Receiving a sales order may seem easy if you are part of an e-commerce business selling clothing, furniture or cell phones. But there are steps you need to take to achieve sales, such as: structuring an intuitive interface, creating your digital presence, attracting customers and offering products at good prices.
But in the market there are sales that are much more Barbados Email List complex to carry out, involving specific products and services for an X audience and for a Y situation.
Can't imagine a product that could be so difficult to sell? Well, here are some challenging examples: life insurance, consulting, and business management systems .
These are products and services made up of characteristics that cannot be described precisely; social proof , a demonstration or guarantees are required.
To overcome the difficulties of a complex sale, it is necessary to develop a sales strategy , which must be standardized and constantly improved.
It is during the creation of the sales strategy that we realize the importance of outbound prospecting , which can leverage the results of a business in the short term, whether it is a new business or a renowned brand.
A strong characteristic of outbound prospecting is the humanized contact with the potential customer (also known as a lead ), where it is possible to identify interests and needs, and adapt your offer into a personalized solution. Direct conversation between the company and the customer results in market knowledge and outbound sales .
How does Outbound Prospecting work?
Outbound prospecting is carried out on a one-to-one basis, meaning that your salesperson will approach one potential customer at a time to present the products they provide and understand their needs.
In most cases, prospecting means the company's first contact with a potential customer and therefore does not always result in an instant sale, but rather in awakening interest or doubt about your product.
See a practical example of outbound prospecting
Imagine that you work daily with a slow computer, which reduces your productivity, limits your activities and you just haven't bought a new computer because you didn't have time to research the ideal model for your work.
At a certain point in the day, you receive a call from a store that identifies itself as a computer specialist and is having a weekly promotion.
The salesperson identifies your difficulties, proves his knowledge by talking about the solutions and then offers a model with a 40% discount, free shipping and delivery in one week, what do you say?
This is a classic model of outbound prospecting , which will certainly make the lead research the company, visit its website and perhaps accept your proposal.
Who should use Outbound Prospecting?
To define who should work with outbound prospecting strategies, it is first necessary to know some characteristics of the practice.
It has a low reach because it is a manual contact and requires the salesperson to develop a conversation, with presentation, identification of pain points and presentation of the solution. It is possible to achieve a greater reach with more salespeople.
You choose your customers and get in touch to prospect them, this way you deposit your energy in the group of people or companies you really want to reach.
It is ideal for complex sales , as through dialogue, it is possible to overcome objections, clarify doubts, and explain the features and advantages of the solution.
However, we define that the objective of outbound prospecting is to sell products that cannot be placed in the shop window or in e-commerce, but that are sold through presentations and negotiations.
So, if you work with the sale of cell phones, perfumes and pet shop items, it is better to invest in strategies that reach a large volume of people, instead of calling each one and finding out if they are interested in buying your product.
This is because the potential market for these businesses is very large and can reach a greater number of interested parties with the creation of content.
Differences between Outbound and Inbound Prospecting
Both types of prospecting aim to attract customers to a sales base, but each uses a different method and can even be applied as complementary within a strategy .
The main difference between inbound prospecting and marketing is that it focuses on creating relevant content and, through it, seeks to attract leads. In other words, it uses digital media to share content with a large number of people, in order to spark interest and receive contacts at your doorstep.
It is a strategy that attracts a greater number of interested parties, and it is possible to apply filters through forms on landing pages so that your salespeople know who to approach.
How to do efficient Outbound Prospecting?
The concept of prospecting is simple: make contact, arouse interest and lead to the sale. But there is a process that precedes the contact that is just as important as the action: planning .
Define ICP;
Analyze the market;
Create segmentation lists;
Set up a contact cadence;
Develop models for prospecting;
Test and measure the results.
It is worth remembering that outbound prospecting must be well structured to generate results, otherwise, your salespeople will be in the dark.
Defining your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)
Your ICP, or ideal customer , is the one who is completely served by your solution. To find out who your company's ideal customer is, you need to know the business's products and services, so you can identify the solutions and which companies suffer from the problems you solve.
A good practice is to list your organization's best customers and create a profile of them. The ICP will serve to guide your outbound prospecting in the search for the best customers for your business.
Market analysis
Once you have defined your ideal customer profile , you must analyze the market to find them. A good source of potential customers are people who are interested in the content of your direct competitors.
Taking the initiative and carrying out outbound prospecting can put your company one step ahead, allowing you to present the solution in a personalized way and showcase your advantages over the competition.
Creating segmentation lists
Let's assume that within your ideal customer profile you have industries and distributors. You can divide them into segments to start prospecting in an organized way, knowing which solutions to present to each one.
Lists must be constantly fed to keep your salespeople active, making contact, measuring purchase intentions and closing sales.
Set up a contact cadence
Creating a cadence of contacts is part of organizing negotiations .
A principle of outbound prospecting is to always end a contact by scheduling the next appointment with the lead and let's face it, there's no brain that can manage all of the salesperson's information.
To do this, the intelligent technology of a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is used , where it is possible to structure a cadence of contacts, schedule appointments, schedule calls, emails, visits and note down information about a call, in addition to centralizing information about the customer.
Develop models for prospecting
Prospecting in practice means starting a conversation by exploring the needs of leads within what your product offers. Outbound prospecting allows you to customize approaches according to the customer's profile, making your contact more human and efficient .
However, it is important to develop models for prospecting , in order to build a basis and a roadmap for your approach, this way you become more objective when conducting the chat and make your actions more assertive, since it will be possible to identify which approaches are bringing more results.
Measurement of results
After creating your outbound prospecting strategies and carrying out the approaches, it's time to measure the results to know what is working and what isn't for your audience.
To measure, you can use the CRM where prospecting activities have already been recorded, given that this tool delivers complete reports of all activities carried out by salespeople and the conversions obtained.
Advantages of Outbound Prospecting
Outbound prospecting has some advantages over inbound prospecting. Here are some of them:
Return on investment
When you put into practice the commercial approaches of leads that are well defined as your ideal customer profile, you can already see the results, as the contact automatically moves your sales team, generating sales in the short, medium and long term. On the other hand, investing in Inbound can take a few months to start producing the expected results.