How to develop an Outbound Prospecting plan?
Let’s start with the difference between Inbound and Outbound Prospecting because it’s not sure that everyone knows it.
The words Inbound Prospecting refer to a methodology aimed at attracting prospect via relevant and tailored contents through different marketing channels such as Website, Social Media, S.E.O. and so on.
The objective is to develop trust and build value with this information, driving to prospect to an action.
On the contrary, Outbound Prospecting is characterized by proactive actions: the salesperson’s objectives are to identify the right people to talk to through different channels such as E-mails, Calls and Social Media.
L’obiettivo del commerciale è diventare il punto di riferimento del potenziale cliente per il tipo di soluzioni offerte, mantenendo viva la comunicazione nel tempo qualora non ci sia la necessità di acquisto.
Even if these methodologies are the opposite they are collateral and should be combined to get the best results.
A salesperson who’s in a New Business Development (Hunting) role should have solid Outbound Prospecting skills because Inbound leads are often not enough.
An effective Outbound Prospecting strategy is composed by 3 main pillars, the first two are strategic while the last one is tactical.
- Targeting
Targeting is aimed at prioritizing activities, trying to identify the right companies to talk to and create a ranking.
The ranking is based on several factors such as:
– Type of company (Industry / Vertical) because some companies will be a better fit for your solutions;
– Company size, depending on the strategy or the assigned market;
– State of the company, because generally you’ll prefer companies in financial health;
– Insight, so the external or internal event which generates a change or an opportunity inside the company such that you solutions might be useful or needed. - Researching
This activity is aimed at:
– Identify the Key Personas, so the right people to talk to who might be more receptive to your solutions;
– Research the Insight as soon as you found one. This deepening will help you in aligning your tactical activities to the Insight in order to build context and value since your first interaction with the prospect. - Working
This point refers to the Prospecting Cycle, so the activities to perform.
As I told you before the activities will be done through several channels such as:
– E-mails;
– Calls;
– Social Media.
The cadence will depend on several factors such as the size of your solution, the length of your selling cycle, the state of the market and the receptiveness of your prospect.
Prospecting is one of toughest sales activities: it’s the starting point of every business relationship but also a branding activity by which the prospect will build the mental images of yourself and your company.
Due to this complexity it’s also one of the most rewarding sales activities: approaching it as a systematic process can be helpful in reaching high goals.
