Sales prospecting: use these 6 techniques to win over new customers!

What are the best sales prospecting techniques?

Customer prospecting is essential in an ultra-competitive environment, where highly sought-after prospects and customers are becoming increasingly volatile. It is an integral part of your sales strategy.

Which prospecting technique should you choose? Here's an overview of the different stages to follow and the best methods for finding new customers!

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Commercial prospecting: definition

The first stage in the sales cycle, commercial prospecting is defined as the process of seeking out and identifying potential future customers (prospects), contacting them and turning them into real customers.

B2B (Business to Business) canvassing and B2C (Business to Consumer) canvassing have the same purpose:

• create a database of prospective customers
• qualify it
• convert the prospect into a customer.

What are the commercial prospecting techniques?

Analogue commercial prospecting techniques

1. Telephone prospecting

Teleprospecting (or phoning) is a fast and direct technique for making contact, facilitating interaction and exchanges, all by telephone.

It remains a very popular method of prospecting for companies, because it is inexpensive. What's more, it's easy to measure the effectiveness of a campaign.

On the other hand, it can give a feeling of intrusion, harassment and sometimes amateurism if it is subcontracted or if you are poorly trained. What's more, it requires substantial human resources.

👉 O ur advice for a successful telephone interview:

• be dynamic, natural and smiling (yes, you can hear that on the phone), so as to leave a good impression ;
• keep your sentences short and to the point, don't get lost in long-winded speeches;
• listen to the person you're talking to so that you can adapt your arguments, your speech and your vocabulary to maximise your chances of making an impact;
• take notes, because every piece of information is important and can lead to a business opportunity.

2. The field prospecting technique

Canvassing in the field is an increasingly neglected technique in the digital age... which is precisely what can set you apart from your competitors.

It's rare for a sale to be made on the first visit, but prospecting in the field is an interesting way of making initial contact and leaving a good impression.

The advantages of prospecting in the field :

• it humanises the sales proposal and makes it more real;
• physical contact enables valuable information to be gathered (particularly via body language), and sales opportunities to be detected.

💡 Please note: asalesperson must be organised and able to plan their operations. They also need to be able to rely on a tool that provides them with traceability and tracking of their prospecting, such as Kizeo Forms, which dematerialises sales management, including offline.

3. Trade shows

Trade shows represent a great business opportunity. They provide an opportunity to bring together a large number of prospective customers:

• large numbers, depending on the size of the show ;
• most of them qualified because of their interest in the theme of the event. At a property show, visitors are more likely to be receptive to your interior decoration services. Prospecting is consistent, and therefore less intrusive;
• who expect to be approached and to discover offers on this occasion;
• from all countries, if international.

Digital sales prospecting techniques

4. Emailing

This technique involves sending mass emails to a database of targeted, identified prospects.

Segmenting the database is an essential step: there's no point in sending an email (and paying for it!) to someone who doesn't have a real need for your product or service.

Emailing can complement other prospecting techniques: did you meet an interesting contact at a trade show? Go on to the next stage by sending them a personalised email to maintain the commercial relationship.

Take care with your prospecting email so that :

• your recipient opens it
• its content is read (to do this, it must be relevant and adapted to the target need);
• hold the prospect's attention;
• make them want to click on a call to action to convert them into a customer.

💡 Please note: setting up emailing campaigns takes time and the right tools. Make sure of the ROI of such a campaign before you throw yourself into it. If it was too costly, we advise you to limit your use of emailing to customer loyalty actions rather than prospecting.

5. SMS marketing

Sending a promotional SMS is an effective way of reaching a prospect directly in their pocket. This channel is still relatively little used compared to email and social networks, so take advantage of it to stand out from your competitors!

The advantages of SMS:

• 95% open rate,
• read within 3 minutes of receipt
• low cost.

6. Social selling

Social selling involves using social networks to develop sales.

LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are all great hunting grounds for finding :

• new contacts
• but also qualitative information to create a fruitful first contact.

💡 Our advice: combine prospecting techniques in multi-channel mode to gain in effectiveness. For example:

• Social selling + email sequence + automatic appointment setting,
• Telephone + physical appointment,
• E-mail + telephone,
• Blog post + contact form + telephone, etc.

How do you go about sales prospecting? The 6 key steps

Step 1: Define your objectives

Win 100 new customers over a given period? Or follow up your qualified prospects?

Whatever the aim of your sales prospecting, it's important to set yourself precise, achievable and measurable objectives beforehand. These will enable you to frame your future actions effectively, as well as the way in which you communicate with your potential customers.

💡 Tip: by determining the sales figure you want to achieve, you deduce the quantity of sales you need to make to get there. From there, calculate the number of prospects you need to approach based on your average conversion rate.

Step 2: Identify your targets

Knowing exactly who your targets are is the key to the effectiveness of your prospecting approach. The more you address the right people from the outset, those who can be reached by your offer, the better your chances of turning them into customers.

💡 Tip: build your persona. This will enable you to accurately identify the profile of your ideal customer and their needs, so that you can address them strategically.

Example of a persona:

Using sales support software, such as Kestio, can be a great help in defining your personas.

Step 3: Build your prospecting file

Once you've identified your typical customer, it's time to build your prospecting file and prospect sheets. This document records all the information you need to know about the people you are planning to approach. For example

• first and last name
• age
• gender
• postal address and e-mail address,
• telephone number,
• professional status, etc.

For BtoB prospecting :

• the name of the company,
• company address
• sector of activity,
• your contact's position within the company,
• a telephone number, etc.

Keep this file well and update it regularly: it's a valuable document for recording and tracking all the actions taken with your potential customers.

💡 Tip: there are many ways you can build up this list of contacts. For example, for BtoB activity, the LinkedIn social network or trade shows are excellent sources. For BtoC, attract prospects to your website with a well thought-out inbound marketing strategy.

Step 4: Draw up an action plan

At this stage, draw up a precise schedule of your future activities. This will enable you :

• increase your chances of success by prospecting during the times when your targets are most likely to be available (opening hours of the target company in a B2B sale, for example):
• to stay organised, regular and, above all, motivated.

It is also at this stage that you identify the most appropriate prospecting channels and techniques (telephone, emailing, field prospecting, etc.). While there are no inherently better ones, they do need to be determined on the basis of your activity and your company. Here are a few criteria to consider:

• Cold or warm prospect?
• What is the profile of your ideal customer?
• Where is your target market?
• What skills does your sales force have?
• What is the ROI?

💡 Tip: be present where your potential customers are. To do this, analysing the customer journey is fundamental.

NB: We'll come back to these different prospecting techniques a little later in the article.

Step 5: prospect!

Now it's time to take concrete action. If you're going to make direct contact with your prospect, make sure you have a well-honed sales pitch. Work on your sales pitch so that it :

• focuses on the customer and their expectations to arouse their interest,
• presents your products or services first and foremost as a relevant response to their needs.

💡 Tip: to be more effective in this exercise, practise active listening and prepare beforehand, particularly to counter any objections.

As part of digital prospecting, focus on personalising your content to make your message impactful. For example, this might involve including your prospect's first and last names in the email you send them, but above all it's a question of addressing them (both in terms of content and form) in a way that shows them that you understand their problems and that your offer provides a solution.

Step 6: Measure the impact of your prospecting actions

By measuring the impact of your actions, you'll be in a better position to readjust your strategy and sales pitch if necessary. For example, you'll be able to confirm that the time slots you've selected for your canvassing do indeed correspond to your target... or not.

💡 Tip: use precise indicators, such as the rate at which your emails are opened, or the number of calls you make if you're canvassing by telephone.

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What tools should you use for prospecting?

In order to be more effective, all good salespeople rely on a certain number of tools to support them in their prospecting activity.

We have already mentioned the prospecting file, an essential document for recording all the information about potential customers.

There are many other types of tool. Let's look at some of them 👉.

Software

Numerous software programmes have been developed to support salespeople in their prospecting. These include

• CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions, designed to effectively manage your relationship with prospects and customers. For example :
  
  
  • Salesforce Starter helps companies to acquire new qualified leads, thanks in particular to an emailing strategy based on intelligent segmentation, guaranteeing better personalisation of your messages. All these opportunities are then managed efficiently using an intuitive sales pipeline.
    
    
  • Sellsy CRM provides optimum monitoring of your prospecting thanks to a pipeline view, as well as the collection and centralisation of information on your potential customers. Your business opportunities are also entered into the software to increase your chances of closing sales.
    
    
• prospecting tools, designed to provide you with leads. For example:
  
  
  • Easybusiness, innovative and intuitive prospecting software, is connected to the Kompass database, which contains millions of qualified B2B contacts. Among other things, it helps you find and contact prospects in France and abroad, using over 60 search criteria.

Other types of prospecting tool

• 📈 The sales brochure. Paper brochure, or PDF presentation, summarises the main information about your company and your products. The vocabulary and spelling are impeccable, and the design is pleasant, uncluttered and distinctive. The same goes for the business card. These are materials you can rely on and give to prospects at the end of the interview.
  
  
• 📱 The smartphone. While this may seem obvious to some, let's remember that today's salespeople need to be equipped with sufficiently modern smartphones. This means they have access to the latest technology, even when they're on the move, so they can access all the devices and information they need for effective prospecting: emails, social networks, files, business applications, etc.
  
  
• 🖥️ The website. While it serves as a showcase for a company or brand, the website has also revolutionised prospecting by enabling you to collect data on your potential customers and generate leads. With a good inbound marketing strategy, lead visitors to a landing page, then invite them to fill in their details and offer them a white paper in exchange, for example.
  
  
• 🤝 So cial networks. As we've seen, social selling has become essential. As a result, you need to have accounts on all the social networks likely to bring your future customers together. By extension, monitoring is an excellent way of prospecting: visit the blogs and forums that the people you follow on LinkedIn visit, for example. You can find new contacts there!

What are your prospecting techniques for business development ? Are you more digital, old school, or both? Happy prospecting!