Smart Prospecting
Discovering the best tools to find new customers
To play off the well-known and oft-repeated first sentence from Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that any company in possession of goods or services, must be in want of customer.”
Finding customers, often known as prospecting, is a challenge for most businesses, regardless of the industries in which they operate. Whether a company is selling a product as basic as toothpaste or a service complicated as forensic accounting, businesses have a hard time unearthing qualified prospects – sometimes they can seem as rare and precious as diamonds hidden in piles of rocks.
Any company that ignores the importance of prospecting and relies solely on its current customer base to grow its business will surely lose market share and revenues, and most likely it will fail. But, there’s an art and a science to prospecting, and mastering the process requires plenty of effort, an abundance of patience and the right set of tools.
The most popular tools include market research, a first-rate prospect list and an in-depth knowledge of good e-mail practices. All these tools will help you prospect better, faster and more effectively and ultimately will increase your company’s revenues. Click here for story.
Although many companies tend to overlook market research in the prospecting process, it can provide a clear understanding of your current customers and give you an idea of the people or businesses that could become future customers. Thorough market research can help create a high-quality prospect list.
A good prospect list – one that includes people or businesses that have shown an interest in they types of product or services your company offers – is the foundation of any strong marketing campaign. Companies should constantly be looking for ways to grow their prospect list, either through organic or external means. Click here for story.
Market research and a good prospect list aren’t enough to ensure successful prospecting – companies must make sure that they’re communicating effectively with their prospective customers, especially when it comes to e-mail. Businesses that don’t observing good e-mail practices will find that their prospecting is far less effective than those who do.