Sales Prospecting: An Ultimate Guide for 2024

Understanding the Concept of Sales Prospecting

Sales reps often interact with potential customers to set the sales process in motion. The process of identifying and reaching out to qualified leads is known as sales prospecting.

SDRs (Sales Development Representatives) find new sales opportunities with the help of sales prospecting. By reaching out to prospects and nurturing them, SDRs turn them into long-term customers.

Sales prospecting can include a cold call made to someone who matches the ideal buyer persona. A social media message sent to a qualified lead is also a type of sales prospecting.

If a company does not have a well-maintained prospect funnel, sales reps will not have anything to pursue. Sales reps cannot waste time asking random people to buy their products/services.

With the help of prospecting, sales reps identify customers/clients that fit the ideal buyer persona.

Prospecting includes several activities that are:

• Researching prospects is the first step taken by SDRs. Sales reps collect as much information as they can about potential customers. Based on the collected data, sales reps determine whether a potential customer is a good fit for the company or not. For example, B2B sales reps collect information about target companies before engaging with them. Information about a company is available on its LinkedIn page or official website. Additionally, LinkedIn scraping tools can be utilized to gather detailed insights about prospects, including their job titles, industry, connections, and more, enabling sales teams to streamline their prospecting efforts and identify high-potential leads more efficiently.
• After researching prospects, sales reps have to identify whether the individual is a right fit for the company or not. Not every individual is worth pursuing, and sales reps do not want to waste time. When sales reps follow a client/consumer, they need to be sure that it will be worth it. SDRs identify the approximate value a potential customer can bring to the company. Based on their worth, SDRs assign scores to each lead. Potential customers with the highest lead score are pursued first by sales representatives.
• After researching and qualifying leads, SDRs tend to reach them. Effective sales prospecting techniques are leveraged to craft personalized pitches for each individual. Lead outreach relies on several approaches. SDRs can reach potential customers by cold calling, social media messaging, or in-person meetings. A sales representative can send resources to qualified leads to help them make a purchase decision.

Understanding the Dissimilarity Between Leads and Prospects

Leads and prospects are often used interchangeably in the sales industry. However, when one delves deeper, there is a difference between leads and prospects.

Leads are individuals that have shown interest in your products/services. Leads are individuals that visit your website and social media channels. People that interact with marketing materials are also called leads. They can be anyone who is a right fit for your business.

A lead might or might not turn into a long-term customer. Leads are usually identified during the early stages of sales cycles. SDRs apply the best prospecting techniques after leads are known.

After the qualification process, leads are filtered to find prospects. Prospects are individuals that completely match your ideal buyer persona. Prospects are more likely to become loyal or long-term customers.

For example, some people might sign up for a free product demo online. Since the person has shown interest in the company by signing up for a product demo, they will be a prospect.

In simplest terms, all prospects were leads during the early stages of the sales cycle.

However, all sales leads do not turn into prospects. SDRs go after individuals turning into prospects to boost sales.

In the sales industry, prospects are also called qualified leads. Once SDRs have qualified leads, they can implement sales prospecting strategies and achieve company goals. 

Understanding the Process of Lead Generation and Prospecting

A mix of lead generation and sales prospecting strategies can help a business achieve its goals. Even though lead generation and prospecting are used interchangeably in the industry, they are different from one another.

When talking about lead generation, SDRs don’t have to worry much. It is because lead generation is usually the responsibility of the marketing employees in most organizations. Marketers create web experiences and marketing materials that attract leads. Blogs, videos, and other marketing content help them attract leads.

Let us understand the concept of lead generation with an example. 

Organizations launch annual industry reports with the latest trends and key statistics. An organization can publish the annual industry report on its official website/newsletter. People require yearly market reports for research purposes.

To access the industry report, site visitors fill out a contact form. The marketing team will have the name, email address, contact number, and occupational status of many leads.

Some of these leads might be genuinely interested in your company, while some simply browse web pages.

Marketers rely on lead scoring models to determine the likeliness of a lead to becoming a customer. Individuals that perfectly match the ideal customer persona are shortlisted.

Usually, companies have automated solutions to rank leads based on their likeliness to become long-term customers. Qualified leads are transferred to the sales department by marketers.

It is where SDRs come into action. 

Once SDRs have qualified leads, the process of sales prospecting begins. Prospecting is a much more manual process than lead generation. Also, it is entirely the responsibility of SDRs and sales managers.

All steps by SDRs to pursue leads fall under the bracket of sales prospecting. It can include cold calling, messaging, scheduling meetings, and many other activities.

For example, a sales representative might find a qualified lead on LinkedIn. The sales representative might message the person on LinkedIn or directly call them if the contact information is available on the profile. 

Often, sales representatives indulge in one-on-one engagement to sell products/services. Interacting with many leads can be time-consuming and laborious. SDRs often have to apply targeted and personalized strategies to win clients.

With the help of sales prospecting, sales representatives try to form personal relations with potential customers.

It is crucial to note that pitch presentations occur after a sales rep gets in touch with potential customers. 

What Happens After Lead Generation and Sales Prospecting?

To schedule a meeting with the potential client, a sales rep has to first get in touch with them. SDRs might make cold calls to schedule meetings with potential customers. Sales prospecting and lead generation are performed in the early stages of sales cycles.

Once SDRs get in touch with potential customers, the next steps are as follows:

• An SDR will create a personalized pitch for the potential customer. In B2B selling, there can be a group of decision-makers, and a pitch is presented to all of them. For example, a business owner, director, marketing head, and many other people will make a buying decision for a company. A pitch tries to answer the prospect’s pain points and persuade them to make a transaction.
• The sales representative will discuss the terms and prices when the prospect wishes to move forward with the deal. A quote will include the contract length, payment terms, and other information related to the ongoing deal. Usually, B2B quotes are more complicated than B2C quotes.
• Once the sales representative and the prospect reach a common price, the deal is closed. Closing a deal means the customer/client will officially sign the contract and pay the quoted price.
• Not all deals are immediately closed by sales reps. For example, a prospect might not sign the contract and go ahead with the sales deal. In such a case, the SDR might choose to develop long-term relations with the client. It can help in cross-selling or referencing in the later stages. If a deal is lost, the sale representative will figure out what went wrong. In the end, sales reps formulate a deal report and forward it to the team leaders.

Common Approaches to Sales Prospecting in 2022

Sales prospecting strategies can be outbound or inbound.

Outbound sales prospecting is applied when there is no prior contact with the potential customer. For example, an SDR might research leads on social media sites. While researching sales leads on social media, the representative might get the chance to learn more about the user’s opinions.

Social media prospecting is one of the most common outbound strategies. Once a potential customer is identified, SDRs will engage via cold calls and emails.

Inbound sales prospecting is applied to potential customers that have interacted before with the company. Inbound sales prospecting activities include warm calling, emailing, and social selling.

People might spend time on your website or leave a comment on a product video. Such people are genuinely interested in your product/service and are worth following.

Key Takeaway

Companies don’t wait for customers to visit their stores or purchase a product online. With sales prospecting techniques, a seller attracts potential customers. With the right sales prospecting strategies, SDRs can close/win more deals. Apply the right lead generation, lead scoring, and sales prospecting strategies now!