Contact us!
Contact us!
Menu

Prospecting: how to find new potential customers

a woman is making an online purchase with a laptop computer

Finding new customers is the most important-and difficult-part of the sales process, and you can do it with prospecting.

Any business, in fact, needs to increase the number of potential buyers to increase sales. B2B is no different.

Marketing and negotiations don’t always go smoothly-a lead can orbit your brand for a long time without ever buying.

How can you stop wasting valuable time? By prospecting.

Prospecting is about finding prospects who are really interested in buying and getting them to increase their interest in your company’s services.

Let’s talk more about this.

In this photograph a woman is trying on a dress in a clothing store

B2B and B2C leads and prospects: a dive into the Buyer’s Journey

From marketing vocabulary, a prospect is “a sales-qualified lead.” So it is a prospective customer who is at the Decision stage, along his Buyer’s Journey.

Maybe a little recap can help us? Let’s do it.

  • The “customer journey” begins when it is still an unqualified user who becomes aware that he or she has a problem or need. This first stage is called Awareness;
  • He comes face to face with your brand, for example, because he did a Google search and found an article from your company’s blog that answers his questions. It seems interesting to him to solve his status.
    He subscribes to your newsletter, or starts following you on social. He provides personal information to receive valuable content from the company.
    The user is now a lead, at the Interest stage
  • Everything goes smoothly. He receives content prepared by the marketing department, which is useful and engages him.
    Then he moves on to the Consideration stage, to evaluate your services as well as those of your competitors.
    The Lead takes the form of a magnificent Prospect;
  • If he considers the proposal to be valid, the Prospect begins his journey into the Decision phase: finally, it is a real Sales Opportunity for your company;
  • The final status step occurs with the purchase that turns prospects into customers.

Strategic tip: to build Buyer’s Journey define the Buyer Persona first.

In practice, you can only figure out how to plan your users’ Buyer’s Journey if you first decide who you want to sell to.

In marketing, the ideal customer you target is called a Buyer Persona: it is a fictitious entity, but one that has well-marked demographic, sociological, economic, professional and value characteristics.
The Buyer Personas methodology underlies the most current digital marketing strategies.

Every strategy involves choices, because we cannot sell everything to everyone. Even globally recognized and established brands cannot have a total monopoly on their target market.

Think of the historic rivalry between Coca Cola and Pepsi, which has managed to erode market share by targeting different Buyer Personas than its historical competitor.

This strategy is also called targeting and involves defining a new market niche-your market niche.

Even for B2B prospecting we suggest you start here and ask yourself who you want to target:

  • Who is the potential customer really interested in you?
  • How old is he?
  • What role does it play in the company?
  • What are your needs?
  • What expectations do you have?
  • Does it reach you from Desktop or Mobile?
  • How difficult is it to gain his trust?
  • And so on.

Prospecting to find really interested new customers

Buying and selling often fail because we target leads that are not sales-qualified. The lead at the interest stage is “marketing qualified”: it needs time to mature the decision to buy.

Before investing time in calls, meetings and offers on a person who does not yet know if he or she is willing to buy from you, it is best to do Prospecting.

Prospecting is an integral part of marketing strategies and the sales funnel because it allows you to find truly interested customers.
It means increasing the probability of closing a trade and ultimately saving time.

Better, in fact, to engage a sales-qualified Prospect who has requested information, costs, tried product DEMOs, etc.

Prospecting: how to find new customers in 3 steps

Step 1: Profile the potential customer

The first thing you can do is to look for information about the prospect, especially on professional channels such as LinkedIn or (if he has one) on his blog.

You should also understand what information he has about your company, how he was reached by marketing, what content he found most engaging.

Why it is useful. Because it allows you to profile the person (target audience) and understand what their interests are and how to target your offer.

Step 2: Define what priority it has for you

Most likely, you find yourself handling multiple prospects at the same time. By acquiring the right information, you can prioritize the Marketing prospects.

Give priority to the “hottest” ones, with whom you are more likely to be able to close the deal.

Step 3: Contact the Prospect

Now, you can contact your Prospect: through LinkedIn, or through an address they provided with consensual marketing.

An astute sales person knows how to understand the real needs of the potential customer during the conversation and tailor the offer.

Moreover, even if his goal is to sell, he avoids generating pressure on the potential buyer.

Finding new customers. How to use LinkedIn for social selling.

The Social selling is an approach to selling that takes place precisely on social media and mostly through LinkedIn, so much so that it is often referred to as Linkedin Prospecting.

It allows you both to build relationships with Prospects who already know your company through marketing efforts and to find new prospects among your platform members.

In both cases, the steps you need to follow do not change. They are the ones we defined earlier:
get information;

  • assigns a priority;
  • understand the interests;
  • contact;
  • personalize the offer;
  • avoids pressure.

How to find new customers through LinkedIn

To make LinkedIn Prospecting an effective lever in your sales strategy, you must curate 4 significant aspects of your social presence.

  1. Build your professional brand by publishing valuable posts and content for your industry;
  2. Create a network to connect you to the right people: colleagues, experts, potential clients;
  3. Craft a content marketing strategy: Publish valuable content for your users and potential customers
  4. Interact with others’ posts and articles if they are relevant. Join discussion groups in your field to highlight your expertise. Don’t be self-referential, though: your goal is always to give others useful information and gain authority;
  5. Build relationships by expanding your network of target contacts.

Calculate the Social Selling Index and find out if you are doing well

Based on how you use LinkedIn for the four metrics we described above, the social counts a Social Selling Index, which you can view at this link.
Factory Communication CEO Donato talked about the SSI a short time ago in a blog article, “Social Selling Index: find out how you’re doing on LinkedIn!“

Having a credible presence on the social most used by professionals is an integral part of a prospecting strategy. Therefore, we think branding on LinkedIn should always be covered in modern sales strategies.

Whether the lead comes from marketing, or whether you yourself as a salesperson find the contact and turn them into a Prospect, with LinkedIn you can:

  • know and make yourself known, demonstrating competence and professionalism;
  • Share valuable content that will help the Prospect in the Decision Making stage;
  • interact, building a relationship that generates trust.

Do you want to find new customers? Read these articles

If you need support, or want to understand how we can help your Company contact us now:
Share on