Prospecting is the most important part of the sales cycle.If you don’t get this very first stage right and target the correct customers then everything that follows will fail.This comprehensive guide to B2B prospecting explains everything you need to know on the subject.
The answer is prospecting.If you don’t get the very first part of your sales cycle right and target the correct customers then everything that follows will fail.Marketing will waste their time focusing on the wrong client and sales will pursue poor-quality leads. You’ll get customers that are difficult to satisfy, who have low loyalty and are unlikely to renew or buy again.Prospecting is the foundation of your sales cycle and it’s vital that you get it right.
That’s why we’ve written this comprehensive guide to B2B prospecting. In it we’ll explain:
Marketing teams often measure their performance based on the number of leads they pass on to the sales team. The problem is that the sales team (and everyone else at the business) measures their performance based on the quality of leads.
Good prospecting allows them to target companies that will make a good lead. It also enables them to choose the best leads to pass on to the sales team.
Sales is only the first step in the customer lifecycle. Once you’ve won their business you need to satisfy them.
As previously mentioned, easy sales don’t mean good customers. You should prospect businesses that you know you can service well.
For example, if you work well with businesses in the insurance sector and are approached by a construction company then you should be wary—they could end up being an unprofitable customer.
This is when sales teams research prospects and contact the best ones using a cold call or an email. It’s seen as a more traditional sales technique.
This is when marketing drives interest in your product or service through their campaigns.Once a lead has been nurtured to the right level, the marketing team will hand the lead over to a salesperson who will aim to convert them.
Digital marketing tools have enabled the creation of complex and highly effective marketing funnels. Inbound prospecting is therefore seen as a more modern approach.
Sales teams could either buy company contact databases or they could use directories like the Yellow Pages. They would then have to ring each business cold to ask questions to determine if it was a suitable prospect. This made the process long and arduous.
This made it easier to track and analyse your sales and made prospecting more sophisticated. It allowed sales teams to easily see which clients they had the most success with.
In turn, this created demand for more detailed databases that would allow salespeople to be more targeted.
They revolutionised prospecting by providing millions of potential leads. However, these would often be unreliable and quickly go out of date.
As more and more company information becomes available online, databases are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
Salespeople can now filter companies based on crucial information like:
And platforms like LinkedIn provide detailed information on individual prospects, which previously took a lot of effort to find.
This period has also seen:
Business databases with integrated sales tools have therefore become critical to prospecting.
We’re in the midst of the latest prospecting revolution—real-time data.
Today, the best business databases are updated as soon as a company’s profile changes. This means that salespeople can rely on accurate, up-to-date information.
The first step to effective prospecting is to have a well-defined ideal customer profile (ICP).
An ideal customer profile is a generic description of a customer created by analysing the data on your best customers, taking into consideration both demographic and behavioural data.
For example, you might find that your most profitable customers have 200-400 employees, a turnover of £4-10 million, excellent liquidity and are based in the North West.
You can use this information to build a picture of the sort of customer you want to target.
Once you have a well-defined ICP, it’s time to use data to find businesses that match it.
In the old days, prospecting used to involve painstaking research to see if a company matched your criteria.
Today, you can use a database like Red Flag alert to quickly find companies that fit your ICP.Our database contains detailed information on every UK company.
By using filters, you can narrow down your list of companies and create highly targeted sales lists that your team can use for outbound strategies.You can also use it for inbound techniques, to see which of the leads in your marketing funnel you should prioritise targeting.
Zero in on scale
Usually the best place to begin is size and budget. Search for factors like turnover or net value. This will help you identify prospects that can afford your service.
Look for trends
Depending on what you sell, you may wish to target businesses that are growing or those that are struggling. Looking at revenues overtime would be a simple and effective way to find these companies.
Profitability
Good profitability is a clear indication that a business is performing well. Profitable businesses may be looking to reinvest profits in growth. Conversely, companies with poor profitability may be looking to reverse the trend and could be interested in loans or administration support.
Focused profiling
At this stage, you need to become more sophisticated with your prospecting. One example of how to do this is by comparing one data point against another. For example, looking at businesses with top-line revenue growth and declining profitability allows you to find businesses that are growing but not sustaining profitability. These businesses will want to revert to profitability as soon as possible—this could be a good opportunity if you offer marketing solutions.
Financial health
It’s important not to waste time selling to a business that is in poor financial health and is at risk of insolvency. Tools such as Red FlagAlert provides detailed financial health ratings for every UK company, so you can check if it is sensible to work with them. Of course, for some businesses such as those offering insolvency services, prospects in poor financial health may be a good thing.
Prospecting isn’t just about sifting companies by data and ICPs. You should also consider the following points:
Sales is about building credibility. To stand any chance of winning a client, you need to be an expert in their sector. Before you begin prospecting, ensure you know enough about the sector’s challenges, how purchasing decisions are made and what the future holds for the industry. This will help you see which companies you should approach and what to say when you do.
Identify someone at the company with influence over the part of the business you want to work with. This could either be done using a social media platform like LinkedIn or the company website. Alternatively you could use Red Flag Alert’s database, which provides the names of over 20 million key decision-makers.
Can your product overcome a problem for the decision-maker? Take time to identify their pain points so that you can pitch a solution to them that overcomes it.
Hunter scrapes the internet for email addresses. It gives your sale steam access to publicly sourced and verified email addresses in seconds. It also allows you to create simple email campaigns to reach out to your new leads.
Leadfeeder is a reverse IP tool. This means it allows you to see who has visited your website and then turns that information into contactable leads. It also tells you how the visitor found your company.
LSN helps you quickly find and engage with the right prospects. It gives you real-time updates on your leads, enterprise tools and sales tool integrations.
RFA leverages AI to help you find high-quality prospects. Using our B2B Prospector tool you can build detailed customer profiles based on over 100 filters, helping you create laser focused sales lists. On top of this you can analyse hidden data.
RFA gives you access to a database of every UK company.
If your sector is subject to UK anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, it’s vital to be compliant.
If you don’t, you could face severe fines or even prison.
Many businesses run AML checks at the onboarding phase. However, this is inefficient.If a customer does pose a risk, your sales team has already wasted time and effort getting them to that stage.
By performing effective customer due diligence at the prospecting phase, you can filter out risky customers before you start selling.
You can run these checks using a solution like Red Flag Alert.
We aggregate important AML and Know Your Customer (KYC) data, including:
It’s also crucial to have a secure audit trail that can easily be shared during investigations, ensuring your business can prove it has followed due process when asked.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, many businesses were forced into remote work. The same thing happened to sales and marketing campaigns. Many businesses relied on digital channels alone to engage with customers.
Many buyers liked the new remote approach to sales and marketing.
70-80% of B2B decision-makers say they prefer remote human interactions or digital self-service
This means that it’s becoming more challenging to:
This makes prospecting even more important. If you target best-fit customers it becomes easier to engage with them
Once you have a list of excellent prospects, it’s time to target them with your sales and marketing strategies.
Good prospecting supports engagement across the entire sales funnel. Let’s take a look at how this works.
The awareness stage involves creating and sharing valuable content that helps solve your prospects’ problems.Creating detailed ICPs allows you to understand these issues. You can then use prospecting to see who these companies are and target them with your content.
Now that prospects are aware of yourcompany and its solution, it’s time tohighlight why you’re the best choice. This stage involves more in-depth content that prospects can use to compare the solutions on the market.
Some strategies that you can use to sway the prospect include:
Prospects that fit your ICP are more likely to convert into buyers and will do so quicker.
Furthermore, salespeople will have a clear picture of the kind of business they are dealing with and a lot of experience in speaking to similar companies.
The buyer’s journey doesn’t end after purchasing your product or service. Instead, you need to build loyalty to keep your customer for the long term. Good prospecting helps here too.If you’ve done it right then you’ll know the common pain points that your customer faces and the challenges involved in servicing them.This allows you to build your business around meeting these specific issues.
You can train customer service reps to address them and modify your product or service too. As a result, customers will be more likely to remain loyal.
Once you’ve given customers a great experience and built brand loyalty, your goal should be to turn them into advocates. Brand advocates are a powerful form of social proof and a great marketing asset for your company.
Building an ICP around these brand advocates and then prospecting for them can be a great multiplier for your business as they are your very best customers.
Red Flag Alert is an all-in-one solution for improving your B2B prospecting and increasing revenue.
One of our clients, Power Solutions UK, leveraged our data-rich B2B Prospector to increase their sales conversions by over 100%. And many other shave done the same.
and much much more...
To learn more about the many benefits of Red Flag Alert, book a demo or contact our team. Call 0344 412 6699. Email sales@redflagalert.com
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