SALES PROSPECTING

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Sales prospecting is the first stage of the sales process which consists of locating potential customers, also known as prospects, in an organised and systematic way.

The objective essential is create a database of prospects or potential customers with the aim of converting them into real customers in the future. It is important to note that prospects are not the same as leads, as leads are individuals who have expressed interest in products or services.

To make good sales prospecting, requirements for potential customers must be established, including suitable profiles, financial capacity and buying authority, and be available for the salesperson to approach. It is also necessary to look for sources of information such as business directories, websites, web search engines, news, credit reports, chamber of commerce membership lists, among others.

After collecting the information, it is necessary to classify it by purging those contacts that are not targets for the company. It is also important to build a customer/product matrix to design a strategy that fits the market and the commercial steps you want to take.

International sales prospecting requires an analysis of the market, the identification of distribution channels and opinion leaders and opinion leaders, as well as an analysis of the current situation of the company and the product to be marketed in the new market. In addition, the target public must be defined and a communication and promotion plan must be drawn up for each market.

In short, the sales prospecting stage is essential to create a database of prospects or potential customers and convert them into real customers in the future. In order to carry out good sales prospecting, it is necessary to establish requirements for potential customers, search for sources of information, classify the information obtained, construct a customer/product matrix and take into consideration the relevant aspects for international sales prospecting.

Some practical examples of canvassing

1. Research on the web: One of the easiest ways to find prospects is through online research. Use search tools, business directories, contact databases, etc. to find companies and contacts that match your ideal customer profile.
2. Participate in fairs and events: attend trade fairs and events related to your industry to meet potential prospects face-to-face. Trade fairs allow you to get to know the market, the competition and potential customers in depth.
3. Social networking: Social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc., allow you to connect with potential customers from all over the world. Use these platforms to interact with your prospects, learn about their needs and offer solutions.
4. References and recommendations: referrals and recommendations are an effective way to find new prospects. Ask your satisfied customers to recommend you to other potential customers.
5. Cold calling: Although sometimes perceived as an invasive tactic, cold calling is still a useful tool for finding new customers. However, it is important to do so in a respectful way that focuses on the value you can offer your prospect.
6. Advertising: Online and traditional media advertising can also be an effective way to reach new prospects. Through targeted advertising, you can show your products and services to people who fit your ideal customer profile.

Remember that canvassing is not a one-time task, but a continuous process that requires patience and perseverance. Focus on identifying people who fit your ideal customer profile and establish a relationship of trust with them so that they can become long-term loyal customers.

The sales prospecting stage consists of locating potential customers - prospects - in an organised and systematic way. The idea is to create a database of prospects or potential customers with the aim of converting them into real customers. The essential objective, however, is to create a framework, which streamlines future commercial efforts and avoids unnecessary costs and wasted time. 

Prospects are not the same as leads. Leads are individuals who have expressed an interest in your products by visiting the website, subscribing to a digital newsletter, etc. There has therefore been a proactive attitude. Prospects are passive individuals or organisations that have not expressed any interest but have a number of characteristics that make them potential customers.

Steps in the prospecting process

• SET REQUIREMENTS

One of the aspects to consider in the sales prospecting stage is that potential customers must meet a series of requirements in order to be considered as such: 

First of all, they must have the right profiles. During the segmentation process, in your business plan (+) you should already have defined the profiles of your target customer (+). But in addition, potential customers must be willing, financially able and have the authority to buy, and must be available for the seller to approach.

The future database will need to address the people we need to target within each company. At sales, three figures must always be taken into consideration: who makes the purchasing decision, who uses or consumes and who recommends or prescribes. Thus, if it is a medical laboratory, it is obvious that your marketing and your marketing effort will be directed at the prescribers: the doctors. A single customer may have different figures with varying levels of influence on the final decision that must be identified.

Imagine you want to sell a company a certain piece of machinery that automates processes that are nowadays carried out by hand. On the horizon, we have a operator, which is the one that is going to use the machine and that he will have his point of view; it is possible that there is a head of department that, too, has an influence; it is likely, that there will be a head of purchasing, that the order will be placed; a chief financial officer concerned with the price and payment terms, and the CEO who has the final say. All of them have their opinions, interests and influence on the final decision, so you CRM you must have all this information!

Don't be obsessed with obtaining all kinds of information. The information to be recorded for each prospect can be completed with data related to their sales, purchases, profit and loss accounts, customers, etc. It is sometimes a question of information that is not easy to obtain but which is important when it comes to commercial action. Like general advice, at the sales prospecting stage, focus on the information you really need to sell. It is very easy to get intoxicated with information on the internet that is of no use to you. But keep in mind that databases are dynamic and should always be kept up to date and enriched if interesting with new information that we are accessing.

FINAL ADVICE

Use a CRM. CRM software is a commercial administrative support that provide you with the operations you need to manage sales intelligently. 

• SEARCH FOR SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Sources of prospect information are varied and include business directories, websites, web search engines, news and notes in trade documents and trade publications, credit reports, membership lists of chambers of commerce and manufacturers' associations, lists purchased from list brokers, and registrations or service requests.

Those who sell to individuals find prospects among their friends or through referrals from friends, acquaintances, members of their clubs, etc. And even through referrals from friends. Social networks provide important information on both personal and organisational prospects. At this stage of prospecting, trade fairs and events are also a very interesting source of information.

Despite the saturation and abuse of the telephone for sales purposes, it should not be discarded as a sales prospecting tool. On the contrary, if used well can be very useful to identify interlocutors, needs and they are also useful to make ourselves known and to provoke visits to our website or even to arrange appointments directly. It is important that our call is warm and adds value, therefore, we must to plan each call with clear objectives in mind and to be perceived not as a salesman but as a professional working for the benefit of the customer.

THERE ARE A NUMBER OF ONLINE TOOLS ON THE MARKET THAT CAN HELP YOU IN THIS PROCESS:

• Zapier helps you automate tasks that notify you when information comes in from a prospect, or when someone subscribes to your blog.
• The company pages of LinkedIn provide you with information about news, events, launches, marketing campaigns, etc.
• Google Alerts provides you with tracking of web mentions of companies, products, events through customised alerts.
• Google Maps can be a key tool when planning a commercial deployment in a given sales area.
• Instagram lets you know a lot about your prospects. You can participate in their conversations and you can provoke them to ask about your product or service.
• Many tools CRM help you in the process of prospecting as well as managing your sales: Hubspot, Zoho, Suma CRM for example: the members of the mentorDay community have an offer from Hubspot.

• CLASSIFICATION OF INFORMATION

In the sales prospecting stage, we must be concerned about the purification of the information obtained. It is obvious that not all the contacts identified meet the necessary profiles to become clients. It is therefore necessary to discard those contacts that are not the company's target.

CRM database management programmes allow you to tag them with different criteria depending on whether they are an individual contact or an account. The sector of activity, their geographical location, their turnover or their purchasing behaviour at the time, can be labelling criteria that allow us to locate them by filtering and carry out segmented actions. 

For example: We may decide not to touch customers with a turnover of less than €500,000 in the first year. We may decide to focus on the hardware sector, leaving the bazaar sector for next year.

• BUILD A "CUSTOMER/PRODUCT" MATRIX:

When I already have an ongoing business with a large portfolio of products and customers, I need to make a customer/product matrix. 

It consists of creating a matrix that cross-references your products with the likely needs of the detected prospects. Here everything we know about the sector comes into play, processes and everything to do with the range of products/services. This will allow you to do devising a strategy that fits the market and that the commercial steps you take from now on will be much more accurate. When you are starting a new business it is best to focus on the customer segment where you have validated that you can grow fastest.

International sales prospecting:

If you have followed our acceleration programme (+) you will have realised how important it is that in mentorDay (+) We give internationalisation, even in the early stages of setting up your new company.

Consequently, it is not superfluous to give you some tips on prospecting in international markets. We are talking about a decision that must be based on a serious and rigorous prospecting process. After all, it is the initial phase of any internationalisation project. It is clear that internationalisation can occur through different intensities, ranging from online sales (+) We have a wide range of products, from the sale of our products to other forms of greater involvement with a distribution and sales structure and even with associated industrial investments. Whether we do it directly or through local partners is another question to be answered. 

The sales prospecting phase is key to analysing the market, identifying prospects and the most suitable channels of entry into the market. country. This allows the company to define an action plan adapted to the market and the type of target and demand identified. In this way, resources and efforts are focused on the most effective and results-oriented channels and strategies.

TO CARRY OUT A GOOD SURVEY, THE FOLLOWING ASPECTS MUST BE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION:

• MARKET OPPORTUNITY

The first thing to analyse in an international sales prospecting process is the market, its evolution both in economic value and in standard units. It is necessary to determine whether there is a clear strategic gap for our brand. We will have to identify which brands are currently competing, what market share each of them has and predict how they will react after our entry. It is possible that they will react by significantly reducing prices or try to monopolise distribution channels to create barriers to entry.

• DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS

We will have to rely on distribution channels in the new market if we do not sell directly. Distribution channels are a key strategic factor and we must identify them and win their willingness to be our partners in the process. 

• CURRENT SITUATION OF THE COMPANY

Although it is not an aspect strictly related to prospecting, the first step should be to establish a self-diagnosis that gives us confidence in relation to the company's capabilities to face its internationalisation. It is also important to determine whether any of our current clients already have a presence in our target market. Their experience can be very useful.

• PRODUCT DIAGNOSIS

The company has to determine whether the product to be marketed in the new market meets the requirements of the new market, whether it is suitable in terms of content and form, whether the marketing plans can be reproduced, etc. If necessary, the necessary changes can be made.

• PRICE DEFINITION

Profitability of sales in the new market will have to be ensured on the basis of costs and expected margins. 

• TARGET AUDIENCE

Define the target audience in order to develop a tailor-made marketing plan. 

• PRESCRIBERS AND OPINION LEADERS

They are potential allies that can help us to penetrate the new market faster. They can help us build trust in our brand and encourage product purchase. 

• MEDIA LANDSCAPE

We will have to work on a communication and promotion plan for each market and for each type of customer: target and channel. We may also have to carry out public relations actions, so it is advisable to have a clear idea of the opportunities that the media can offer.

Once all of the above has been analysed and defined, it is time to start prospecting the market, identifying the main prescribers, clients and competitors in the country and to carry out the first phase of business development. In this phase, the product or service must be marketed and promoted, but it is also necessary to gather information about the country and the different profiles in order to adapt the strategy, plan or product. In order to make decisions, it is important to have qualified information.

Finally, it is important to periodically review the objectives and performance indicators in order to adapt the action plan.

FINAL TIPS ON THE SALES PROSPECTING PROCESS:

• Identify your potential customers: Locate, focus and manage them using a CRM system, get as much information as you can from each of them personally and commercially.
• Know their needs, get references.
• Establish your sales routes on a rational basis: number of customers, proximity to each other, sector of activity, etc.
• Develop a process of approach by making appointments. There is always more chance of success when you act in a planned way than when you improvise.

The sales prospecting stage is to locate potential customers in an organised and systematic way: prospects. The idea is to create a database of prospects or potential customers with the aim of converting them into real customers. But the essential objective is to create a framework that streamlines commercial efforts in the future and avoids unnecessary costs and wasted time. The following link provides more information about the sales prospecting.