10 Tips for Becoming a Prospection Jedi

Prospection may be a time-consuming and tedious task if you don’t master it.

So here are 10 Jedi Master tips to improve the effectiveness of your prospection actions.

Prospect every day you will

Prospection is an activity that must be done daily to avoid having a sawtooth sales activity.

You can’t limit yourself to one day a week, or to prospecting every other week.

To achieve this, organize a weekly schedule for more effective daily prospection.

Turn away from every other activity you will

In order for your prospecting to be most effective, you must not allow yourself to be distracted. This might seem obvious, but in an office, there are many distractions: email, colleagues, etc… Settle into a nice, comfortable bubble of concentration and start your prospection!

Master technical tools you will

The advent of many technical solutions gives rise to big compatibility issues between software.

But which programs are really beneficial for you, and which are not?

Also, out of those you use, how many do you use to their full capacity?

So you are losing effectiveness when you could just contact the company who made the software, to ask for a training session or tutorials (Youtube is your friend).

Use various methods you will

There is no magic solution, but there are many prospecting methods: you should test them and understand those that work best for your activity.

And even if Cold Calling works for you, nothing prevents you from testing new lead prospecting channels: Cold Emailing, conferences, social networking…

Prepare a list of the different methods available for your prospecting campaign. Then determine which method you will use for X number of prospects, and how many prospects that method brought you.

Compare the results of each method in order to determine which has the best ROI.

Establish sales processes you will

Before you take action, you need a clear sales process, laid out ahead of time, because you will be lost without it.

First, try to establish several sub-profiles in your prospect database, so your discourse is determined by the group of people you are speaking with.

Your discourse is not the only thing you should adapt; the same goes for the way you address each prospect.

Prepare a commercial pitch you will

There are several elements that make for poor prospecting.

First, if you don’t invest enough time, you won’t be able to generate enough leads.

Then, ineffective prospecting due to one or more factors. Either because you don’t have the right information, or because you aren’t using the right vocabulary. Of course there are many other valid reasons, but these are the most common.

Writing scenarios may seem stupid, but it will help your prospecting be more effective.

And you must admit that even if you don’t have something written out in front of you when you call a prospect, you do use an outline you know and you have already repeated many times before.

The solution: write several specific outlines for each type of prospect you have, test them, and for each category, compare which works best, which words work with your target, and which don’t work. If you are part of a team, try them together, your feedback will be that much better.

Once you’ve done that, make a list of your best scenarios.

Ex: Divide your list of daily prospects to contact. Instead of contacting them all the same way, deliberately choose two different approaches, then compare the results at the end of the day to see which method generated the most qualified leads. The next day, start again with two new methods.

Concentrate your efforts on your results you will

The objective of your prospecting is to create an intimate link with your prospect, which usually means getting a commitment: a phone meeting, a product demonstration, a physical meeting, etc…

Improving your prospection also means concentrating on results.

But be careful, your prospection must not become forced selling. Your objective should be to generate sales opportunities and to create value for your prospect, not to make a premature sale.

There is no list to make here, no plan to write, just keep in mind that the result is always to plan a meeting with the prospect because it doesn’t matter how good the chemistry is between you if there is no commitment.

Verify your data’s accuracy you will

Once you have connected all your tools, or at least sorted through them, it is time to take time to verify the accuracy of your prospect data. A study showed that on average, the data from extraction tools is 60% to 70% accurate (email address and phone number).

So spend some time during the week verifying the information; do I have the right contact in the company? Is it the right email address?

Ex: It is Friday afternoon, you don’t have a call planned; take advantage of that time to verify all the information for the phone meetings you have planned for next week. You’ll be better off for it!

Become a prospection Jedi master of Cold Calling 2.0 you will

Cold Calling 2.0 is a prospecting technique that is used more and more often in the United States, and it is a great fit for many businesses.

To put it simply, if your target is broad, you will become more effective by using a methodology like Predictable Revenue.

Cold Calling 2.0 will allow you to spend only useful time with your prospects on the telephone, to avoid all unanswered calls or secretarial barriers, and to eliminate a part of the prospects, who are not interested or not available.

Foster your client relationships over time you will

Even if you follow all of the valuable advice above, you will often hear the same answer: “No.”

Keep in mind that a professional relationship is built over time.

Your prospects will hear from you frequently; it will be as expected as the sun rising in the East and setting in the West.

Your calls, your polls, your case studies, will prove to your prospect that you will not disappear like so many of your peers; that you are really interested in him and determined to create value for his company. Sometimes the biggest deals come from long-term work on a relationship!

Write a nurturing plan:

• How will you create value for your ideal clients?
• How often will you call them?
• How often will they hear from you?
• In what format?
• How will that create value?

So to conclude, sales representatives create professional relationships that are based on the fruits of your prospecting. So having good prospecting means increasing your chances of ending up with more professional relationships.