We’ve all been there, right? Starting a business is tough, and growing your business is even tougher. One of the items that most, including myself, struggle with is sales prospecting to help scale your business.
Sales prospecting is vital to the growth of any organization, during the sales prospecting process, every conversation and every interaction has to be meaningful. There’s no time for awkward transitions, awkward phrases, or just awkwardness in general.
Sales prospecting has to be strategic, has to be targeted, and must utilize the right technology to get your point across quickly and effectively on how you will solve your prospect’s biggest problems.
In order to break down the best ways that you can be prospecting your business, let’s focus on The 4 Ps of sales prospecting success. Why the 4’s? Well, 4 is an awkward number making this blog ironic, my birthday is also on the 4th, and by the time you’re done reading this, the number 4 will be stuck in your head.
Sales Prospecting Positioning
Let’s start off with your positioning statement. A positioning statement helps a business understand what they’re great at and how they want to scale profitably year-over-year.
Many of us are used to seeing ideal buyer personas in order to target the right customers, but very rarely do we focus on that positioning statement we’re going to give to them once we attract them into the funnel.
If you don’t have a succinct positioning statement that gets your point across quickly, which your customers are able to digest and understand who you are and what your business is about easily, you will fail at sales prospecting.
Please keep in mind that your positioning statement doesn’t represent, or doesn’t have to represent, the totality of your business – but rather where your business is strongest and can scale profitably in your year.
For myself personally, a positioning statement was hard to wrap my head around. This is because, as I’m looking to grow my business, I don’t want to turn any business away because that’s going to take us to the next level financially.
However, when taking a step back and looking at the best business you want to scale your company up with, you have to take a hard look at the exact way in which your company would achieve scalability and profitability.
For us, putting Striventa through that lens of scalability and profitability made all of the growth questions actually pretty simple. We thrive in the healthcare marketing space and have for many years; our case studies, our resources, and our knowledge all stem from an understanding that in order to help patients, we must educate them. Additionally, the medical space is far behind the times in growth marketing standards and could use an agency and process like ours.
When I took a step back and focused on what our positioning statement could be, it came out something like this:
We help mid-sized healthcare-based companies grow by perfecting their processes and content with a focus on providing value to their prospects, patients, referring providers, and companies throughout their lifecycle.
If you’re currently struggling with a positioning statement of your own, please feel free to email me at [email protected], and I would be happy to help.
Sales Prospecting Process
Process, process, process. One of the biggest downfalls any business owner can make is building their company around people instead of a process. A process should be here to empower people to do their jobs more efficiently, creatively and ultimately better.
Sales prospecting is no different; in order to succeed at prospecting, you must have a process built in place that can help guide you. This process isn’t here to pat you on the back like a participation ribbon – this process is here to hold you accountable, push you, and help you grow your company beyond what you thought was possible.
Furthermore, to better streamline the sales prospecting process, most organizations are using tools like HubSpot to track the website in real-time and know the people engaging with your website frequently.
I had a hard dose of reality when I first joined the Lion Bootcamp by Dan Tyre of HubSpot. It was because I knew – or I thought, at least – that I was good at sales. What I soon realized though, was that I was really good at relationships. But in the sales world, if you don’t have a process to push you, to hold you accountable and to ultimately make you better in each and every conversation, then you’re not really part of the sales process. You’re just simply managing referrals and closing warm relationships.
In order to start somewhere, the blueprint that I was taught and found to be very effective was to carve out an hour a day. Some of the most effective times that you can be sales prospecting are between the hours of 3pm and 5pm. This is because most people have had a chance to get their day going, be productive, and by the end of it are able to be a little bit more casual and relatable in a conversation – and that’s where you can start your relationship process.
Step one. Block out time in your calendar for 1 hour a day. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? But in reality, the day comes at you fast so you must commit to at least one hour a day where you can block everything from your calendar and focus on how you will grow your business with the right prospects to partner with.
Step 2. Do 5 to 10 minutes worth of research on the prospect that you are targeting. Get to know their brand, get to know their website, get to know how they’re telling the consumers they’re delivering service. Get to know the stakeholders involved; and with the amount of online information today, that’s easily accessible. But in order to have an effective prospecting call, you must do your research. Consumers are extremely smart. They know what their problems are, and while they may not know how to solve them, if you don’t take the time to get to know them beforehand they will never share them with you.
Step 3. Take your positioning statement and align it with the phone call that you’re going to be on. An effective way to start the conversation is a simple Connect Call. Here are some phrases and questions for your connect call.
- Intro: Clearly state who you are and your company
- Hi (Insert Name), this is Ryan, Founder and President of Striventa.
- Power of the Pause
- On each call, after you introduce yourself, pause until the prospect speaks. Sounds crazy, I know, but it works.
- If the Prospect Isn’t Expecting a Call
- Say this, “Ugh, it doesn’t sound like you were expecting my call! Would it be ok if I took a step back and shared with you the research I did on your website last night?”
- Insert Your Positioning Statement and ask them at the end, “Does this sound like you?
- If they say No, try alternative questions, use a phrase like, Oh really….then insert one of these questions:
- Do you need more word of mouth leads?
- What are your goals month-over-month for customer acquisition?
- What are your three biggest inhibitors to growth?
- What role does your website play in generating new business?
- If they say Yes, try to book a Discovery Meeting alternative phrases.
- If they say No, try alternative questions, use a phrase like, Oh really….then insert one of these questions:
- Timeframe of the call: Should be 10-15 minutes
Step 4. Once you are done with your call, make sure to follow up accordingly and quickly. Nothing’s worse than having a great conversation and getting caught up in the rest of your day and not capitalizing on the opportunity to set that appointment or follow up with the value-based information you promised the prospect right away. You have their interest and you have their attention, so you need to make sure you provide the value and build a relationship.
Sales Prospecting Perseverance
One of the biggest inhibitors to your growth is the ability for you not to push past the no. In sales prospecting, perseverance needs to be at an all-time high. And while it’s easy to say, it’s extremely tough to do.
It’s not just about being able to push through the no – but also being able to persevere and make time for prospecting each and every day. Throughout all of the business and the choir of the day, if you do not make time, then you will not be able to persevere.
Sales Prospecting Pizzazz
Last and certainly not least, you need to make sure that your personality is displayed throughout the whole process. You can not be afraid to have a little Pizzazz in your prospecting.
There are so many different companies out there that have similar or the same expertise, and/or can do your service or provide a product that is better. But in order to develop great partnerships, you have to be in alignment with your own personality, work, style and methodology in business. Therefore throughout the entire process, don’t be afraid to show what you are about.
Now please don’t take this the wrong way and feel like you can do a video prospecting call in a tank top with a backwards hat sippin’ on a beer at 10 am – that’s not at all what I’m telling you to do. However, if that’s your personality, more power to you. All I’m talking about is the ability for you to connect with your prospect in a way that nobody else has connected with them. To show a little personality, and to help build a relationship.
So, if you’re a business owner in charge of growing your business with sales, don’t shy away from prospecting, but rather catch fire and get going! By following these 4 P’s to success, you can and will grow your business!