Nothing is faster, and more effective than direct marketing!

In our modern times, there exists the idea that you can simply put up a website, drive traffic, pay some referral fees, or place some Facebook ads, and the world will beat a path to your door, completely dismissing the importance of ACTIVELY AND AGGRESSIVELY PROSPECTING. This idea has already sent many modern businesses into business hell, if not the business graveyard. If there’s any point at all that should be made with this article;

It’s this: When your business is starving for revenue and you find yourself trying to cut overhead costs to make a profit (especially payroll ☹), THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR EFFECTIVE DIRECT MARKETING, actively seeking out and selling prospects, with real, live human to human contact. There are very few cases in business where a company can save its way to profits. More sales is the magic cure-all in business! And there’s no marketing method by which to produce a faster result, than to make prospecting (in any capacity) one of your highest business priorities. If your business isn’t prospecting, it’s time to hire some sales people and start.

What is Prospecting?

Prospecting is the process of searching for, and contacting potential customers with the goal of earning more sales and growing your business. To prospect, you need reach out to potential customers, influencers, referrals, and folks that can refer you business, to convert as many of them into paying customers as possible and reasonable. There are many methods by which to do this, phone, knocking on doors, content and social media marketing, email marketing, using pay per click sponsored ads, etc.

This Article will be not be concerned with all of the different prospecting channels, but instead, this article will deal with the approach that should be made with every prospect, to maximize your chances of closing every deal.

In summary, Here are the steps to go from prospect to closed sale:

1: Research your Ideal Customer

2: Make contact (using any of the prospecting channels mentioned above)

2a: Offer Immediate and Beneficial Value to Generate an Interest

2b: Schedule a time for a full presentation of your product or service

3: The Actual Presentation

3a: Educate and Evaluate

4: Close the Deal

Prospecting with the end goal in mind

1. Research – In this step, you will determine how good a lead actually is. Does it meet your qualifying criteria? What are the characteristics of your ideal customer, and hence your ideal prospect. And whom should you spend your precious valuable time pursuing?

You should always begin with the end in mind, by making sure when you identify your ideal prospect, you take the time to learn about the problems and pain associated with not only their industry, but in their specific business. Figure out who your ideal prospect is and why, then learn everything you can about them. Sometimes the only way to understand their pain, is to ask them penetrating questions about their business once you have your first conversation, I.E. “What’s your #1 biggest obstacle to making more money?” Or “What’s slowing your business growth down the most right now?”

2. Making Contact with Potential Prospects – This is where you reach out to a decision maker, “gatekeeper” such as a receptionist or personal assistant, influencer, or potential referral source, that can help you make contact with your real prospects.

3. Offer Immediate and Beneficial Value

The very first thing that should happen when you speak with a prospect is, you should offer something of value that will help them. This is an older approach that’s been mostly forgotten, but is just as effective today as it was 30 years ago, when Kirby Vacuum cleaners offered a large stock of soda to families that let them display the power of their Vacuums. It’s akin to offering a free trial of a software or service. This was effective in getting Kirby (and many other companies) product demonstrations, but you can take it a step further. For example, if you are a Web Design company, you might offer a “Free, professionally edited 30 second HD video, with music, effects, and all the trimmings, valued at $500 (a value you assign based on what you normally charge). In return, you tell your prospect that you need them to see a “20 minute” presentation of your web design services, (realizing that it may take a lot longer than 20 minutes if they have a lot of questions or sign up for your services).
If you are an advertising company you might offer a 30 second radio commercial during drive time, also with a normal “price/value” and a tangible real value to them.

Immediately offering something of real value to prospects (that also determines their interest) is hands down, the most effective approach for getting your foot in the door, and them allowing you to have the floor, so you can demonstrate your products or services. This also prequalifies them for your products or services, because if they accept what you’re offering for free, they have an interest. You might say “They’re only taking it because it’s free,” but they wouldn’t accept it if it meant nothing to them, even if it’s free. Very few business people will give up their valuable time for something that has no value to them, even if it’s free, because time is valuable, and comes at a high cost for ambitious people.

4. Educate and Evaluate – Of course, every product or service demonstration doesn’t lead to a close. At least not today, but just because they aren’t ready today, doesn’t mean they won’t be in 6 months or a year from now. All good sales prospectors make it a point to try and stay in front of their past prospects. So in this next step, you should try to make a great impression by demonstrating a deep knowledge of their industry to get them interested, even if they can’t afford you right now. You should also ask a lot of penetrating questions, to better understand the client’s needs, pain points and potential objections. Only when the prospect’s core needs are fulfilled and objections are dealt with can the sale be closed.

4. Close – This is the purpose of every sales process – to close the deal. You should always assume the sale, and if you have different price points, make recommendations based on your prospects budget, and inferred level of interest. The nice thing about recommending the most expensive package, or something in the middle, is you still have some place to go is they say “No.” If they won’t accept the highest package, ask which one best fits their budget, and be prepared to deal with objections.

Side Note
A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Software can help you research and track your prospects more effectively. CRM software can make it easy to manage even thousands of contacts, tracking where you are in the sales cycle, when you last spoke, what was discussed, and when you’re supposed to follow up. Most CRMs have calendars, clocks and reminders built in to tell you the precise time and day that you’re supposed to follow up with your prospect. CRMs can also be a great way to allow an entire team to collaborate together on maintaining contact, and processing orders when you finally convert your prospect into a client.

Prospecting and Closing Overview

Now that you understand the basic steps of prospecting, it is time to learn more about the actual sales call. After all, the call is where the sale is won or lost. So how can we put our best foot forward?

1. Real Rapport – Building rapport is an important part of any sales call. At the beginning of a sales relationship, building rapport by asking personal questions or wishing them a “great weekend” isn’t going to work. Why? Because when a stranger abruptly presents themselves as your well-wisher, you will suspect that they have some ulterior motive. It’s fake and busy people don’t have time for it.

On the other hand, you are direct and offer something of real value, as well as a practical solution for their problems, it will immediately catch their attention. So it is important to not beat around the bush and be direct with your prospects. The way to build real rapport is to offer value right from the beginning of a sales relationship.

If it is a one-call close, which is when the prospect has already shown interest in your product or services, you need to talk with authority and purpose. Because you want them to buy in this call, you have to not only inform them about their best options, but also make them understand why they should choose those options and buy from you. One-call closes usually an investment into generating or buying quality leads (that have some interest) should be scripted with well thought-out rebuttals to every possible objection, with the most common being; “I don’t have the time, money, I don’t trust you or your company, or I need to talk to my partner (or wife).”

2. Pain Points – You cannot sell to someone without knowing what they actually need. So you have to ask good questions to steer the conversation around the prospect’s pain points. You should know the prospect’s key challenges and the possible solutions.

3. Focus on the Prospect’s Needs – They will realize that you really want to understand so you can improve their situation. Some salespeople are too focused on how successful their product or service is. They fail to understand that selling isn’t about them, it’s all about the prospect.

4. Wrap Up – It is important to bring the call to a close. Some never bring the call to a close and lose the sale. So after you have offered suitable solutions for their needs, it is important to close the sale and ask them to write the check. If it isn’t a one-call close, make sure to ask for a follow-up call by explaining to them the value they will receive from the next call and use cut off dates, and time sensitive variables to create urgency as a takeaway.

5. Assume the Sale – If everything goes right, you should be able to assume the sale and start writing their order. If they aren’t ready to buy, they will stop you. Don’t worry about being too pushy. There are non-threatening ways of assuming the sale and make it seem very natural, like making a recommendation, and judging their interest by how they respond to it.

How to Assume the Sale Without Being Pushy
To close the sale, you need to actually ask for business. Imagine a salesman who explains everything they can do but then waits for the customer to initiate the payment. They are surely going to lose many customers.

An effective way to do this is to assume the sale and ask the prospect about getting started. Assumptive closing is not about being pushy. It occurs when you have listened to the customer effectively and shown them how you can solve their challenges. If they take your package recommendation, or tell you they’d like to begin on a certain date, you can ask them what form of payment they’d like to use and tell them you’re ready for it.

Asking for the order is crucial. But how to make sure the prospect doesn’t have second thoughts? Phrase your statements like this: “Since we have agreed on that our solution should bring 30% increase in revenue…..”.

The focus here is on “agreed”. In sales copy-writing, this is known as the secret nod. It’s good to have the prospect say ‘yes!’ a couple times prior to the order;

1) so you can gauge their interest, and

2) so that when you ask for the order, saying ‘yes’ comes naturally.

How to Close The Sale (An In Depth Look)

Here we will cover;

• Making Warm Calls
• Using a Script
• Closing Deals!

A: Credibility
B: Finding the Pain, and Common Ground

C: Asking Quality Questions

D: Assumptive Closing
E: Making a Recommendation

1. Make Warm Calls or Visits

Cold calling doesn’t always work. This is because business is about relationships as much as it is solving problems. If you don’t already have some level of rapport, you won’t get anywhere without offering something of immediate and beneficial value to get your foot in the door.

1a. Warming Up a Cold Prospect

There are many ways to warm up a cold prospect. Some like to tell jokes. Others do a soft takeaway by saying “we may not be the right fit for you, which should help to drop a prospects guard if they’re worried about you trying to hard sell them something they don’t need.

Don’t worry. You don’t have to personally know a prospect. If you have researched your typical buyer’s characteristics diligently, you will find major points of value which will build an authentic connection with the prospect.

Email: A way to build a personal connection with prospects is through email. Don’t try to sell in your emails. Rather, try to add value to their job or industry. If they respond, ask about their pain points, share valuable tools and resources, or invite them to an event or webinar. The key here is to focus on them and give value.

2. Use a Script

Sales scripts are an important tool if they’re well thought out, rehearsed, and you use them effectively. Having a script and rebuttals in sales, is like having a track to run on if you’re a jogger.

Having a script or even bullet points can allow you to focus on the important questions without digressing. It can also present you as a well-informed salesperson. You can use the script be more eloquent, or use more complex, industry specific terms to help build trust and credibility with the prospect. It can help you avoid uncomfortable pauses and swiftly answer any objections the prospect may have. Therefore, a sales script is an important part of preparing for the actual call.

3. Closing Deals!

Rapport building statements: If there is any history of contact with the prospect, mention it. Find common ground and key points of interest. Define their pain points in the script so you can steer the focus toward what really matters.

Questions to Uncover Important Information: The key barrier to closing a sale is lack of information about the prospect’s true needs. So it is important to frame questions that help ascertain what is really going on in the prospect’s mind. Open ended questions are the best, that require more than just a simple “Yes” or “No.” For example; What methods have you used to try and bring in more business? Of those methods, what do you feel was most and least effective, and why?

Such questions should help you determine:

• Their core needs in the context of the product/service
• Their short-term and long-term goals
• Their objections to your product
• Their likes and dislikes about their current vendor

Statements to establish credibility: You need to make the prospect believe that you can really solve their problem. People need to know you are credible before giving you precious time out of their busy lives. Using competitors, the number of companies you’ve helped, or familiar brands you’ve worked for in a similar capacity as your prospect, and the successful results can help.

Value Statements: Instead of trying to chat them up by asking about their personal life, present the value you will bring to them. Don’t talk at length about the features/benefits of your product. Clearly project and express the tangible results you can bring for the client.

Statements to Handle Objections: Objections are the barriers to any sale. It is important to be well-prepared in advance to deal with them so that you don’t hesitate or stutter when the client raises objections during the or presentation.

Statements for the Close: It is important to be direct with your prospects. If you never ask for their time or money, they may never buy from you. So whether you need to know when they are free for the next call or you need them to write the check, don’t wait. Be direct, and if they can’t get off the fence after you’ve satisfied all of their concerns, push them off the fence by using a takeaway.

Don’t sell

As strange as it may sound, selling isn’t about being salesy. It is about building a human connection with your prospect by delivering value in each interaction with them. This essentially means that in every call, you are focused on giving value instead of being pushy or trying to build fake rapport.

For instance, if they don’t want to schedule a follow up call with you, why not offer them something useful for free. It is important to not sell because before you ask them for business, it is important to build a solid foundation of trust.

 Finding the Pain, and Common Ground

Focus on Them! While it is important to establish credibility, talking about your own product or company without context can put the prospect off. Keep the conversation about them. Listen to their concerns and determine their pain points. Keep asking questions to further probe their pain and know what makes them lose sleep. Once you know their pain inside out, show them how you have helped other customers get over such problems.

Here is how you can center the conversation about their pain points. The questions that follow are also known as pre-qualifying questions:

a) Ask Questions to Probe Pain

Michael Halper, the founder of SalesScripter, believes that the best salesperson is the one who asks the best questions.

You need to ask questions that probe for pain. You could ask them, “What are some of your biggest problems right now?” But what if they mention something you can do nothing about? You would have nothing to say. So it is important to ask them relevant questions. The right way to do is to make a list of pain points that your company can solve. Then, make a list of corresponding questions for each of those pain points.

Example – See how one can list pain points and questions for a sales call regarding a gym membership:

b) Share Common Examples of Pain

Sometimes when you ask questions to probe pain, the prospect may respond with “I’m not sure”, “I don’t know” – statements that reflect lack of clarity. If your prospect shows lack of clarity, you can bring clarity with statements like, “Do you have <this symptom>, <this symptom>…?” Give examples to make them aware of their pain and get more clarity.

So in the gym membership example, instead of asking about stress and low energy, you could say, “I talk with people who want to feel energetic and mentally strong in their lives. And they often….

• feel overwhelmed even when faced with easy tasks
• spill their stress in relationships which makes it even worse
• feel tired just moments after they wake up in the morning
• Feel blue for no apparent reason”

Instead of asking about lack of confidence, you could say, “People who work with us for confidence-building often…

• feel incapable of creating a good life for themselves
• Hesitate in speaking up in front of others
• have a predisposition to negative thinking
• often feel anxious and emotionally low”

Chances are, if this is the prospect you were looking for, they would resonate with your examples of pain and ask for help in those areas.

The idea is to know their pain. If they pose any objections like “I’m not interested” or “We are not working on any new developments right now”, you can offer something beneficial and of value for free, and possibly redirect them to the common problems your clients face.

5. Quality Questions Will Tell You How to Close

Do you often end a sales call only to realize that you forgot to ask an important qualifying question?

Learn about them: Whether you want to know your prospect’s pain points, explore their needs, or respond to objections, you will need to ask quality questions to know who your prospect really is. Questions help you know their problems. Think about it. If you don’t know what the problem is, how will you be able to solve it?

Appear Professional: Good questions help you present yourself as a knowledgeable professional even if you are working from home in your pajamas.

Build Trust: Good questions help you present yourself as a trusted advisor instead of as a pushy salesperson. When they come up with an objection, and you ask them further about what they really need, it builds trust with them. Bad sales people ask the wrong questions, make it about their product and not about the prospect, due to which they come across as pushy.

More Sales: Salespeople have limited time for each prospect. Quality questions allow you to qualify and close as many prospects as possible.

Types Of Qualifying Questions

When asking qualifying questions, you are checking whether the prospect is your targeted customer. The key questions are:
1) Do they need your product.

2) Can they afford it and

3) Can they make the buying decision?

These are the four criteria you can use while asking qualifying questions.

Questions About Their Need to Purchase

In this step, you find out whether the prospect really needs your product. You can use these questions:

• What made you check out our services?
• What is working well at present in this area? What is not?
• What’s your expected growth predictions (with and without my product)?
• What are your company’s goals regarding growth? How much profit, and by what date?

Questions About Their Authority to Purchase

You now know whether they need it or not. That is a good starting point. But is it really their call? If not, you need to find someone who can actually make the buying decision.

Here are the kind of questions you can use for this criterion:

• Who are the decision makers for this project? Who is the ultimate decision maker?
• What will the decision-making process look like? (Are there any committee or board meetings where a vote needs to take place?)

Questions About Ability to Purchase

In this step, you need to clarify whether the prospect has enough money to buy from you and if it’s not yet in the budget, how soon can it be.

Here are sample questions to clarify purchasing ability:

• Do you have a budget already set aside for this? If so, how much can you spend on the project?
• Are there other financial priorities that could interfere with the purchase?
• If there’s not enough in the budget now, when will the next budget be created? (How soon will you have the money?)

Questions About Them Shopping with Your Competitors

THIS IS ESSENTIAL: One way to avoid being shopped is to create a unique selling proposition. Simply put, this is what make you different to all the other businesses in your space. Even if your business isn’t disruptive in your industry, like Uber, Amazon, or Airbnb, you should be able to define what makes you unique. Once you’ve determined what makes your specific business model or service stand out, and separates you from all of your competition, you can more easily define your ideal prospect and customer. This will effective remove most of your competition by giving you a competitive selling advantage.

Otherwise, you’re stuck asking questions such as these ☹:

• What other solutions are you considering?
• How much progress have you made with them? What is (and isn’t) appealing about their solution?
• What can we do to earn your business over them?

WARNING: If all things are relatively equal with your competitor, this will end in a price war, where both you and your competitor lose together as your prices (and profits) race to the bottom. You can avoid this scenario by determining, and/or developing your own unique selling proposition.

Pre-qualifying Questions:

In the very beginning of a sales relationship, you shouldn’t qualify the prospect based on needs, authority or ability. You need to know whether even talking to the prospect will bring any mutual benefit.

To pre-qualify, you need to ask “soft questions” to see how well they fit into your ideal client profile:

Closing Questions

If you want to 10X your sales, It starts by becoming an expert prospector. If you utilize the info already laid out in this article, there will be no need to be pushy or desperate when taking your clients money.

You can start with some test closing questions like:

• How do you feel about what we discussed so far?
• Did our discussion meet your expectations today?

Test closing questions show you whether you are progressing toward the close. The next step is to ask questions for the actual close:

• How would you like to continue with this?
• Do you want to continue with us?
• Moving forward, what direction would you like to take?

ESSENTIAL: Always make an intuitive recommendation based on the information you’ve gathered, but leave room to drop your price so you can negotiate if it’s necessary to close the deal.

“Based on your goals and your budget John, I’d recommend you take package number 3, because it’s more aggressive, and is most likely to get your company where you say you need to be in 6 months. If it’s not as effective as I promised, we can always cut back to package number 2, or number 1. “

Based on how they respond – positively or negatively, you can ask for even more clarity with some hard-closing questions:

• How do you feel about implementing this solution?
• If you get all the things you asked for, are you ready move forward?
• What is stopping you from going forward with this today?

Practice Active Listening

Listening is an art. There is a difference between listening on the surface to get a basic understanding of what the prospect is saying and truly listening with the intent of knowing the person’s feelings and intent.

In passive listening, you just hear. In active listening, you understand. In passive listening, you are just waiting for them to finish without any intention of responding to it. Passive listening treats the person’s words like a background noise. The most common example is listening to a boring lecture in class.

Step 1: In active listening, you are aware of the intonations in the prospect’s voice, facial expressions (if the meeting is in person or a video call) and subtle clues people give with transitions in the pitch and tone of their voice. Listening this way is the first step in active listening.

Step 2: Second, you need to give feedback in response to what you just heard. You can paraphrase what they’re telling you, or simply repeat their same words. Either way, they will know you’re listening.

Step 3: You should confirm with the prospect that you heard them correctly. You can be straight-forward and ask them, “Am I understand you correctly?” The prospect will let you know if you missed anything.

Step 4: You should dig deeper. Ask them follow up questions to get a wholistic understanding of their perspective about the subject. Don’t ask closed-ended questions. Ask open-ended questions to understand their goals and challenges. Asking questions will help you uncover the reasons they will or will not buy from you.

Prospects buy on emotion, not logic

You can have the logical answers to sales objections, logical plans to solve the challenges of your prospect, but it is not logic what makes them buy. Neuroscience has proven that people buy on emotion and justify it with logic.

The emotional process behind buying a new product is a change in self-image. The bigger the purchase, the more the self-image gets transformed. The legendary copywriter Joseph Sugarman explains: “People don’t buy the Mercedes for its fancy features. They buy it to belong to a group of high-status people.

So to sell, you need to know how the prospect wants to perceive themselves in the future? Is it a promotion, getting rid of a painful problem or perhaps transition to a new business venture? Know who they want to become and show them how you can help them become that person.

It’s Important to Create Urgency

Why? Supply and demand. When supply is scarce, demand shoots up into the sky. So if your prospect has only 3 days to buy from you, they will consider your offer much more seriously than otherwise.

Now the question is – How to create urgency?

Urgency comes when the prospect realizes that you can solve a crucial, pressing problem at a reasonable price, but if they delay the decision, the consequences would be too bad for them or their business.

1. Ask about their business

You need to build some context before you create urgency. So it is important to ask the prospect about their business — in terms of revenue numbers, number of employees and customers and how successful the business is at present.

2. Ask about their pain points

After you have some idea of how their business is doing, it is time to uncover their pain. To create urgency, you need to target the point of maximum anxiety and concern. So ask them about their biggest problems, who is being affected, how urgently the problem needs to be solved, whether the same problems have come up in the past, and what the future holds if the problem gets worse, or isn’t addressed.

3. Ask about the consequences of not buying

            You need to make them think about the negative consequences of not taking action.

• What happens if the problem doesn’t get solved?
• How it affects them and the leaders in the organization.
• What happens if you keep implementing the same strategies and solutions that you’re using now?
• What is the one big thing, that if solved, would make the highest impact on the organization?

4. Ask about how the problem affects them

• How does this problem affect you?
• If this was no longer a problem, what opportunities or projects would you focus on?
• What is the most excruciating thing about this problem?
• Does this problem come up at executive meetings?

5. Ask about the competition

Competition often nudges people to act sooner than later. Because if they don’t, someone else will eventually take their customers, and maybe even their business one day. So ask them questions to ignite their competitive spirit:

• How has the competition evolved over the past couple years?
• Are you worried about [competitor’s name] getting ahead of you?
• Have you lost any important customers to your competitors that you’re aware of?
• Is it possible that more customers could leave you?
• What do your customers think needs to be improved?
• Do you think your company may compete in a race-to-the-bottom pricing situation?

6. Ask about next steps and time frame

This is where you present concrete proof and go for the close. If it’s possible, show them how you have solved similar problems successfully for clients before. Tell them you can put them in touch with your previous clients as a reference. Ask them questions like:

• Would you want to talk to ‘A’? They faced a <similar challenge> and made X% <more returns> by implementing our <solutions>.
• We can give you all the info you need in 24 hours. Will that allow you to get started by next Monday (a date in the near future)?
• If I send you the contract after this call, can we move forward with your order?
• What’s our maximum time frame to solve the problem and deliver the results you want?
• Does your business do better in a certain season? Does this problem need to be solved before the slow season comes?

The above six strategies will help you create a sense of urgency which will make the prospect act sooner than later. But realize that you can’t manufacture urgency by giving the prospect your thoughts on why they should act now. You need to ask questions, understand their rationale and touch on their pain points to uncover their own sense of urgency.

Handling Objections is Essential to Closing

Your prospect knows when you don’t have the answers but are still trying to sell, and that will cost you credibility, and may cost you the sale. You can’t win on tough objections by avoiding them, and if you’re not prepared for them, you’ll have no choice but to postpone closing the deal. This of course, lessens the impact of your presentation, and the urgency of buying now is lost.

Instead of seeing them as hurdles in your path, you should see them as opportunities, because objections are nothing more than pain points and your ultimate goal is to heal the prospect’s pain.

How do you effectively handle sales objections?

a) Listen – Ask open ended questions and let them talk! By listening carefully, you can learn about their pain and concerns with not only their current circumstances in business, but also any concerns they might have about moving forward with your product or service. If you don’t have an immediate response, pause. Thoughtful pauses and asking more questions prior to responding an objections will go a lot further than running over people with your words, especially if your answer doesn’t directly address their concern.

b) Prepare: You can’t afford to wing it in a presentation. Write down your rebuttals for the most common sales objections prior to the call or presentation. Study the prospect’s personalized objections and come up with real solutions.

c) Remain Composed: The third thing is composure. The prospect may show signs of stress and frustration because of issues such as lack of money, time, or pressure from higher-ups. In this situation, instead of getting agitated yourself, remaining calm with keep you in control of where the conversation goes.

Jordan Belfort, a former stockbroker, also known as the ‘wolf of wall street’ says that,

“At the highest level, sales is the transference of emotion. And the primary emotion you’re transferring is certainty.”

When the prospect is feeling stressed, they are afraid of uncertainty. And as an effective salesperson, you need to give them the certainty they are looking for.

Use Tools for Speed and Automation

Speed is a crucial element in sales. The faster you are with qualifying your prospects, warming them up, preparing sales scripts and reaching their pain points, the more sales you can hit every month.

Sales prospecting tools can help you

• Track sales activity
• Explore your prospect’s interests and problems with pre-loaded scripts
• split test outreach sequences
• reduce research time while sending emails with auto suggestions based on personalized parameters and qualifying criteria
• Connect with the right person because relationship with an insider works better than a data mining platform
• Analyze and optimize your campaigns
• Store important information you receive from prospects
• Get the email address of an organization or the decision maker
• Eliminate paperwork and automate contracts, quoting, proposals and all the time-consuming administrative work

Sales tools help you in engaging with your leads and prospects fast and effectively. When you are prospecting at scale, it is hard to spend hours preparing personalized emails and sales scripts. With sales tools, you accomplish multiple things such as:

• Predictive prospecting: Predictive prospecting is prospecting made more efficient. Sales tools give you access to a database of hundreds of millions of contacts. You can use the contacts you want and sort them in order of priority.

If any important activity related to your business occurs, you can be among the first ones to act on it since the service sends alerts to the right person.

You no longer need to get lost in a sea of leads. Sort them using various filters and get after the hot prospects immediately. Moreover, you can create territories to make assigned segments highly productive.

• Automated engagement: Communication is crucial when it comes to building relationships with prospects. But how to personalize communication at scale? Sales tools provide suggestive messaging based on characteristics like persona, vertical, and use case. Think of it like auto-suggestion on Google. You don’t have to waste time thinking what to say. Such tools also allow you to track the opens and clicks on your emails, hence allowing you to improvise your outreach. You can refer to pre-loaded scripts to communicate effectively at each step of the prospecting cycle.

• Analytics: Sales tools can help you gather crucial data metrics in real time. You also get a quick glimpse of important insights on custom dashboards. You can train your sales reps with standardized scripts and sales material consisting of best practices.

• Responses to Objection: Responding to sales objections is hard. But when you have a curated list of responses to different types of objections, it makes your job much easier.

• Gamification: Sales tools such as SalesScripter allow you to accrue points for each step in the forward direction in the sales process. This gives a visual representation of qualified prospects and helps your sales team track their progress.

• CRM: Sales tools have CRM functionality that keeps track of interactions with prospects, accounts, opportunities, tasks, activity history and important contacts. Some tools like SalesScripter even let you track objections and allow your team to learn from the sales process. They allow you to store the valuable information from prospects about their goal, challenges and pain points.
• Twitter: Twitter is a great way to build a personal connection with your prospect. See what your prospect cares about by going through their feed. Search for any signs of their interest in your product or services. See if you can engage them in a conversation by hitting common ground.

Final Thoughts

Effective sales prospecting and closing as many the deals as possible is about digging deep into the prospect’s pain, and assuring them that you can solve it. It is about asking the right questions and discovering what really motivates your prospect. It is about by the prospect as a trusted advisor, and not a pushy or desperate salesperson, which are equally as bad. It is about being prepared for objections, because the prospect knows when you don’t have the answers and you will lose credibility.

A large part of selling to your prospects is meeting them at their level, metaphorically. Some prospects may not know they should buy from you. You need to make them aware of what they are really anxious about and show them why buying your product right now, can cure their anxieties.

In the end, it is about working with their emotions, and knowing who they are, and really want to be. Because people buy on emotion and justify it with logic. Why do they really need the product? What emotional value does it bring? This is the question you should be asking yourself