Since the beginning of the pandemic, selling has become harder and harder! With the shift to more online interactions, buyers have become extremely comfortable with doing their own research and involving sales professionals much later in the buying cycle. This means that what made the salesperson valuable in the past no longer exists. Further, the approach used by a salesperson in the past to engage prospects is no-longer working, which raises the question “What must be done for sales success”? The answer is simple to identify, but hard to execute – better prospecting.
But why is prospecting so hard to execute? There are several reasons:
- Fear of rejection
- Amount of time required for account management
- Wrong mindset
- Lack of training
- A primarily unstructured approach
The consequences of not prospecting can be brutal and leave the sales rep in violent peaks and valleys. Since customer attrition is inevitable, if the lead pipeline dries up, it’s only a matter of time before sales follow suit. Even after these concerns are overcome, there is one dominant problem – follow-up, but this too can be overcome.
The key to follow-up is developing the right sales cadence – a group of specific prospecting actions and the schedule for when they are executed. Designing the right sales cadence is critical but, unfortunately, the sales cadence and selected channels used most often are not right for the target audience.
In today’s “connected” world there are an incredible number of ways to engage prospects including social media, email, text messages and phone calls. Too many reps focus on one channel and never diversify their approach. Studies show that adding multiple channels can increase effectiveness by up to 400% – incredible!
We recommend a multi-channel approach that includes 5 key components:
1. Connecting on LinkedIn
2. Sending a personalized text message
3. Following up with email
4. Direct phone calls
5. Video
In future blogs we dive deeper into how to implement each of these channel strategies to increase prospecting success. This approach can be game changing if you have been struggling to get higher prospect engagement.
If you have been struggling implementing prospecting into your marketing and sales process, we can help! Contact Bill Kiefaber at 614.353.5563 or bill@marketingworks360.com to schedule a time to talk about your needs.