difficult as most people say it is. As long as you know the right steps to follow and what errors to avoid, you’ll master how to build trust in the workplace.

RELATED: 3 Steps To Build Trust In 3 Minutes

In this article:

1. About This Episode
2. Building Rapport in Sales | The R.O.I. to Improve Your ROI
   1. Researching the Prospect
   2. Organizing the Information
   3. Ignite the Conversation
3. Why the R.O.I. Is Important

Building Rapport | 3 Rapport-Building Techniques in Sales

About This Episode

What is rapport building? In the podcast “You Suck At Building Rapport: 3 Steps To Build Trust In Minutes,” Gabe Larsen from The Sales Acceleration Show talks about the best tips to master building rapport with customers.

Larsen also shares with us some of the funniest sales emails he received. It would serve as a good reminder to salespeople across the globe to think twice before hitting that send button.

Cold Calling Definition: The act of making unsolicited phone calls in the hope of doing business with somebody.

Building Rapport in Sales | The R.O.I. to Improve Your ROI

Larsen explains that cold calling is dead. Unless you overhaul your prospecting system, the gap between you and your competitors will continue to increase—leaving you behind in the dust.

In fact, cold calling forces the salesperson to dial a random number and sell them the company’s goods or services without prior knowledge. While a lot of salespeople ask rapport-building questions to get to know the clients, it takes a lot of time and minimizes the chances of you closing the deal.

Larsen abbreviated his three tips on how to build trust in the workplace and with your clients. To establish a good rapport, you need to follow the R.O.I.

R.O.I. stands for:

• Researching the prospect
• Organizing the information
• Igniting conversation

It’s a very simple three-step program you can use and reuse as much as you want to hit your quarterly quota.

1. Researching the Prospect

Building rapport with someone you have no background info on is almost impossible to achieve. Even if you do end up getting them to work with you, it would’ve probably taken you a lot of time to do so.

That’s why you need to do your homework on the prospect if you want to speed up to the point where you’re happily closing the deal.

First, open your company’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool. If the prospect is someone your company has talked to in the past, there might be some info about them in your CRM.

Search for the company or your contact person in the system and take notes of whatever helpful information the CRM tool shows you. If you find sufficient rapport-building details, then begin prospecting.

Try not to spend more than a minute on your CRM tool.

If you don’t find the details you’re looking for, proceed to check their social media platforms. These include LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, among others.

Again, search for the company or your contact person. After spending around three minutes, decide whether you have sufficient background information or not.

If you do, then proceed with prospecting. But if you don’t, move on to using key intelligence apps.

Use key intelligence apps for your specific industry then review them. For example, the Charlie App is a software that connects users to other users’ calendars.

Doing so will help you prep on the person you plan to contact. Try to spend no more than a few minutes using key intelligence applications.

If you now have enough data, contact the prospect, if not, then proceed to the last step of the researching process: visiting their website.

Navigate the company’s website and take notes of key information. Obviously, this will help you learn a lot more about the company you plan to contact.

2. Organizing the Information

If you still feel that you don’t have sufficient data even after visiting their website, you have no choice but to proceed with phase two: organizing the information you gathered.

Read through all the pieces of information you collected and list them down on your company’s CRM system. Do this step even if you proceeded with the call during the early stages of prospect researching.

It’s very vital to update the CRM to minimize the research time you spend the next time you do prospecting. If your company’s CRM tool has everything you need, you’ll be able to proceed with the sales call even after just a few minutes of research.

RELATED: 5 Prospecting Myths Debunked

3. Ignite the Conversation

Whether you want to or not, it’s time to start prospecting. After summarizing the information you collected, you should have a clearer idea of who you will be talking to and what they want to hear.

Use the information you collected to create a script that will help you establish a good rapport with your client over the phone. If you want, you can go over your script before going live.

Instead of listing all your good traits, try to state what’s in it for them. Make it clear how the prospect and their company will benefit from your services or goods.

Repeat everything from the top with every prospect you plan to call. Practice it every day and building rapport will soon become second nature to you.

Why the R.O.I. Is Important

Larsen shared with us how he receives a lot of sales emails from his competitors. He jokes about how offensive it was that the sales representatives didn’t even bother to do a quick background check on them.

The sales rep was literally trying to sell Larsen the very same product that he offers. Not only did the sales rep waste their time, but they also made themselves look like a complete amateur.

As a salesperson, you need to understand that you have no second shot at landing a good first impression. Instead of randomly calling strangers and telling them to buy from you, start selecting, qualifying, and targeting your prospects.

Be careful not to spend too much time on research as well. As we said, you’d only want to spend a few minutes doing your homework.

Try to avoid being the type of person who spends half of their day reading the prospect’s press releases and company statements. It’s just as inefficient as not having any background information before prospecting.

These are just some of the things that will help you create good rapport with your prospects. Remember to apply and practice the R.O.I. method every time you have to do prospecting. Not only will it reduce your cold calling time, but it may also lower the chances of your prospect rejecting you. After all, rejection is the biggest thing salespeople fear before they begin prospecting.

Are you having trouble building rapport with your clients? Share your experiences with us in the comments section below!

Up Next: 

• The Seven Rules of Cold Calling
  
• Stop Pitching: Start Solving Problems For Your Customers
• The Sales Cadence Tool You Need To Generate More Leads

Sales Prospecting 101

 1. Sales Prospecting for the Pros

If you’re looking to have more conversations with the right people, persistence is key. Data shows that most sales reps today stop at sending an email or placing one phone call. The best sales professionals will not give up so fast. They create a sales cadence with multiple touch points, including a variety of sales communication channels: calls, texts, email, social media, voicemail, event direct mail, and video.

Gabe Larsen, VP of Growth for XANT, and Michael Pedone, founder and CEO of SalesBuzz, are going to show you the winning formula for sales prospecting. Click to read Sales Prospecting for the Pros.

2. Sales Prospecting For the Pros: 5 Secrets to Build a Winning Cadence

Prospecting is grueling work, and most sales reps fail due to lack of trying. Data from XANT Labs shows that the most utilized sales cadence is one single email when trying to contact leads. It’s an appalling number, given that most prospects need around six touches to respond. We’ve teamed up with Michael Pedone, CEO of SalesBuzz, to see what makes a winning sales cadence and a great sales conversation. Click to read 5 Secrets to Build a Winning Cadence.

3. Inside Sales Prospecting Tip: Match Your Phone Pitch to the Needs/Interests of Your Prospect

Wait, don’t pick up that phone! At least don’t start dialing before considering who you’re calling and where they fall on the benefits pyramid. Knowing where a prospect fits on this pyramid can make all the difference as to whether or not you get your toe in the door. Click to read Inside Sales Prospecting Tip.

4. 9 Common Yet Avoidable Mistakes in Sales Prospecting Emails

Writing is such an important part of sales in this modern age, and it’s essential we do it right. In the past, you may have been talking to clients face-to-face or over the phone. Today we live in the age of writing content, letters and, most importantly, emails.

When writing sales emails, in many cases it will be the first interaction that you have with a potential customer. If you get it wrong or make a mistake, it could be a customer lost forever.

Let’s explore nine of the most common sales prospecting email mistakes that you need to avoid in order to maximize your opportunities for success. Click to read Common Yet Avoidable Mistakes in Sales Prospecting Emails.

5. Art Sobczak, Telephone Sales Prospecting Legend, to Speak at Sales Acceleration Summit

XANT is delighted to announce the addition of Art Sobczak, one of the world’s leading authorities on telephone sales prospecting, to the lineup of speakers at this year’s Sales Acceleration Summit.

A 31-year industry veteran, Sobczak has authored five books that help salespeople generate revenue by saying and doing the right things on the phone.

If your sales strategy utilizes a phone in any way, shape or form, Sobczak has relevant information to help your business. Click to read Art Sobczak, Telephone Sales Prospecting Legend.

6. 4 Common Myths About Sales Prospecting, Destroyed

Still under the impression that cold calling is dead, or that buyers don’t really read your content? Don’t believe a word you hear, because you will be missing out on solid opportunities. A recent RAIN group study of 489 sellers shows some common myths about sales prospecting and debunks them with hard data. Click to read 4 Common Myths About Sales Prospecting.

RELATED: Cold Calling vs Digital Prospecting – Let the Battle Begin!

7. [Live Webinar] Data-Driven Sales Prospecting

Within the last few years, there has been a shift in the way salespeople are conducting sales. Not only is the majority of sales done remotely over the phone (the inside sales model), but the way lead research and data append are performed has become the new frontier of sales.

To further educate the inside sales industry on the best practices to achieving growth with targeted lists and an inside sales team, ZoomInfo and XANT have come together to present a webinar, “Data-Driven Sales Prospecting.” Click to read Data-Driven Sales Prospecting.

8. 4 Sales Prospecting Tips to Surge Ahead With Power Hours

Running is one of my passions, both for the exercise and the challenge of pushing my body to its limits.

A few years ago, I was on a training run with a friend who is an Ironman triathlete. He’s the real deal – sub-three-hour marathon and in the top 30% of Ironman triathletes.

At the end of our run, we were pushing hard the last half-mile. I was maxing out my pace and giving it all the juice I had. I noticed that he would surge, then back off a little, then surge again. After our run I asked what he was doing, and he explained that you can actually run faster if you surge and then take short “breaks” in your pace throughout the race, especially at the end.

If you’re leading a sales team, here are four tips to follow when organizing “Power Hours.” Click to read 4 Sales Prospecting Tips.

9. Cold Calling and Sales Prospecting: A Day in the Life

Are your sales reps spending their time wisely?

CSO Insights reports that the average sales rep only spends two days a week effectively selling.

The rest of the time, your reps are probably looking for someone to call, writing emails, leaving voicemails and logging call notes.

Cold calling and sales prospecting teams often make these common mistakes that kill productivity. Click to read Cold Calling and Sales Prospecting.

10. Prospecting To CEOs | Skills You Need According To Matt Conway

Sales prospecting is one of the foundations of business, but sales reps often do not receive training on how to approach senior-level executives. In this post, we hear from sales expert Matt Conway as he shares his insights on why this happens and the skills needed to get the attention of C-level prospects, such as CEOs. Click to read How Sales Reps Can Skip Mid-level People and Close Deals with CEOs.

11. Prospecting At Scale To Grow Sales

Scaling your prospecting efforts becomes easier when you focus on these four vital components. Click to read Prospecting | Scale It Right with These Outbound Sales Components.

12. 4 Sales Tips for Making Contact and Avoiding “Prospect Badgering”

One of sales reps’ most common questions is, “How many dials does it really take to make contact with a decision-maker, and how do I know when I’ve reached my limit of “pleasant persistence” and am now merely angering the prospect?” Click to read How to Avoid “Prospect Badgering.

13. How We Built $700K in Sales Pipeline Using One Simple Strategy

Sales pipeline growth strategies are always a top business priority, as research shows time and again. So how do you approach your leads in a way that guarantees success? A winning strategy for building sales pipeline doesn’t have to be overly complicated or time-consuming. Joey Wood, Field Enterprise Sales Director at XANT, shared an incredible account-based sales tactic that got him $700K in pipeline and took just two weeks to put together. Click to read How We Built $700K in Sales Pipeline Using One Simple Strategy.

Properly utilizing sales prospecting strategies can help a business boost sales and reach their sales goals in no time. We hope this article helped you in understanding this concept better and figuring out how to better use it in your organization.

What sales prospecting strategies can you share? Share them with us in the comments section below!

Up Next: Definition of a Qualified Prospect and the Curse of the “Slow No”

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on October 31, 2018, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.

In this article, we’ll debunk five common prospecting myths (plus one bonus myth) to help you improve your sales strategy and seal the deal using prospecting methods that work.

In this article:

1. The Earlier You Get to the Client, the Better
2. You Can’t Do Cold Calling Anymore
3. The Best Way To Target Prospects Is With a Single Silver Bullet
4. Breaking Through To The Client Is Tough
5. Cold Meetings Won’t Convert to Sales Wins
6. Bonus Myth: Buyers Find Meetings with Sellers Valuable

Debunking 5 Prospecting Myths Plus 1 Bonus Myth

1. The Earlier You Get to the Client, the Better

Sellers always want to stay ahead of the game, which is why in prospecting, salespeople often try to contact their buyers way before they’ve locked in on an actual purchase.

This is known as the defining division or the early stage of the sales process where buyers are most receptive to a sales call. Effective sellers know it’s during this time when they need to go all out, contact potential clients, and close the deal ASAP.

Nowadays, it’s much harder to convince potential clients early on to choose your product over others. The advent of the Internet has made it possible for buyers to do their own research and gain access to information on the product they want to buy.

When you prospect potential clients, don’t be surprised to find out they’re already somewhat informed of your and your competitor’s product or service. What’s more, they’ve probably already made up their mind about which one they’ll probably choose.

It’s this phenomenon that’s slowly breaking the dominant sales notion of “the earlier, the better.” Right now, the assumption you’ll lock in a buyer when you tap them early enough in the sales process is looking more like one of those prospecting myths. If prospecting new customers early in the game isn’t as adviseable anymore, what else can be done?

Research shows that 71% of people still want to hear from a seller before making an actual purchase. This opens a window of opportunity for you to push your product or service towards your prospects even during the last stages of the selling process and hopefully make a sale.

2. You Can’t Do Cold Calling Anymore

Many of today’s sellers think cold calling is a thing of the past. After all, we’re living in the age of technology where prospective clients can be reached digitally like through e-mail, messenger, or even video call.

With today’s technology, you can acquire data that gives you an in-depth description of your prospective clients. This helps you make your communication strategies more targeted towards a specific clientele and will increase the likelihood of making a sale.

If you’re one of those sellers who think cold calling is outdated, you’re very much mistaken. In fact, it’s one of the biggest prospecting myths out there. Making cold calls remains to be an effective sales strategy when done right.

Cold calling allows you to speak to your potential buyers directly. You’ll be able to hear the other person’s voice, making the transaction more candid and personal. Plus, talking to your client directly makes it easy for you to negotiate on-the-spot. This spells the difference between sealing the deal and losing a sale altogether.

3. The Best Way To Target Prospects Is With a Single Silver Bullet

A lot of sellers also think reaching out to potential customers with sales messages using the most popular platform is an effective way of getting their attention. Again, this is also a prospecting myth. No single silver bullet that enables you to convince people to buy your product or take advantage of your service exists.

We suggest you take a multimode approach when marketing to your prospective customers. Use a marketing strategy that implements different ways of contacting your buyers. For example, you can send them a couple of direct e-mails and supplement these by leaving a voicemail.

While it’s a great idea to contact your buyers on the medium they’re frequently on, don’t make the mistake of reaching out to them through just one platform. Be flexible and creative enough to look for other platforms you can use to communicate with them.

RELATED: Prospecting At Scale To Grow Sales

4. Breaking Through To The Client Is Tough

This one is a prospecting semi-myth. While it’s true that breaking through to a client and convincing them to purchase your product or service is challenging, it isn’t impossible. As with cold calling, getting through to the client is achievable when you do it right.

When sellers pitch to their prospective clients, they often talk about the product being sold, what it does, and how it’ll benefit the buyer. There’s nothing wrong with this kind of sales pitch, but if you really want to seal the deal, there’s a better way to talk to the buyer.

Other than talking about the “what” aspects of your product or service, focus more on communicating the value of what you’re selling instead. For example, if you’re offering your market research services, highlight your company’s research ethics and best practices. In this way, your clients get to see the value in what you bring and will end up trusting you and your service.

5. Cold Meetings Won’t Convert to Sales Wins

This is a prospecting myth that, unfortunately, a lot of sellers also believe in. To tell you the truth, it’s actually a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you as the seller don’t believe in your ability to come up with a sale at the end of the meeting, then it’s definitely not happening.

When you’re leading a sales meeting, make sure to not just sell the product or service. As discussed previously, highlight the value your product or service brings to the table.

Sell your product or service as a package deal consisting of your company’s insights and your product’s capabilities. When you’re client sees you’re capable of providing them with a quality product and valuable insights at the same time, you’re sure to convert any cold meeting into a sales win.

Bonus Myth: Buyers Find Meetings with Sellers Valuable

Unfortunately, not all buyers consider meetings with their sellers valuable time spent. In fact, 58% of buyers mentioned not learning anything value-adding from a sales meeting.

To mitigate this, use the meeting with your buyer as a way to really get to know them and their real needs. This way, you’ll have a better understanding of the nature of your client’s problems. Use what you learned to be able to provide them not just with a targeted solution, but also with valuable insights to help establish a lasting relationship with them.

We’ve successfully debunked six prospecting myths that hinder a lot of salespeople from implementing effective sales prospecting techniques. We hope we’ve inspired you to explore more creative ways to prospect new customers for your business. Also, remember to start communicating your product and service’s value to your clients. This way, you’ll be able to gain their trust and build a lasting sales relationship with them.

Aside from the ones listed above, have you heard of any other prospecting myths? Tell us about them in the comments section below!

Up Next: Prospecting To CEOs | Skills You Need According To Matt Conway

In this article:

1. The Basic Principle of CEO Prospecting
2. C-Level Prospecting: Why Make the Decision Makers Your Potential Customers
3. Two Skills for Effective Prospecting
4. How to Start a Change in Mindset
5. How to Speed Up CEO Prospecting
6. Writing a Prospecting Letter

Prospecting Ideas | How Sales Reps Can Skip Mid-level People and Close Deals with CEOs

The Basic Principle of CEO Prospecting

Hi, my name is Matthew Conway, and I am an expert in C-level sales prospecting. I help sales reps get the attention of CEOs and convert them into customers.

My career started in inside sales before I moved to field sales, leadership, executive, and go-to-market strategy. I’ve been head of sales in Microsoft. I was a general manager (GM) of Nokia back in the good old days when they were successful. Also, I did consultant marketing strategy in the UK. I’ve had a good career in sales and sales and company leadership. However, I have always had a passion for developing the next business, and prospecting is my particular strength.

Some people may ask me, “Matt, I’ve seen some of your stuff. Just a quick opinion or guidance on how to move my career forward.” I always remember what my mom told me. Back in the day, I was a frustrated young inside salesman doing cold-calling every day. I was pretty miserable and bad at it if I’m being honest.

She said, “If you want to achieve anything in your life, go high. Talk to those who make the decisions.” So if I’m talking to a new salesperson or even to mature salespersons on how they can take the success to the next level, I would just say, “Go and talk to people whose core motivation is to introduce change. Don’t waste your life on people who can’t say yes or no.”

C-Level Prospecting: Why Make the Decision Makers Your Potential Customers

One of the things I believe I’m good at is spotting patterns and making connections. I realized early on, every salesperson, sales leader, executive, fast-growth or immature company, business, and sales organization I’ve ever worked at seems to be missing certain things.

Everybody wants to speed up their sales cycle, and they want to grab opportunities and make their proposals win. Yet why is the same problem happening time after time?

When I started to go high, my own activities began to decrease, but my results kept getting bigger and bigger at the same time. I call it the invisible elephant that’s been stalking boardrooms and sales floors all over the planet.

There are three things, the trifecta of sales and their performance, that could be the problems:

1. Their Sales and Boarding Are Backward

Because of that, the message we send to the target market or prospective clients when we’re prospecting is backward. We get people onboard by product marketing, and the message shoved to their throats is “Why choose us?” “Why should you pick our service our company?” “Why are we the best in class?” It’s we, we, we. The prospects don’t like it.

You’ve got to invert the whole thing. When I was a sales leader, I didn’t put my people in the “Why change, why now” framework. It’s in your client’s best interest you do something different. All sales are selling behavioral-approaches change. I think the sooner the salespeople recognize they are in the change game, the faster the paradigm shift will start to happen.

2. Salespeople Are Prospecting and Selling Too Low to Mid-Ranking Executives Who on Paper Look Like Their Ideal Client Profile

We have built personas or personality types. My belief is we create most of the ideal client personas while looking into a rearview mirror. They’re brought to the organization as incoming leads. Something is happening in the organization that prompted them to reach out to them in the first place. What’s the trigger event that’s going on? Where is it coming from? Sales reps are often introduced to a mid-ranking person tasked to do something different. If something is not working, then they go out and find a solution.

When you ask a CEO who they should contact if they want to do business with other companies, they’ll go, “No doubt, it will be the CEO.” For what reason? “Well, that’s who make the decisions to change fast.”

If that’s the case then, why are companies letting or telling sales professionals to contact mid-ranking people who operate on a status quo — who can’t say yes or no?

3. Nobody’s Teaching Sales Professionals How to Prospect Right to the CEOs

Sales reps do not receive any prospecting training on how to approach C-level executives in ways that cut through the crowd and get their attention.

People in sales should be going higher, but one thing that doesn’t really work is how they’re being taught about it. They’re pushed toward the mid-tier person versus the CEO. They’re not equipped to approach the latter.

People say, “Look, the CEO doesn’t have the time, and I can’t get through to him. I can get this influence and build my business case, and they’ll take it to the CEO, but that certainly takes a long time. In the perfect world, I would just call up the CEO, but I can’t get him.” In reality, it’s a combination of mindset and skill.

Two Skills for Effective Prospecting

It’s fun to be working with a group of people with whom you can see the lightbulb go on. You can see that little shift in mindset.

One of the most common concerns of sales reps is what they’re going to talk about with the CEO. “I’ve never been a CEO. I don’t know what to talk to them.” The motivations of the CEO are simple and easy to understand: how to make more money and how to save more money. Everything fits into those two buckets whether it’s speed to market or mitigating risks. If you’re going to hit those two key points, you’re probably pretty good.

This reminds me of the millennials, those young ones straight out of college. They are so lucky. They didn’t grow up with the sense of deference. In my generation, we viewed CEOs as “We’re not worthy. They’re superhumans and superachievers.” Millennials don’t have the kind of deferential baggage we have. They just look at them as human beings, which is precisely what they are.

When they actually get through the CEO, what they find is the conversations they have with someone who’s successful, confident, humble, and it is just that — conversations. Compare that to trying to convince a mid-ranking person. If they make a mistake, the company can fire them from the existing project.

Sales professionals also need prospecting skills. Nobody’s teaching people how to compose an excellent, tight value proposition and send it by email. They don’t know how to convert their prospecting letter into voicemail, let alone articulate it. Yet, miraculously, it’s supposed to appear. No other professional makes it with that level of inefficiency in their career, yet we kind of do that in sales.

How to Start a Change in Mindset

Changing a mindset is not an easy process, but there’s a way to do it fast. The quickest approach is to understand really clearly what is the potential value, outcome, impact, or result their product, service, or solution can create for another human being. When you have a prospecting reluctance, your fingers are pointing at your ego, basically. “Oh, I might get rejected.”

I speak from a great deal of experience. I went through these rejections as a young salesperson. It’s so hard to get over them, right? Here’s the thing: when you’re focusing on how you’re feeling, your attention is on the wrong person. If you’re the person I would like to talk to, I would say, “How can I serve you with your best interest?” If I can help a business improve their sales performance, mitigate risks, reduce supply-chain cost by 12%, and accelerate the time to market, I have a duty of care to let the CEO know I’m here. I can be of service to them. It’s not about me at all — it’s about them.

If you were stuck in the proverbial lift with somebody and the CEO says, “What is it you do for my business?” you should be proud and say, “I appreciate your asking. Last year, we helped you accelerate the time to market in China. We collapsed it by 6 months.” It’s not about you but what you can do for another human being.

When they develop this mindset, then salespeople will go, “Oh, it’s not about pushing or selling my products. It’s being clear on both the professional and personal outcomes I can deliver to another human being.” There’s the mindset shift. It’s not about being shy or selfish but about prospecting.

How to Speed Up CEO Prospecting

As you move from the “me-to-them” mentality, you wonder how you can speed up the sales process. Perhaps you have several years of experience in doing sales. As you made more revenues and lead more people to the sales funnel, you become more confident. Now your goal is how to be more efficient in what you do.

Whether the salespeople are in inside or field sales, they benefit from the internal tribal knowledge on the results and outcomes your company can deliver for others. The fastest way, therefore, is to tap into that.

You realize you’ve got to peel the onion beyond the nice platitudes and testimonials. “We helped companies accelerate sales performance!” Woohoo. Yet you heard that from everybody. You need to quantify. By how much? Under what situation? What is the XY by when?

Then, you use third-party social proof. With salespeople, we think it’s our job to sell but consider these two scenarios. I sell to someone, “You’ve got to spend time with me. I’m Matt Conway. I’m 6 foot 1, blue-eyed, great-looking fellow.” Then you hear somebody else go, “You’ve got to meet Matt Conway. Great guy, big, kindhearted.” What’s more impressive to you: me telling you how wonderful I am or the other person telling you the same thing?

It’s the stories about the outcomes and the transformations you or the company has driven for others that really make an impression on people. It’s not me trying to convince you that should buy something from me. The storytelling calls to behavioral psychology that says the power of stories or metaphors bypasses people’s conscious objections and talks to their subconscious or unconscious brain.

Writing a Prospecting Letter

Lots of people talk about sales prospecting methods to CEOs. How do you exactly do that? Based on my journey of being a cold-calling salesperson in the UK back in the day, I tried selling to the mid-level people. It was not so successful. It took a long time. There were lots of rejections. It was only when I took my mom’s suggestion it went high.

Nobody, though, taught me how to write prospecting letters. Instead, I read lots of books on B2C copywriting and picked up some of the psychology tips. This is different from the B2C copywriting, however. You’re not selling a product or service. It’s not a long-form copy. You’re trying to sell a meeting. You’re trying to sell “spend time with me.”

Eventually, I developed a system over the years of adapting B2C copywriting and condensing it into a format that works for B2B prospecting. In all my journey, I studied hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming. This way, I would not only embed the processes or elements for an effective prospecting copy but also overlay them with persuasive writing.

Robert Cialdini says if you use the “if-then-becomes” formula, you increase your compliance by 60-plus percent. What I’ve done is I married 20-plus years of C-level prospecting and how to write a note. Quite frankly, this has helped my clients get better results than I did when it comes to getting a CEO appointment after sending an email. There’s a young sales development representative (SDR) in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who holds a world record of 38 seconds from an email sent to appointment booked. That’s tough to beat right there.

If you have 20 or even 200 salespeople doing prospecting differently every day, that’s terrible inefficiency. You have to stop doing that. You can get very a standard and effective approach in place quickly. Also, companies try to hire marketers to do sales and prospecting copy. If they haven’t done this job before, it can be terrifying. Be mindful if your marketing is writing your sales and prospecting copy. You have to question why you’re doing that.

We hope you’ve gathered helpful tips from Matt Conway on how to empower your team to approach senior-level executives. Change your team’s mindset and train them on the skills needed to talk to the CEOs than the mid-level executives because that’s how you’ll win at prospecting.

What are some tips you can give to help leaders empower their sales team to approach senior-level executives? List them down in the comments section below.

Up Next: Sales Prospecting For the Pros: 5 Secrets to Build a Winning Cadence

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on April 26, 2018, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.

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