How to prospect clients and close more sales

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There are companies that wait for customers to contact them. There are others where the sales team approaches everyone indiscriminately.

And there are also companies that have the best sales results thanks to having a sales strategy and well-defined processes for prospecting clients .

Prospecting means finding the right customers for the solution your business owner database company offers. Keep in mind that it doesn't mean going out and looking for everyone on the street, nor is it about making a random approach, or trying to sell at any price.

To obtain a sale that generates value for the business, prospecting must be planned and aligned with the company's entire Marketing and Sales process .

So, if you're trying to better understand how prospecting works and perfect that process, you've come to the right post! In it, we'll cover the following topics:

What is customer prospecting?
Who is the ideal client?
Why is it important for potential customers?
What are the stages of customer prospecting?
What are the main methods of prospecting customers?
Top tactics to ensure successful customer prospecting
5 effective tools for prospecting clients
7 telephone prospecting tips
What is customer prospecting?
Prospecting is the process of finding potential customers that match your ideal business profile and making initial contact with them to make a sale.

The intention is to move prospects through the sales funnel until they become customers.

Yes, of course the ultimate goal is to make a sale. However, the current perspective on prospecting is much more focused on building relationships with customers.

Instead of seeking out potential customers just to sell a product, the sales team needs to offer solutions. The team also needs to know the customer, understand their needs, and understand how they can help. Closing the sale is the natural consequence of this process.

So, prospecting is much more than just calling a list of contacts. It is no coincidence that this step is considered the most challenging by most sales professionals.

It involves a process of research, connection and relationship to drive potential customers' interest in the company's solutions until they are ready to become customers and begin generating value for the business.

Who is the ideal client?
Prospecting is about finding the ideal customers for your business. But how do you identify who they are? What characteristics should they have?

To do this, it is necessary to identify the Ideal Customer Profile . The ICP is the compass for the customer prospecting process, as it describes the ideal customer profile that salespeople should look for among prospects.

The ideal client is one who:

It costs less to acquire;
Stay longer in your company ;
It has a high LifeTime Value ;
It is less prone to churn ;
Defend your brand .
Every business would like to have this customer, right? But in addition to these characteristics, it is also necessary to align with the specificities of your business, such as size, maturity, segment or location of the company.

Therefore, with the ICP defined, prospecting does not waste time or money on prospects who do not need your company's solutions or who may even become clients, but who bring with them many problems.

Rather than closing a sale, prospecting should target customers who bring benefits to the business .


Leads vs. Prospects
In the context of prospecting for clients in Inbound Sales , it is also useful to clarify who the leads are and who the prospects are, since these concepts are often confused.

Leads are people who have shown some interest in your business ( top of the sales funnel ). Maybe they've signed up to download an ebook, watch a webinar, or even receive a quote.

But not everyone is ready to buy or has the company's customer profile!

Therefore, they must go through lead qualification, which filters out those that are actually potential customers, so that the sales team only invests effort in those that are worthwhile. Leads that pass through this filter are considered prospects.

Prospects are sales-qualified leads (middle of the sales funnel). They are aligned with the ICP, can extract value from the company's solutions, and have the decision-making power to close the purchase .

It is with them, then, that salespeople will talk about prospecting.

Why is it important for potential customers?
Customer prospecting is one of the essential steps in the sales process . This is when you start driving prospects towards the sale, after they have already approached your business and demonstrated their potential to become customers.

Therefore, it is prospecting that moves these leads forward in the funnel. If you do not approach them, they will not advance in the purchasing decision process and your company will remain on the sidelines while the competition gains ground.

That being the case, you can't just sit back and wait. Yes, okay, maybe leads will contact your company on their own to close the deal. This happens a lot, doesn't it? But the prospecting process can increase the chances of closing more deals.

You approach prospects by offering solutions to solve their problems, showing that you care about them and building a relationship of trust . Who doesn't like that?

Better yet, when prospecting is done right, you gain customers who are more valuable to your business (those who have the ideal customer profile, as we saw earlier). So it's a way to make the sales process more efficient.

What are the stages of customer prospecting?
Finding clients isn't just about making a few calls. The process must have a sequence of steps so that contacts with prospects yield results.

There is no rule to structure this process, but it can be divided into the steps we will mention below (we will share tactics to apply in this process later).

Keep reading!

1. Research
The first moment of the process is critical to sustaining what comes next. You need to do in-depth research on your prospects, understand who they are, what their pain is right now, and how best to approach them.

From this information, you must also determine the quality of the prospects, that is, their chances of becoming customers, and define which ones should be contacted as a priority.

2. Prospecting
Prospecting is the time to make initial contact. You probably won't reach the company's decision-maker directly. A receptionist or assistant can be the means to contact him or her.

3. Connection
In this step you reach out to the decision maker – this is your prospect . You can schedule a meeting or a call to introduce yourself and start reaching out.

Remember, this connection should be friendly, not pushing the boundaries to sell right away (especially if it's a high-value product), as you need to gain the lead's trust.

4. Education
At this stage, the salesperson should have a good understanding of the lead's behaviors . They need to identify what is hindering their success and show them how they are going to help them solve those challenges.

It is an educational job so that your client understands the value of your company's solutions to their problem.

5. Closing the sale
This is the time to turn opportunities into business. It is important not to rush so that you can make the offer at the right time, when the lead already trusts your solutions.

Otherwise all the work could be wasted.

What are the main methods of prospecting customers?
There is no one way to prospect clients, so we are going to tell you what the main methods are and how they differ. You can choose what makes the most sense for your business or combine different methods.

Let's go to them!

Outbond
Outbound Marketing reaches out to prospects who are not expecting the company to contact them, as there is no relationship between the brand and the potential customer yet.

To make this contact, companies often use:

phone calls;
emails;
messages on social networks;
telemarketing;
frills;
direct contact list.
The process can become more expensive, as you need to start from scratch with the lead. Therefore, this method is generally adopted by companies with a high average ticket , so the sales value is worth the salesperson's greatest effort.

It can also be adopted by B2C companies with a low average ticket that are gaining sales volume.

Inbound
It is another way of prospecting clients. It is based on attracting leads through Inbound Marketing strategies such as SEO and Content Marketing . In the funnel, Marketing converts interested parties into leads and leads into prospects. From there, it is the sales team that takes over!

To contact prospects, the team can make phone calls, send emails and schedule meetings.

An important ally here is Marketing automation , which allows you to send automated personalized messages and scale sales approaches.

Therefore, unlike Outbound, there is already a relationship with the company at the time of contact with the prospects and it is already known which ones are most likely to sell. This is why the sales approach tends to be more effective, but the whole process tends to take longer than in Outbound.

inbound marketing guide
Recommendation
Referrals are also a method of finding new customers. This is a way to turn your customers into sales promoters, as they themselves indicate new potential customers for your business to approach.

They may do this naturally, but when you structure a referral marketing program, sales can grow exponentially. Companies like Paypal, Dropbox, Uber, and Airbnb have leveraged their customer base this way.

Channels
The channel prospecting method is carried out through third parties. It is not the company that contacts the lead, but a partner.

A company that organizes weddings, for example, can be the channel that photographers, buffets, DJs and florists use to find new clients. Another example is Affiliate Marketing, which content creators use to promote the sale of their information products.

Mixed Models
Some companies adopt mixed models of customer prospecting. The options will depend mainly on the type of product you sell, the sales cycle , the customer profile and the structure of your sales team.

For example, you can adopt Inbound for low-ticket products and Outbound for higher ticket items or to supplement sales. Referral program and sales channels can also be combined with the other methods.

Top tactics to ensure successful customer prospecting
Now, let's share some tips so you can get the best results from this entire customer prospecting process.

Dedicate yourself to research
The salesperson wants to sell. He wants to talk to leads right away to offer them the company's solution and win a sale. It's in his essence!

However, one of the keys to successful prospecting is before any contact with the prospect: research! Many people neglect this step, but this is one of the pillars of the sales approach.

Now is the time to dig deeper into prospects. Research the business segment to familiarize yourself. On the company's website, outline the needs that your solutions can meet.

Research decision makers' social networks to better understand how they behave and express themselves, and thus create empathy in the initial contact.

With this information, you can also qualify leads to identify who is most valuable to your sales team. Answer the following questions:

Is the prospect aligned with your ICP?
Are you available (time and budget) for a sales process now?
Do you have the maturity and ability to extract value from your solutions?
Who are the company's decision makers? Who else is involved in the purchase?
The more information you have, the more you can optimize your approach. You'll be better equipped to address the lead's pain points and respond to any objections they have.

Prioritize to optimize
Now that you have a deeper understanding of prospects, you have plenty of contacts to make. But which ones are most likely to close a sale?

Start with them so you don't waste effort or tire yourself out when approaching key prospects.

This step can be known as lead scoring . It consists of establishing a score for prospects according to their potential to become customers.

The criteria for this vary, but one interesting way is to define the variables that are important to your business (size, maturity, budget, etc.) and their weight in the evaluation (10%, 30%, etc.).

Next, assign each lead a score on each of the variables. From there, you can sort the leads to begin contacting them.

Get ready for the approach
You've got all the information you need and you've ranked the best prospects. Now it's time to get in touch with them. So, get ready!

Try making a script to start the conversation. Define the main questions you are going to ask and the main objections the lead may have. Then you will have an objective answer in your hands.

One important insight is that most potential customers want to discuss pricing and learn how the product works on the first call.