99 tips for prospecting smbs ebook

8/13/2019 99 Tips for Prospecting SMBs eBook

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Sell smarter, faster.

Data for prospecting smarter.

Insights for closing faster.

- for Prospecting SMBs


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Lead prospecting is one of the hardest and most

time-consuming activities a salesperson will

undertake in his or her career. And many salespeople

loathe prospecting. However, prospecting offers

a way for sales reps to reach ideal prospects that

dont necessarily reach an inbound marketing funnel.

A healthy sales pipeline welcomes opportunities

from all directions, and prospecting can greatly

contribute to the construction of one.

This ebook aims to make the arduous prospecting process a littleeasier for sales reps. We reached out to sales experts and toppractitioners to put together prospecting tips from salespeople whohave been prospecting for years. We received a lot of great tips thatsalespeople can implement right away to start filling their pipelines.

The first portion of the ebook features a number of suggestionsfor setting the right prospecting preparation in place and creating apersonal brand that will help sales reps build credibility when they goabout reaching out to prospects:

Tips on how you should organize your prospecting efforts and educateyourself on your prospects

-Advice on building an online brand for yourself

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We then broke our tips into sections based on the steps of theprospecting process, and we started with the highest-level:

Helpful pointers on finding the right prospects to call

Ways to get your crazy-busy prospects to engage with you onthe phone, over email, and through a number of new & effectiveprospecting channels

Tactics for building value for your prospects so they listen andrespond to your outreach

We also decided to present tips that contradict each other so youcan choose the approach thats right for you. Some trends emergethroughout the ebook, but ultimately, we discovered that prospectingis clearly not a one-size-fits-all sales process. Everyone whocontributed to the book is an expert in the sales craft, but they hailfrom different experiences and believe in different methods.

Enjoy the read. We want to know what you think! If you have a new tip

that we missed, email us at [email protected].


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Prospecting is not easy, and jumping in with no

preparation will likely lead to failure. Every expert

with whom we spoke mentioned the importance of

developing a process and creating a plan before

beginning a prospecting endeavor. Divide your

plan into tangible steps so you have an accessible

starting point for all your prospecting efforts.


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Make blocks of time for prospecting or you wont get it done asregularly as you need to.

Unless you get 100% of your leads from referrals or inbound

marketing, prospect in some manner EVERY DAY.

Set weekly activity goals for prospecting on Monday and review onFriday. Rather than focusing on just revenue goals, try for 3 onlinemeetings, or 2 conversations with decision makers, or 5 phone callswith strategic referrers.

Plan your work and work your plan: You cant take a fishing boat outand just expect fish to jump into the boat.

When its scheduled prospecting time, do nothing else but prospect.Everything else can wait.

Educate yourself on the ecosystem in which your targets live. Youneed to choose the best possible information sources and read themoften. The best way to influence the buyer is to consume the bestinformation.

Sellers are always connected. Information moves quickly. The

successful sales reps are those who are quick to learn and adopt. Thisrequires a constant state of learning throughout the day.

Keep record of the specific terms, phrases, company positions, andother references your buyer uses. Create these language profiles forevery prospect.


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Successful prospecting involves more than

just picking up the phone and calling leads. You

need to learn about your prospects businesses

and industries. When you look at an outbound

prospecting target list, you should be able to

prioritize the list based on trigger events, social

insights, and personal connections. If you cant,

youre not ready to call. Get organized and educate

yourself before you begin prospecting.

When its scheduled prospecting time, do nothing

else but prospect. Everything else can wait.

Tweet Top Tip
http://clicktotweet.com/6bSa8http://clicktotweet.com/6bSa8http://clicktotweet.com/6bSa8http://clicktotweet.com/6bSa8


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A successful salesperson today cultivates his or her

digital presence. As Anthony Iannarino says: Your

digital persona sells for you while you are sleeping.

There are a number of critical components to your

digital profile, including the information on your

Linkedin account, the people you follow and engage

through Twitter, and the content you share to

become a trusted resource.

Build your personal brand on social media to attract

the prospects that you want to discover you.


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Define your personal brand. Marry your natural interests with yourbuyers needs. Then brand this marriage as though you are a product.Your entire online and offline presence must consistently representthat brand.

Attract your audience. If a prospect hears your voicemail or receivesyour email, they may Google your name. Are you worth the search?

Establish a virtual presence so that people can learn about you andyour company on their schedule. Make it easy and valuable for them toengage with you when they are ready.

Optimize the heck out of LinkedIn, and get the professional version.

Create a profile that helps you prospect and sell. If you are interactingwith a prospect, your LinkedIn profile should help you sell the value ofyour solution. Place information about your sales credibility, such asclient quotes, on your profile.

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Expand your sphere of influence. When you get a business card,immediately connect to the owner of that card via LinkedIn. Add apersonal note not the generic LinkedIn salutation. Sincerity buildstrust. Only when you are trusted can you be influential.

Online activities will lead to offline results. A growing LinkedInnetwork must lead to sales. Social Sellers have the ability to transitiona virtual conversation to a real opportunity.

Link via Linkedin with other people in a prospects company specifically, with other decision makers and influencers.

LinkedIn allows you to join a maximum of 50 groups. Join 50 LinkedIngroups.

Curate a newspaper, i.e. paper.li, with content that potential buyerswill find interesting, and share it with them.

Leverage social management tools, such as HootSuite ($5/month),to easily deliver content to your connections and followers.


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Todays best sales reps add value for their prospects,

and they do it through social media. A LinkedIn

profile is not just a repository for your resume;

rather, its an online resource where you share ideas

and develop expertise. Your Twitter feed is not just

a list of random thoughts; its a stream of thoughtful

content that helps your prospects learn to solve

their problems. Use social media to create your

digital brand, and your digital brand will do the softselling while youre away from the phones.

Establish a virtual presence so that people can learn

about you and your company on their schedule.

Make it easy and valuable for them to engage withyou when they are ready.

Tweet Top Tip
http://clicktotweet.com/iJZXShttp://clicktotweet.com/iJZXShttp://clicktotweet.com/iJZXShttp://clicktotweet.com/iJZXS


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One of the biggest factors to successful prospecting

is knowing how to find the right people to call and

knowing when to call them. Notice how none of the

contributors say, Pick up a phone book and make

some calls, or, just walk in and say hi. That approach

leads to immediate failure.

Some great applications available today can help

you pinpoint buyers and will show you the data youneed so you know when to call and what to say. But

before you can build a prospect list, you have to

know who you want to call in the first place.


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Use sales intelligence to listen for changes and conversations yourbuyers and competitors are having.

Follow your prospects on Twitter and watch for appropriate ways to

engage.

Set up trigger alerts for internal changes, such as senior executivemovement, acquisition, divestiture, funding, credit status changes,etc.

Have someone on your team follow LinkedIn to look for trigger events,such as job changes, product evaluations, or priority shifts.

Look at other potential buyers in markets where you already have oneor more clients and work to own that sector.

Team up with complementary partners who can alert you to salesopportunities.

Carry business cards everywhere Ive uncovered sales opportunitiesin the most unanticipated places.

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Without a doubt, the best time to get a hold of the hard-to-reachperson is between :58 and :02 each hour. This is ideal because it is theone time when a busy person is most likely to be between meetings.Also, if the person spends a lot of time on conference calls, then they

are likely to answer the phone at the top of the hour in anticipation ofa conference call scheduled to start at that time.

Do your research; you dont want to sound like any other schlep callingup and interrupting their day. Make sure to learn enough about theirbusiness to articulate why you feel you can help.

Dont simply cold call. Do research in LinkedIn, on the prospectswebsite, in groups or other discussions in which they are involved andon any other press.

If calling local restaurants, DO NOT call during lunch hours. Thats thekiss of death.

Figuring out the best time of day to call changes from vertical tovertical. You have to be comfortable making several attempts atfinding the best time to catch someone whos in the office. Getting anemail address is helpful, but understand that you may not get a replyuntil much later in the day when they actually have a second to sit

down.

Get to know your customers socially: how many followers do they haveon Twitter? What do they talk about on Twitter?

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Call into your existing customers - months after you sold them yoursolution and do these three things:

. Ask them how things are going after the sale.

Make them feel loved, and at the same time, ask questions aroundpotential upsell opportunities now that theyve been installed and arehopefully happy with what you sold them.

. Ask them why they ended up buying from you.Push them to tell you exactly what it was and exactly when it wasthat they decided they were going to buy from you. You will end upwith silver bullets, compelling events and stories you can use in newprospecting cycles.

. Ask the person who bought from you to give you three names ofpeople he/she knows in similar positions at other companies thatcould also be interested in your solution.If they are receiving value from what you sold, they should be happyto make their colleagues successful as well. Ask if you can use theirnames in the email you plan to send each, and even copy them on theemail you send out to these three new pre-qualified prospects.

With one call, you accomplish three unbelievable goals, and hopefully

set in motion tons of new prospecting activities.

How to leverageyour customers tofind new prospects


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Understand how your customers prospect and engage theircustomers. Do they add people on Facebook as friends or do they@reply them on Twitter? Do they ignore their customers on socialmedia? Why?

Are your customers gaining or sinking in popularity? Foursquarecheck-ins and other social indicators can be an easy way to determinecustomer loyalty and interest.

Learn about the business owner. What does he or she care about? Ishe or she family oriented? Social indicators can tell you a lot aboutthe owners interests and needs.

Break your leads into buckets based on quality with 3-4 attributes:size, current setup, timeframe for purchase and source of lead, forexample, and 3 scores: A, B, and C. Focus on the A first, then movedown. If you force yourself to give a grade to a lead, youll staydisciplined and realistic.

Every voicemail/call should mention a client similar to the prospect,a reason why that client moved to your service/product, and aconcluding question on how your service or product will benefit theirbusiness materially.

When preparing your call script, think: You are 1 of 100s ofsalespeople calling this prospect. What would make them want to callyou back?

Incorporate LinkedIn Messages to multi-touch prospects. Forexample, if you get no response from an Inmail Find message, clickforward. Copy with date/time and place in the body of your email.

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Connect with prospects who view your profile. On Linkedin, you cansee who has viewed your profile. When a prospect views your profile,offer to connect. When youre connected, theyll see your ActivityFeed, and you can track their activity.

Stop writing emails that look like novels: http://three.sentenc.es/

Apply apps like Outlooks Delay Delivery, Boomerang, or ToutAPP tosend your messages on Sundays. It appears that youre working hardon the weekend and it catches prospects in a relaxed environment.

Utilize a cold emailing strategy along with your cold calling. Sendshort, text-based emails that are in your own voice and easy torespond to: Are you still the right person to speak to regarding XXXXsupplier selection?

Decision makers who are SMBs are rarely sitting waiting for a salescall; email is VERY important. Always email first to let them knowyoure going to call. If you dont get through email again, give them aday and then call. Email is very important in selling to the SMB.

One effective way to sell into SMBs is to use the brand equity of apartner. Odds are they havent heard of your company. BUT if youreable to get distribution partnerships with a notable partner, you canleverage that relationship in your approach to get a meeting.

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Appointment setting applications, such as TimeTrade, are great call toactions.

Read your local business paper and look for information about your

prospect or their industry. Cut out the article, picture or mention andsend it to them with a handwritten note card. Note not a sales pitch.

Send your prospects a handwritten birthday cards the old-fashionedway.

Invite a prospect to be interviewed for a podcast or online radio show.

If someone has been ignoring your cold-calling for 5 years, THEY ARENOT INTERESTED.

Know your prospects communication preferences. Keep record ofthose preferences and stick to them. If they stop responding, then tryother channels.

Be persistent. It takes multiple touches, using multiple communicationchannels AND multiple cycles of contact to reach a prospect. Most

prospectors give up too early.


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Once you get your prospects on the phone, you have

to know what to say to them. Small business owners

are perhaps some of the busiest businessmen and

women we ever call as salespeople. Understanding

your prospects schedule is especially important

when selling to SMBs, and respecting their time is an

effective way to earn their trust.

Get to know your customers socially: how many

followers do they have on Twitter? What do they talk

about on Twitter?

Tweet Top Tip
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Connecting with your prospect is half the battle;

keeping them interested is the other half.

Salespeople have a strategy and methodology

for approaching the three core elements of

engagement:qualifying the prospect to see if they

are a good opportunity, offering enough value to the

prospect that they will choose to keep talking, and

then closing the deal.


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. Find a pain or need.

. Get agreement that there is a pain or need.

. Get agreement to do something about the pain or need.

. Agree on a generic solution.

. Finally: agree on a customized, specific solution.

The 5 Steps forPresenting YourService or Solution


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When salespeople use BANT, prospects BOLT.

Make it about them: once youve managed to articulate why you feel

you can help their organization, the very next thing to do is explain howit can help THEM. If youre wasting their time, you need to make surethey immediately understand how you want them to look like a hero.

Hone your pitch: know the value that you offer and find ways toengage potential buyers through adding value for them not fromselling your stuff.

Dont sell; help others buy. The buyer-centric approach assures youspeak in terms relevant to real problems. Buyers dont care about yourproduct. They care about solving their problems.

What if you could only say 65 words in your call? What exactly wouldyou say?

Stop talking about your offerings. Theyre not interested in whatyou do; only what you can do for them. Theres a big difference!

How you see yourself and your role matters a lot. Are you a problem-solver, consultant and value-creator? Or do you see yourself as aproduct-pusher or price-quoter. Its the difference between winningand losing in sales.

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Offer something of value with nothing in return. Rather than ask for ameeting, offer an assessment or audit.

Too often, our inquiries to new prospects as sellers are help me

requests. If you can turn that into a help you, I bet youll get far betterresponse and interest.

Provide as much evidence of ROI as possible. For example, send aprospect a case study that shows how you helped boost revenue/leadvolume/sales for a company similar to theirs.

Build relationships. As with all sales, people purchase based onemotion and likability. This means you need to be open, honest and fullof integrity in your discussions and negotiations with them. Theres nobigger turn off than finding out you paid more for the same thing thananother business did and feeling ripped off.

Build rapport, be a peer, and get on your prospects level on topicsnot directly associated with selling. If youre calling a prospect inSan Francisco, for example, ask them if they follow the Giants or the49ers.

Organize your call list to have similar profile contacts (industry or

vertical, C level, upsell) so you can find a talk track rhythm.

If something works more than once, do it over and over until it stopsworking, then do it a few more times.


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Never argue. If someone is annoyed, apologize for bothering them andmove on.

Your target prospect list is one of your few chances to be strategic.

Put some serious thought into who you target. Get help and inputfrom others who can focus your efforts in the right direction.

5 before 9 and 9 after 5: extra calls to be made to keep the funnel fat.

Aim for higher-level people at your potential customersorganizations. Counter-intuitively, its actually easier. Senior peopleare generally nicer, more professional, and certainly more interestedin solving big business issues than lower-level people who generallytry to protect their jobs and the status quo.

In most cases, you dont need to be selling to the C-Suite.

Be capable of an on the spot demo of your product. If you actuallycatch an SMB decision maker, dont make them agree to anappointment down the road with you and someone else from yourteam; be ready with a tool like glance.net to do something quick and on

the spot.

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Understand that once you get the owner/decision maker on the phone,youve got that ONE chance to get them interested.

If youre cold calling into an SMB and actually get the decision maker

on the phone, never try to sell them on the spot. Odds are high thattheyre in the middle of running their business, which means theyrenot primed to receive your pitch. The goal of a first call is to set ameeting. When someone has set aside time to hear your pitch, theyrein a state much more conducive to buying.

: see we told you that wed contradict ourselves.

Prior to reaching out, type your prospects name into YouTube.YouTube? Yes, YouTube.

If youre selling to a local business, find out if any of your friends havebeen to that business. Get their perspectives on the business beforecalling.

Know your best customers the ones you want to replicate. Know whythey bought your product (ask them if you have to) and be able to sayit in no more than 2 sentences.


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. Introduce yourself and your company. You wouldnt call a friend of afriend and start rattling off questions without a quick explanationof who you are. Add a referral whenever possible to make the

introduction process even better!

. Verify the person on the other line is the best person with whom tospeak. Before you start a conversation, make sure you have the rightperson on the phone. You will earn more credibility.

. Be honest. Let them know that you are calling to learn more abouttheir environment.

. These questions should be designed to help you to qualify a goodprospect. List out all the questions that help you verify your prospectis a good fit for your solution. The more you outline about theirenvironment in the initial conversation, the more successful the nextcall will be.

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You should design your transition question to be compelling: it shouldget your prospect talking about challenges within their environment.This question should be vague, and should never leave the opportunityfor a yes or no response.

Tips for aSuccessful ColdCall Script


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. A set of questions designed to get your prospect talking about painsand needs they are facing is critical. The trick is to stay on the offenseof the conversation. Always be prepared with your next question and

identify their pains as soon as possible.

. & This is the point at which you connect your prospects problems toyour products. Never move into a product description before firstunderstanding a little bit about why your prospect might find valuein your product in the first place. And never deliver a generic productdescription. Your spin should be custom for every prospect. Alwaysbe prepared with a very brief what we do statement. Remove allsales/marketing jargon from this statement. It helps your prospect

understand whether youre a fit for them. Sometimes, it helps me tothink about how I would explain my product/service to a friend. Thetrick is to keep it simple!

. How does your product/service save time?

. How does your product/service reduce costs?

. What is the impact on business with your product/service?


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Provide some third party reviews or articles that can quickly helpthem make a decision. I know you think your product is the best, butyoure going to need to prove it.

Be real. Prospecting dialogues are too short for BS, and people cansniff it out anyway.

Lose the Sales Voice, particularly on the phone. Talk normally, as ifyoure speaking with a friend or peer.

Dont be too formal. When talking to an SMB, realize any person whois a decision maker is extremely busy and doesnt really want to gothrough this purchase process theyre doing it because they have aneed. Theyll respect you for saving their time.

Use their name. Seems simple, but the more you can use their name,the less it will sound like youre reading from a script. I dont mean the,Hi {Insert Name Here}, type script; all Im saying is to try your bestto say their name throughout the flow of the conversation withoutsounding like a schlocky sales guy/girl.

Ask an engaging follow up question. Assuming youve gotten throughyour elevator pitch, ask a question that you know will get them

THINKING.

Prospects are not leads, clicks, or impressions; theyre people andbusinesses. Get over your own internal metrics and listen.

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Todays best sales reps add value for their prospects,

and they do it through social media. A LinkedIn

profile is not just a repository for your resume;

rather, its an online resource where you share ideas

and develop expertise. Your Twitter feed is not just

a list of random thoughts; its a stream of thoughtful

content that helps your prospects learn to solve

their problems. Use social media to create your

digital brand, and your digital brand will do the softselling while youre away from the phones.

Do not ask prospects about the weather, how their

days are going, etc. They will initiate the small talk

when they are established with you.

Tweet Top Tip
http://clicktotweet.com/ySZgV%20http://clicktotweet.com/ySZgV%20http://clicktotweet.com/ySZgV%20http://clicktotweet.com/ySZgV%20


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This ebook is intended to be a resource where

salespeople and business owners can find fresh

ideas for prospecting. Prospecting is downright

hard to do, and any advantage you can gain will make

your life easier. We want to thank all of our amazing

contributors who gladly provided us with the

material to create this ebook. If you get the chance

to look them up and thank them, please do so.

Otherwise, happy selling!


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