How To Use Creative Prospecting Techniques For Sales Success

When you think about sales, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? 

Perhaps you picture a customer and a salesperson shaking hands over a deal. Perhaps you imagine long, tedious board meetings.

 

Or, perhaps you imagine someone giving an impassioned sales pitch, gesturing behind them to a board of facts and figures. 

As it turns out, most of a salesperson’s time is spent finding and talking to prospects. But did you know that prospecting is widely considered one of the most difficult parts of sales?

If you are someone who finds prospecting difficult, you would be wise to brush up on your skills.

That’s where this article on effective prospecting methods comes in.

 

 

What Are Prospecting Techniques in Sales?

When we talk about prospecting techniques, what do we mean? In short, this term refers to the various methods salespeople adopt to increase their efficiency and efficacy when prospecting. 

Such sales prospecting techniques not only help to bring on board more clients but can also help cut down on the amount of time it takes you to find and qualify viable leads.

 

This means that you can fit more into your day, allowing you to increase your overall productivity at work.

The rest of this article will consider a few great techniques to help you prospect like a pro!

 

Seven Revolutionary Prospecting Techniques for Sales

As we’ve already mentioned, prospecting is hard—really hard. As much as 40% of salespeople find it to be the most challenging part of the sales process.

It’s our hope that some of the sales prospecting ideas in this article can help turn that around.

 

 

To some of our readers, a couple of these tips may seem obvious.

But to those who are new to the sales game, or to those who have always struggled to build their confidence when prospecting, these recommendations are bound to come in handy.

 

And to the veteran salespeople out there—don’t worry; there’s something here for you, too.

 

1. Define Your Ideal Customer

If you were hiring a new employee, one of the very first things you would do is determine what exactly you’re looking for from them, right?

Why approach potential customers differently? 

 

Without a clear idea of who your ideal customer is—what interests they have, what values they cherish, and what drives and motivates them—you’ll never be able to market yourself appropriately.

So, take the time to paint a complete picture of your perfect client. Consider factors such as:

 

• Age.

• Gender.

• Location.

• Social values.

• Hobbies.

 

2. Don’t Waste Energy on Dead Leads

In the past, cold calling was a popular way of finding new prospects for sales. But these days, the practice has largely fallen out of favor, as it’s now easier than ever to find viable prospects for your business. 

For example, gathering data from online surveys, social media interactions, and so on provides a much-needed boost to the process of prospecting.

 

Sales techniques that place a focus on spotting patterns in data and isolating key demographics can help salespeople to perform more efficiently, cutting out the need for useless, dead-end calls that go nowhere.

 

3. Use High-Quality Call Scripts 

Some days, it just feels like you can’t say anything right during prospecting calls.

To avoid these unfortunate dips in performance, consider implementing call scripts for your salespeople to use.

 

Good quality scripts help ensure that your team members all work to the same high standard, producing consistent results day after day.

They also provide new staff members and less confident salespeople with a useful safety net in case they find themselves floundering in the middle of a call.

 

4. Find Likely Prospects Through Networking

A list of the best sales prospecting methods wouldn’t be complete without a mention of networking—and with good reason!

When utilized properly, networking opportunities are one of the best ways for you to get your name out there.

 

How can this be done? Well, there are lots of different ways. There are, of course, networking events and conventions you can attend to spread the word about your business.

Additionally, you can make use of platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to find like-minded individuals and mutual connections who might be interested in your services.

 

5. Personalize Your Emails

So far, we’ve only mentioned phone calls for prospecting—but did you know that emails can be just as effective? In fact, in certain situations, they may be even more useful!

One of the perks of using email over phone calls is that your prospects will be allowed to respond to you in their own time.

 

Where an unexpected phone call might put them on the spot, an email allows them to take their time and think things over.

A top tip is to personalize your emails, making them more appealing to your recipient. After all, nothing’s more off-putting than a cold template letter.

 

6. Follow Up with Prospects

When thinking about prospecting methods in sales, you should also consider what comes next after that initial email or phone call.

How can you ensure that you stay at the forefront of your prospect’s mind?

 

It’s simple: follow up with them! At every stage of the sales process, you should make sure to check in with your prospect to see where they’re at and if there are any concerns or questions you can help resolve.

Taking a proactive approach to this shows your customers that you really care about their experience and genuinely want to help them every step of the way.

 

7. Encourage Customer Referrals

At last, we come to the final entry on this list—customer referrals.

The rationale behind this is pretty simple: if you have a loyal customer who has purchased and benefited from your goods and services, they probably know at least one other person who would benefit from them, too.

 

In that case, you’d be a fool not to take advantage of this free advertising!

Don’t be pushy when requesting referrals. Rather, find ways to subtly incorporate your request into the conversation. Consider something like: “We’re so glad that you’ve had a positive experience with our service.

 

Do you know of any other professionals in your network who might benefit from what we have to offer?

 

 

How Will These Prospecting Sales Techniques Up Your Game?

Prospecting may be difficult, but it’s also essential for business growth.

That’s why it’s so important that you constantly work at improving your performance, increasing your efficacy and efficiency as a salesperson.

 

With that being said, we hope that these prospecting ideas for sales will help you get some of the way there.

By incorporating our advice into your approach to prospecting, we guarantee that you’ll begin to see dramatic results, including better sales conversion, increased revenue, and better customer satisfaction rates.