“Prospects are making their purchase decision based on whether they think you understand their problems and you have the knowledge, resources, and commitment to solving them.” – Trish Bertuzzi

With countless businesses launching their ‘perfect products and solutions’, consumer skepticism is at an all-time high! Naturally, the all-accepting, gullible consumers have evolved into critical and self-aware buyers.  

You may think your relentless prospecting approach is working wonders but, there’s a night-and-day difference between what sales reps and customers think. In one of their research, HubSpot found that 50% of sales reps thought they gave the customers a positive experience. However, a staggering, 84% of customers disagreed.

Does this sound like your situation?

Then this article is for you. We are about to pinpoint some of the best ways to improve your sales prospecting skills. But before that, a little bit about outbound prospecting and how to do it the right way.

Outbound prospecting: The right way
Sales prospecting in reality is all about professional, value-based outreach.

Simply put, when you reach out to prospects, it is not only about pitching how beautifully the product was built, how awesome its features and amazing its functionalities are. It is also about highlighting the true value this product would add to them, about who your most successful users are, what value they’re getting out of it, and how they perceive it

In other words, it is finding out how your product can be a solution to the problems your prospective clients are facing and pitching that.

Prospecting is usually done via cold calling, cold emailing, and social media. And following are some of the most important skills that SDRs should have to be able to optimize their prospecting efforts:

1. Research

The quality of leads you get and your chances of closing them depend on your research skills. If you do not know what your prospect’s pain points are, you will not be able to tell them how you can help them.

2. Communication

Excellent communication skills are the bedrock of successful cold emailing, cold calls, and social media prospecting. You must have good verbal and written communication skills to be able to articulate your ideas and solutions and answer questions effectively. This means using succinct, to-the-point language without any fillers.

3. Listening

Listening to your sales prospects is a vital skill. Many SDRs do not actively listen to their prospects. They tend to look at a qualification checklist to see if the prospect qualifies for a product or service. However, the more you listen to your prospects, the easier it will be to dig deeper and find out exactly what they are looking for.

5 Tips to Refine Your Outbound Prospecting Game

1. Set Outreach Sales Sequences
As you scale your business, you want to be able to reach prospects at scale without losing that personal touch from your first message to the close. This is where setting outreach sales sequences comes into play.

Outplay’s Sales Sequences tool you can:

a. Set up automated outreach across multiple channels like SMS, email, LinkedIn, etc. so you don’t miss crucial touchpoints and nurture them well

b. Use triggers to automatically move your prospects from one sequence to another. You can add tags to each prospect to stay updated on where they stand, and personalize your outreach accordingly.

c. A/B test your sequences to optimize your pitch and boost your conversions.

d. Automate your SMS and emails and send these in a timely fashion. You can choose which prospects to reach out to, the desired date and time, and appropriate templates for the same.

 

2. Track & Analyze Your Sales Metrics
Analytics are everything. It is vital to know and understand different metrics like open rates, click rates, and analytics for cold calling and cold emailing. It is vital to have a good understanding of sales metrics because it determines how well your organization is doing and to what extent it is aligned with its goals.

Fortunately, we can help you with this. Our Sales Analytics tool allows you to track your sequences and analyze performance metrics on both - an individual and team basis.

You will be able to:

a. Track open rates, click rates, and meetings

b. Track the performance of the sales team in different departments like cold emailing, cold calling, etc.

3. Follow Up With Your Prospects
Think of how many potential clients you’ve lost because you failed to follow up with them enough or in a timely fashion. Set a cadence to follow up with your prospects. To set the right cadence, you will need to know where your prospect stands.

This is where our Track Your Prospects feature can help you. You can use this to:

a. Follow up and take action as soon as your prospect shows interest.

b. Notify you every time your prospect opens your email or clicks on a link you’ve sent them.

c. Detect replies almost immediately, helping you follow up with them on time.

d. Find out if your prospect visits your website and which web pages they’ve visited. You can use this information to personalize your interactions and hold conversations with them on your website using the Magic Outbound Chat feature.

4. Build Your Authority On Social Media
If you are on platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, etc., be sure to cement yourself as a thought leader and build credibility online. Content creation is generally associated with attracting inbound leads. But, it can also help you stand out to your prospects when you reach out to them. They will be more likely to take you up on your offer if you have some credibility online.

Also, if you plan on reaching out to prospects on LinkedIn (which you should), use Outplay - a truly multi-channel sales outreach tool to send timely messages to your prospects.

 

5. Don’t Neglect Referrals
With all the different kinds of marketing methods we have today, word-of-mouth still stands tall! After all, people are very likely to take action if they hear good things about you through family and friends. According to Saasquatch, people are 4 times more likely to buy when referred by a friend.

Two effective ways to use word-of-mouth marketing are:

a. Encouraging User Generated Content (UGC). UGC refers to content created and shared by consumers. You can create a specific hashtag that your audience can use when they create and share content. You can also give them incentives like discounts, giveaways, etc., to get them to post more content.

b. Share customer reviews and testimonials. Social proof is everything these days. According to G2, “92% of B2B buyers are more likely to purchase after reading a trusted review”.

A parting note
If you want to improve your prospecting for sales, there are tons of tips and techniques. Check out our blog page for quick, easy-to-implement sales tips. However, the five mentioned tips in this article will help you optimize your efforts in all three sales prospecting methods - cold calling, cold emailing, and social media outreach.

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