Sales Prospecting: 3 Tips to Maximize Your Effectiveness

On Friday, November 14, during the breakfast organized by Incenteev and Innov’Com, Olivier Piscart, CEO and founder of Salezeo, shared his sales prospecting best practices.

90% of executives believe their salespeople don’t prospect enough. Why don’t salespeople prospect more? Because they encounter three obstacles to effective prospecting: lack of productivity, lack of efficiency, and lack of motivation.

So, how can you overcome these obstacles and improve your salespeople’s prospecting?

Fuel Prospecting with Data

Salespeople spend 30% of their time searching for information and contacts. It is therefore important for them to have the right information quickly.

To maximize prospecting effectiveness, it is essential to qualify your database beforehand. Create contact sheets with the people to call and company news. This will prevent your salespeople from getting sidetracked during prospecting sessions and focusing on wrong leads, ensuring they contact the right person.

In short, provide your salespeople with as much information as possible, so they have all the tools at hand to be more productive in their prospecting.

Download your white paper: “Sales Challenge”

Quantify Prospecting: Determine Your “Magic Number”

The more seniority a salesperson has in the company, the less time they spend prospecting. They will rather focus on nurturing relationships and following up with existing clients.

Set daily, weekly, and monthly goals, determine your “Magic Number,” and your salespeople will sign new contracts.

Here’s what a “Magic Number” can look like: 865 = 2.

The 8 determines the number of pitches or contacts per day, the 6 is the number of appointments per week, the 5 represents the number of qualified leads per month, and finally, the 2 is the number of contracts signed per month.

With these clear objectives, you can be sure that your salespeople will be more effective in prospecting.

Value Your Salespeople’s Prospecting

Actual prospecting activity is very difficult to measure. And it is often undervalued and unrewarded, which demotivates salespeople.

Try to evaluate this activity by implementing tracking, which is quite simple to do with a database. Once you can evaluate this activity, highlight its value to your salespeople. A simple “Well done, Marc, great number of appointments this month” in the open-plan office will be enough to motivate Marc and his colleagues, who will see that their efforts are paying off.

Don’t forget that your salespeople have a strong competitive spirit; use it! Organize sales challenges, and your salespeople will be even more motivated to prospect.

Prospecting isn’t magic; it’s hard work.

If you too have developed tools to improve your prospecting, feel free to share them with us!

Download your white paper: “Sales Challenge”