No deal is closed without first being opened! It is quite plain that, if a salesperson wants to create more deals and better opportunities, he/she needs to focus on the single most crucial activity necessary for producing sales results i.e., Prospecting. We discussed, ‘Sales Prospecting’ in our previous blog and laid out different methods of prospecting a company can adopt and few techniques of prospecting salespersons can adopt. Whatever may be the sales strategy of a company, everything boils down to individual salesperson’s skill to prospect- make the first contact, evaluate leads and pass them on to the next stage of the sales cycle.
One of the biggest challenges that salespersons run into when they’re getting started and building the business, is ‘inconsistency’. Salespersons frequently ‘start’ and ‘stop’ prospecting – they start prospecting, get few prospects, get appointments/meetings fixed, get a deal or two pending, and then they become busy chasing those deals and working with those buyers, that they stop prospecting. If salespersons want to create success for themselves and sustain it, the greatest key is to create habits that will consistently support the business and support their success. One of those, probably the initial one, is the habit of prospecting.
Masters in any field of endeavor, those who are the best, the elite performers, the highest achievers, operate their success based on having a great set of habits. In this blog, we try to list down the top habits of such successful prospectors.
Top Habits of Successful Prospectors:
1.Identify Good Fits– Successful prospectors have a clear understanding of their target audience. Understanding and knowing the company’s ideal buyer profiles and personas helps to quickly identify the good fits, which in turn boosts conversion rates and ultimately helps achieve sales goals.
2. Develop an effective process – As we speak about conversion rates, there is never a 1:1 ratio of calls made to deals closed. One must do a certain number of reach-outs (volume of calls, emails, follow-ups done) before anything turns fruitful. Thus, one must continuously do a good deal of prospecting to generate the pipeline required to reach the sales target and successful prospectors develop an effective prospecting process that can be repeated at scale so they can prospect efficiently.
3. Schedule time for Prospecting– Successful prospectors/ sales reps set aside time to prospect. Setting a specific regular time for prospecting is one of the most powerful habits one can practice, the best way to ensure to have time to prospect is to block time on the calendar and hold it sacred. The more time spent on prospecting, the more sales opportunities created, and the more opportunities created, more the wins.
4. Review Prospecting Calls– When we look at many top athletes in any given sport, they are obsessed with game footage, they watch the recordings of their performance to see what they did right and where they could improve. The best outbound sales prospectors develop the same habit as they can examine what worked and what didn’t by listening to recorded phone calls. This is one of the fastest ways to find mastery as a prospector.
5. Leverage technology– Great prospectors make the most of every tool available at their disposal, be it CRM systems likes HubSpot, Salesforce, or sales productivity tools like Uplead, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Apollo, ClearBit, ZoomInfo, Gong, Zoom, Pipedrive, and so on. Successful prospectors leverage the latest technology for more accurate data, increase productivity and manage time efficiently.
6. Build Relationships than Hard Sell– Another habit of a successful prospector is to focus on building robust rapport and relationship with the prospects before anything else, they do not hard sell, pitch immediately instead they contemplate a customer’s situation and requirements and try to provide value in every conversation before they make any attempt to talk about their product or service. This habit helps to build trust and credibility with each prospect from the very first interaction.
Prospecting doesn’t have to be a difficult and tedious process. It can be a positive experience for both sales reps and prospects. By adopting a few of the above habits any sales rep can be sure to begin converting more good-fit prospects into paying customers. We at VAST Tec have expertise in sales prospecting and have extensive experience across all industries. Leveraging our highly skilled team and their deep industry know-how, VAST Tec enables clients to outsource sales activity such as lead generation & lead qualification, cold calling, appointment setting, inbound lead response, TOFU/MOFU/BOFU engagements, and so on, for various B2B IT and Non-IT industries from SMEs to MNCs and everything in between.
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