A reliable profile ready to buy from your company is worth more than a lot of unqualified contacts who don't want to invest in your business anytime soon. Therefore, it's crucial to invest in quality customer prospecting .
For the sales team, prospecting customers is a very important and relevant task, which requires effort to reach the right audience.
You need to prospect to become known in the market and have more chances of selling products and services.
How have you been doing this work in your company?
Check out this article for 6 tips to improve your customer prospecting!
What is customer prospecting?
Before talking about how to improve this task, it is important to understand what it actually is.
Customer prospecting is the process of structuring, organizing and locating new potential customers to purchase the services or products your company is offering .
This process aims to ensure contact with audiences that really need your solution, increasing the chances of closing deals and generating income .
Prospecting is the initial stage of the sales funnel , the first attempt to transform contacts into potential customers.
Contact will only be made by the sales team after the audiences pass through a marketing filter called lead , which gives indications of when individuals have already shown interest in your business's content, products or solutions, for example.
It is worth noting that prospecting is different from selling and that these are distinct moments in a journey .
Prospecting begins the process of building a relationship between a company and its customers, making the brand better known and, at the same time, better able to understand the customer's needs.
Maintaining a good relationship between company and customer is essential to convey a good brand image to the market and even gain loyal followers.
Customers who buy your product and believe in your purpose will certainly spontaneously promote your business .
The same goes for counter-actions. By maintaining bad relationships and providing negative experiences to the public, complaints can spread quickly , damaging the company's image.
How to prospect customers?
Now that you understand what prospecting is, it's important to know how to best implement it, right?
Below are our tips to help you prospect for customers in your company.
1. Know your ideal customer
You can't sell solutions if you don't know who is looking for them, that is, the preferences, desires and problems of consumers.
Therefore, truly knowing the customer is a basic and mandatory task for companies.
Profiling your ideal customer is essential for prospecting and finding people who meet defined characteristics.
This way, the search will be directed to profiles that have greater purchasing potential.
This ideal and fictitious customer is called a persona, which is the definition of the customer that the company is looking for .
This definition is made based on your customer base and the characteristics they have in common.
2. Offer solutions, not products
People are constantly receiving information and being approached by companies to make purchases. Change your strategy, talk less about yourself and listen more about your customer .
Also, don't just offer your products or services, but show how they can be the solution to the customer's current problem .
That's why it's important to listen to the customer and understand their needs to know what to offer and when.
The focus of prospecting is to help understand the problem, not to sell something. Remember this difference.
3. Prepare your script
Of course, conversations change depending on each client profile, and improvisation is necessary. However, the team can't just rely on this; they should have a semi-finished script .
Prepare a list of important questions to ask your potential client. Focus on questions that encourage longer answers and write down everything you need to know about your company.
4. Participate in fairs and events
Participating in events relevant to your market niche is a great strategy for prospecting clients and capturing leads directly.
In addition to networking , events are great opportunities to understand more about market behavior, learn about trends, and keep an eye on the competition.
Use events to showcase your company, create important connections, and find your ideal clients , scheduling meetings to move to the sales stage faster.
Depending on your industry, it may also be worthwhile to organize your own events, such as lectures, workshops , or anything that aligns with your target audience.
5. Be online
Doing business and prospecting heavily involves the virtual environment . The sales team needs to be present on multiple platforms, as they contain a large list of potential customers.
It's important to understand what you're looking for and train your team to qualify the search.
Connect with potential customers, prepare content to offer to this audience, and stay up-to-date on social media .
6. Define the next steps
Prospecting for clients shouldn't stop with the first contact. After that, define your next steps.
Renew and maintain this contact to continue with presentations and, later, sales.
Don't forget about follow-up , that is, following up with potential customers. More than just prospecting and converting them, you need to maintain that relationship.
In addition to defining steps with customers, establish the sales team's objectives. It's important to set achievable goals.
Define the number of contacts that need to be made per week and establish a number of how many of these the team should convert, for example.
Conclusion
Good customer prospecting can say a lot about the amount of sales in a month .
Finding audiences that align with your company, offering solutions, and showcasing yourself to the market is crucial.
There are many techniques and channels you can use to find new customers. Remember that prospecting is essential, but don't forget about your current customers.
Take advantage of your company's existing base and seek out new contacts. It's a good idea to offer benefits and discounts, for example, and ask for referrals to expand your list of leads .
How have you been prospecting for customers? Has your approach been through social media and phone, or just one of these? Now that you know more about the topic, take advantage of this and learn a little more about the customer journey !
