Cristiano owns a small IT company. His day-to-day is very busy: he has to deal with administrative and bureaucratic processes of the business, visit clients’ offices and solve problems that always appear at the end of the day.
Despite recognizing the importance of prospecting customers for the maintenance of any company, he ends up having a lot of difficulties in dealing with the sales sector, mainly because of his busy routine.
Are you like Christian? Need a definitive solution to increase your customer base and grow your business? Then read the content below and learn everything you need to do to start prospecting customers today!
Study your products and services
Of course, you, as the business owner, know the products and services you sell. But to avoid the autopilot that can kill your motivation in front of customers, you need to continually review your products.
From time to time, reread all the materials you have. So you can find details that may have been overlooked. Also, find new sales arguments and update prospecting materials to avoid repeating the same information every time.
Remember to think about the benefits your product can bring to consumers.
Know your audience well
Studying the market is essential to prospecting for customers. Having an ideal customer profile, known as a persona, is the best way to identify opportunities that could actually end up in a closed deal.
Who is your customer? What he does do? How can technology help solve your problems? What level of technical knowledge does the customer have? Does he see technology as an investment or an expense?
Knowing the answers to these questions is very important for designing sales strategies.
Choose prospecting models
With information about your products and customers in hand, it’s time to plan sales strategies. You can use one or more customer prospecting models according to your goals. Check out some of them below.
Outbound
This is the traditional model, in which the customer probably does not know your business at the first contact. Prospecting is usually done over the phone or in person. In face-to-face cases, certain costs, such as travel, must be considered.
Inbound
The inbound model became popular mainly because of the Internet. Here, instead of looking for potential customers as in outbound, the focus should be on attracting consumers. Thus, it is necessary to produce and disseminate materials that are of interest to your audience.
Recommendation
One way to find new buyers is by referring to your current customer base. To achieve good results with this model, it is essential that you provide a quality service. Don’t wait for directions, but encourage them.
Ask if your customer would recommend your company to acquaintances. If the answer is yes, ask for contacts. Regardless of whether the answer is yes or no, take the opportunity to ask why the customer gave it. Feedback is important to improve the services.
Channels
Prospecting customers through channels means making partnerships that will facilitate the meeting with potential customers. This model can be useful to reach distant regions where your business is present, for example.
Create a sales funnel
Regardless of the prospecting models you choose, having a sales funnel is going to be important to increase the quality of work.
This means that you must create a sales process with well-defined steps from the first contact with the customer to the closing of the sale. Each step should serve to get to know the lead more and make them know more about your product.
At the entrance of the funnel, which is the largest space for having more consumers, is that potential customer who is still getting to know your product or service. You need to clear all your doubts.
Then in the middle are those who are already looking for your product or service to solve a problem. In the end, those who are ready to close the sale. Each step requires specific actions.
Set and track goals
To know which strategies are working or not and improve your sales process, you need to track the results. Therefore, be sure to define which goals you want to achieve and the deadlines to meet the objectives.
To create an efficient sales schedule, you need to know your company’s productive capacity. Knowing what your service capacity is and how many contacts become customers, for example, can help you find ways to increase productivity and the number of closed deals.
Build a relationship
Prospecting customers is, above all, building a relationship. In addition to phone calls, you should take advantage of tools like email and social media to connect with your customers, engage them, and take them through the sales funnel.
In the case of emails, you can create standardized templates to be used in different situations. Just avoid making the contact seem automated and lacking in personality. To know which social networks to create, remember to identify the ones where your audience is present.
Indicate the next step
To avoid losing the prospecting work that is being built at each stage, always point out to the client what the next step is. Requesting a confirmation email and scheduling the next meeting are ways to do this.
In case of appointments with a date, always avoid the next step being too far from the last. If this is not possible, remember to contact the customer shortly before the occasion to remind them.
So, knowing the importance of prospecting customers so that your business can grow, you can’t help but follow the tips we present in this post, right? Even if the day-to-day routine is hectic, reserve moments in your schedule to take care of the commercial area.
Remember that having knowledge about your products and services, the market in which you operate, and customer needs is essential. In addition, organize a productive routine, with well-defined goals and deadlines as well.
And don’t forget: prospecting customers means building and maintaining relationships.
