Sales Prospecting Guide: 4 Tips for Sales Prospecting

The sales prospecting process is the mechanism by which leads (potential customers identified by salespeople) are converted to prospects (potential buyers who meet the company's ideal customer profile). Some sales organizations call prospects qualified leads, but the concept is the same: Sales prospecting is a bridge between lead generation and a prospect list.

A sales team's prospecting efforts can mean the difference between fruitless cold calling and an effective sales funnel. Given the tight margins of B2B sales (business-to-business sales), sales reps cannot waste precious hours on cold calls and cold emails that go nowhere. By employing a marketing strategy and sales prospecting process that reliably turns quality leads into potential prospects, marketers and salespeople can spend less time searching for customers and more time closing deals with legitimate sales prospects.

The most effective sales prospectors use a tried-and-true set of sales prospecting tools to reliably separate true prospects from dead-end leads. Here are some sales prospecting methods you can use, no matter your company size.

1. 1. Seek out decision-makers. In B2B sales, you may have to contend with an extended decision-making process. Managers may need to sign off on purchases before a deal can move forward. The best sales prospects are people who have actual decision-making authority. The faster you find them, the more effective your sales process will be.
2. 2. Determine a lead's budget. Quality sales prospects are those who have the money to purchase what you're selling. Whenever possible, integrate budget research into your sales strategy. If a company is publicly traded, most of its financial information is accessible via public filings. If you're dealing with a privately held small business, you can also ask directly. If the company can't afford you, there's no need to waste anyone's time.
3. 3. Time your outreach. Some companies only purchase goods and services during specific times in the fiscal year. Departments tend to have the most money to spend early in a quarter; this typically aligns with January 1st, April 1st, July 1st, and October 1st. On the other hand, some departments may have leftover cash at the end of a spending period, and you can sometimes claim a remaining budget if you pitch at exactly the right time.
4. 4. Understand the other party's needs. Use consultative selling techniques to learn about a company's pain points—the problems or unsatisfied needs that your company may be able to address. Take the time to learn about warm leads or hot leads (potential clients who are actively interested in your products). The time you invest learning about them as individuals can clarify if they’re worthwhile prospects.

Try these sales development tips for your own prospecting work.

1. 1. Embrace an outbound sales mentality. Outbound sales are ones in which you must reach out to meet customers where they are. (Contrast this with inbound sales, where customers find you via referral networks and SEO clicks.) Understand that you are contacting people who may have no idea of what they want or need. Your job is to connect with them and inform how your company can help.
2. 2. Meet in person when possible. Whenever it's safe and feasible, salespeople should strive for face-to-face interaction with their leads. A great way to do this is to attend trade shows where you can meet potential clients up close and answer their questions in real time. If they appear to be a high value target, take them out for lunch or for a drink. This type of social selling can build trust and rapport, and it goes a long way toward making a lead a prospect.
3. 3. Spend more time on high-value targets. Not all leads are the same. After you use the sales prospecting method to separate qualifying prospects from the pack, use that information to properly allocate resources. Find ways to personalize your outreach to those prospects, even if you're sending quality leads a basic email template when you first reach out.
4. 4. Use CRM software to keep track of your prospects. Consumer relationship management software (or CRM software) lets a business keep track of its clients—from company name and contact information to notes on specific pain points the company needs to address. Keeping this information in a database can make follow-up calls more effective, since all the relevant information will be at the sales rep's fingertips.

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