Prospecting for new customers is often cited as the most difficult part of any salesperson’s job. Putting in calls and sending out emails to prospective clients is typically a defining moment in meeting their quota and bringing in qualified leads that meet the business’ requirements.
Sourcing leads requires a salesperson to understand both the needs and goals of both the business and individual of their prospective customers. In other words, they must identify that the business they are targeting is the right fit for their organisation and establish that they are speaking to the person at the company with the appropriate buying power.
Getting this right is crucial, and there are a number of strategies to help you do just that:
1. Set up a lead bot
Bots can be hugely beneficial in collecting information that salespeople require when it comes to meeting with prospective customers. That, in turn, enables them to have better quality, more informed conversations.
Identifying which pages you want to install lead bots on is important. For example, if your pricing page receives a lot of organic traffic or if a particular page contributes a lot of leads, then these would be good candidates to place a lead bot.
You also need to make sure you use friendly, conversational with your lead bot. So instead of opening up with ‘How can I help you today’ ask ‘Thank you for visiting our product page – can I answer any questions about the options we have available?’ Once the prospect answers and indicates that they would like more information about which product is the best fit for their business, the bot can rout the lead to the most appropriate salesperson.
2. Get involved in Twitter conversations
Virtual conversations via Twitter are hugely popular. People now regularly gather on the social platform to discuss a particular subject, trend, or an area of interest using a repeating hashtag. For example, people interested in PPC might congregate for the weekly #PPCChat.
Typically, a chat leader will host a series of questions, to which contributors can share their answers and discuss each other’s experiences. These are a great tool for networking, learning, offering value and sharing information, but what they should not be used for is selling – which will only result in fellow participants turning against you and potentially block you from further participation.
3. Maximise your email signature
Your email signature is an important tool that essentially enables you to sell without actually physically selling. Getting your email signature can go a long way to converting leads.
To get started, be sure to use a professional headshot, use appropriate contact information, a link to your company website and company logo. Beyond that, listing any recent awards or industry recognition your company has received, link to your business’ most recent or most popular blog posts, recent product announcements or a good customer review. Then, be sure to add a link to book a time for a call in your calendar.
The key here is to get as much value into your email signature as possible and try to optimise it wherever and whenever possible.
4. Work closely with marketing
Regardless of stereotypes, marketing is a crucial tool in the arsenal of any good salesperson. It’s important for sales reps to understand the potentially lucrative benefits of having a strong working relationship with their marketing team. For example:
- SEO benefits: A salesperson is well-positioned to identify trends in the market and from their prospects. Passing this vital information on to your marketing team will enable them to use it in their content and general SEO strategy – which will help to deliver more qualified leads.
- Paid advertising benefits: Be sure to share keywords or pain points that tend to frequent your calls with prospective customers. If these issues are affecting your prospects, then it’s highly likely they also problematic for other businesses. Marketing can use this information to run paid ads that speak to this issue and attract new leads for you to target.
- Content benefits: Meeting regularly with marketing to share common prospect concerns is a great way to advise them on the type and theme of content they need to be creating. They can then create blog posts, case studies, and whitepapers that address these topics and educate your prospects.
5. Focus on customer reviews
Customer reviews are vital in modern business. 95% of consumers read reviews online before making a purchase and a product with five reviews is 270% more likely to sell than a product with none, according to Spiegel Research Center. It’s therefore vital to have reviews everywhere you can place them, from your email signature to your website and review sites like Capterra.
Whichever tactic you choose, it’s clear that there are plenty of opportunities to generate more leads for your sales teams. Encouraging your salespeople to be more social and participate in chats on social media will not only boost their profile and their confidence levels but also boost the image of your organisation and help you bring in better leads.
