We define the recruitment phase as the set of activities we carry out to make ourselves known to corporations and gain a foothold in their thinking. or top of mind.

We define the activation phase as the set of actions that push a targeted corporation to hire our services or try our solution.

Let's look at the main keys to both phases:

PLAN FOR RAPPROCHEMENT

DEFINE THE STRATEGY:

At depending on the type of corporation you want to approach, you will have to reflect on a few points: 

• How do I attract the attention of the companies I am interested in?
• How can I raise interest in my solution?
• How do I help internal reflection so that they decide to collaborate with me?
• How do I prepare the moment of purchase or start of the collaboration?

The answers to these questions will drive the rest of the outreach actions.

DEFINE OUTREACH CHANNELS:

The approach can be physical or virtual. The strategy The most successful is the mixed one. Digital channels give us a very important capacity to disperse our message to our target corporations: mailing campaigns, targeted LinkedIn...etc.

In addition, digital channels allow us to access positions of greater decision-making power within the organisation and therefore, to make ourselves heard from higher up.

Once attention and interest have been captured, it is advisable to physical approach in order to be able to present the solution live (virtual presence ONLINE). In a face-to-face setting you will be able to better observe the reactions to your product and discuss in detail its advantages and benefits.

DEFINE THE TOOLS

Outreach tools are the fundamental pillar of the process. We are talking about material for the collection phase: Mail campaign copys, website, linkedIn, presentation brochures, lead capturer, commercial presentations... and, for the activation phase: use cases, success stories from other clients, references, return studies, complementary documentation... 

As important as the commercial material, it is a structured system for monitoring commercial action. This system could be the subject of a monograph, but the most basic thing is a spreadsheet, in which we keep track of the corporations we contact and the actions we carry out.

An example might be:

• Company name.
• Contact person/s and role.
• Contact with decision maker.
• Assessment of the approach (1-10).
• Date of first approach.
• Date of last approach.
• Company interests.
• Objections.
• Next steps.

By having a sales action tracker or sales roadmap, we will be able to plan our sales actions in a way that is more orderly way and obtain better results.

I recommend that you use from the very beginning and as soon as possible a CRM in the cloud, type ZOHO (it has a very complete free version). Keeps history of contacts made and results achieved.

MEASUREMENT AND ADJUSTMENTS

The key to achieving a good outreach system consists of learning from mistakes and opportunities The following is an example of a sales process that can be improved in the next one. Before each meeting, practice the envelope. (see TIP) with each person who is going to participate so that they can get to know you.

This can only be achieved by paying close attention during your presentations and sales meetings. Try honestly analysing mistakes and uncovering opportunities for improvement. For this, it is It is necessary to have a system that allows us to collect all the learning. You can use for example a spreadsheetor rather give them out of in your CRM, all those involved in the session, with their role, their decision-making power, their objections during the sales process, your counter-argument...etc.

These systems are very sophisticated and even include for example: empathy maps for each participant (what specifically interests them), argumentation itinerary according to role (i.e. how to sell with different arguments to different people: e.g. selling to the sales manager or to the technology manager, etc...). After each introductory meeting send a summary email thanking for the meeting and highlighting the agreed issues and next steps.

REMEMBER

It is crucial to plan the approach well and develop the relationship throughout the sales funnel. Think about it: If you are not clear about the objectives and the steps you need to take to approach a corporation, you are likely to fail in your purpose.