What is customer prospecting?
In this article we will provide you the awarness about Prospecting customers importance and 8 useful tips.
Prospecting customers means looking for new consumers who match the profile of a particular company.
In this sense, the main objective of prospecting customers is to introduce them to the products, services and solutions that the company offers, with the aim of establishing a relationship with that person and leading them on the purchasing journey .
Therefore, to prospect customers, the sales team contacts qualified leads. In companies that have a division between the sales team, the person responsible for making this contact is the SDR – Sales Development Representatives .
However, it is important to highlight that this stage of the sales process goes far beyond a contact. After all, a lot of concrete data is needed to understand whether these leads are really prepared for this type of approach.
How to prospect customers: why is it so important?
Prospecting customers is one of the most important stages of pre-sales . After all, a relationship with the customer will also be built there. Therefore, it is very important to carry out this process in the best way possible.
Furthermore, this is when the lead will progress through the sales funnel or not. Therefore, it is a step that requires a lot of study and caution.
Other advantages of prospecting customers for your business are:
- Maintain competitiveness;
- Increase sales volume;
- Improve the consumer experience;
- Increase ROI;
- And much more!
8 useful tips on how to prospect customers effectively
Well, now that you know how important customer prospecting is for your business, the time has come to understand how to do this in practice in the best way.
To do this, I have put together 8 infallible tips that you should constantly apply before, during or after prospecting for new clients. Let’s go?
1- Analyze your consumer profile
Firstly, how will you prospect your customers without knowing them? In this sense, it is important to study and evaluate the profile of the consumer who connects with your business to know the best way to prospect.
Therefore, by understanding the consumer’s profile, you will be able to develop approach techniques that convey greater security and reliability to the person.
Furthermore, when you know your consumer, you will know exactly what they are looking for , which will make the chances of successful customer prospecting greater.
To understand the profile of your consumers, you can carry out market research and analyze common points they have based on the information you have about your leads. Furthermore, to help with this study, you can also use information about your business’s social media followers.
2- Define your target audience, persona and ICP
These three concepts are fundamental pieces for good customer prospecting. After all, in-depth study is necessary to define them precisely.
In this sense, as in the previous step when defining the target audience, persona and ICP, you will have a better basis for approaching customer prospecting. Understand what each of these concepts means:
- Target audience : is a group of people or companies with common characteristics, pains and needs. In other words, it is the segment that your brand or company intends to reach.
- Persona : is the representation of a company’s ideal customers. In other words, it is basically a created character who has a name, age, profession, desires and desires. The ultimate goal is to help the company better understand who its ideal consumer is.
- ICP : is the profile of customers who are in the ideal situation and also meet the requirements and characteristics suitable for being served by your business. In other words, they are basically the people that your company will prospect for customers.
3- Know your product or service well
At first, this tip may seem a little obvious. However, it is essential that your sales team fully understands all the details about the products or services that your business offers.
After all, only then will it be possible to offer these solutions to those who really need them. Furthermore, when we talk about knowing your products and services well, this also involves knowing the market in which they operate and understanding their requirements.
Therefore, offer continuous training to sales team employees, so that they understand in detail how the solutions your business offers work.
Preferably, make these people experience the experience of purchasing your company’s products and services, as if they were in the customers’ shoes.
4- Invest in inbound marketing
Content marketing is an excellent strategy for prospecting customers. This is because you will offer quality content and rich materials that can solve possible pain points for consumers, who may be at the top, middle or bottom of the funnel.
In this sense, when these consumers are ready to make a purchase, that is, at the bottom of the marketing funnel , they will probably remember your company , since you offered content that was useful to them.
Therefore, there are several platforms that help automate much of this process. Still, the most important thing at this moment is to hire a specialized team that will produce quality content.
After all, there is no point in producing any type of content just for the sake of it, since there is already a lot of it available on the internet. You need to stand out from the rest to obtain concrete results. In this sense, do not see this as an expense, but rather a medium to long-term investment that will bring qualified leads and excellent results.
5- Create a good relationship with your consumers
As I said at the beginning of this post, customer prospecting will often be responsible for deepening relationships with consumers. Therefore, it is essential that everything happens in the best way possible.
Furthermore, by relating well with your customers, you establish a strong bond of trust between company and consumer. In this sense, transparent, honest and direct communication will make the public trust whoever is sending them a message.
Therefore, those who convey more confidence sell better. After all, who wouldn’t prefer to hand over their money to a brand they already know and trust?
6- Invest in different prospecting channels
Gone are the days when prospecting customers was done only through traditional means, such as email and telephone.
Currently, there are several other channels that can be explored to make this important contact, for example: WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Instagram, Marketplaces, among others.
That is why it is so important to have a well-defined consumer profile, persona, target audience and ICP. After all, by getting to know the consumer in depth, you will also know the channels on which they will be present and even where they prefer this contact to take place.
For example, there are people who don’t like talking on the phone, and when they receive calls from unknown numbers they don’t even answer. That’s why it’s important to know the ideal channel to contact this person.
Another good tip for knowing which service channel to approach different potential customers is to ask directly about their contact preference, on landing pages with rich materials, for example.
7- Offer good service
Most of the time, the first impression is what lasts , right? In this sense, it is essential to offer good customer service when contacting prospecting.
Therefore, it is important to be willing to answer any type of doubt, offering the best possible experience for this consumer.
Furthermore, it is necessary to understand and respect the different moments in which these potential customers are. If the person makes it very clear that they are not interested in the solutions your business offers, don’t be insistent.
In practice, to perform this step in the best way possible, offer service courses and training for your sales team.
8- Do market research
Finally, market research will be very important to validate most of the previous steps.
Furthermore, satisfaction surveys will also be very important to evaluate your team’s service and identify areas for improvement.
