4 Steps to Flushing out the Perfect Prospect

When most people get their first (genuine) sales prospecting role, their manager essentially shows them a map of the universe and then tells them to go somewhere “in there” and find new customers.

To be fair, the sales person will usually take a good run at it – but very quickly starts to feel overwhelmed by the challenge – mixed with a sense of disappointment and guilt for not being good enough – and the terrifying, immobilising fear of losing their job.

There is a specific template and 4 specific exercises that I work through during my Customer Attraction Webinars which not only ensure that those who attend have the tools to hit the ground running – but also to make sure they know exactly who they should be running to – and we’re going to go over one of those exercises today.

So, here’s a question;

Why are your sales team spending so little time where they are celebrated – and so much time where they (at best) tolerated?

Whenever I write that down in an article – and sometimes when I present it at a keynote – it brings out incredibly strong / emotional reactions in certain people.

But before I go on, let’s be straight about my definition of prospecting;

Prospecting is all about finding the right spot in the river to sift through sand and dirt in the heat and the rain, until you find gold nuggets in the bottom of your prospecting pan.

When you find those nuggets, you then use your sales and negotiation skills to swap them for money in town – but it’s important to recognise that sales and negotiation is a different skill set to prospecting!

Prospecting involves immense levels of preparation mixed with sweat and patience – but the sweat and patience required will always be minimised with the right levels of preparation.

As promised, here’s a simple exercise to help you and your team get closer to understanding where they should be wading in the river in just under ten minutes.

Quick Exercise to Focus Your Prospecting Efforts

1. Who is your favourite customer? Which customer gives you the easiest, free flowing stream of business in your current account base?

2. Using the answers from Q1 create that customers profile – and include why you like working with them.

Where are the based? How many people do they employ? What’s the job title of your main contact? How many offices do they have? Are they international or local?

Build as clear a picture as you can about who and what they are. together with why you like them so much.

3. Look through your current prospect data base – who closely matches the criteria you’ve just written down?

4. Now go to LinkedIn – click on “My Network” in the menu bar at the top – put your perfect customer job title in the search box (click “in people” from the choices) – choose “1st & 2nd Connections” from the connections tab – choose your desired location from the location tab – then click on “All Filters” and choose the industry you wish to focus on.

Note: You do not need LI Premium or Sales Navigator to do any of this

You should now have a list of people who you can once again filter to match your perfect customer avatar.

That simple exercise should shake up a few, new – “just right “- Prospects.

However, at times like this that you need something to amplify your message – to bring “ready to buy” prospects out of the woodwork so that you know who and where they are.

That’s why we developed our Small Group LinkedIn Article Writing Webinar

Everyone who joins me on this webinar spends 90 minutes, working step by step through my article creation template, to write their very own personal customer attracting article

There are only ever 4 people on each webinar and we…

• Work through the same article template that got a client a seat at the table for a previously “unwinnable” account – and then close a £2 million contract
• Write an article live on the day – and then I show them how to structure it so that it pulls prospects towards them
• After that I organise an additional 15 minute private consultation with each person to help polish the article to perfection

So, do you need compelling content and a proven structure that’ll keep your prospects reading right to the end and then take action?

We were oversubscribed last week – so we’ve decided to do it all again next week

Be great if you could join us – The LINKEDIN CUSTOMER ATTRACTING ARTICLE WEBINAR

“If you are involved in sales and would like to be more effective on LinkedIn then this is a fantastic programme. I participated last week and found it engaging and highly motivating. Great value for money as well.”
Adrian Leatherland – Director – Aero BD