Being able to have a funnel filled with high-quality leads is something every sales professional’s dream achievement.
However, it is known to be a task that comes with challenges, and many of them end up settling for leads that are not even the right fit for their business. This is the first big mistake. Of course, every business heavily relies on a steady pool of new prospects, but this can be achieved without having to compromise the quality of your leads as well.
With that being said, it ushers in the topic of having an effective outbound prospecting strategy that will ensure that you constantly have a number of cold leads that you can warm up and nurture at your disposal.
Outbound prospecting consists of building a list of potential prospects which includes people and companies that could benefit from your products or services and reaching out to those prospects through cold outreach such as your cold emails and cold calls.
It’s quite a straightforward approach and its purpose is establishing that first contact and qualifying leads that are after that, forwarded to sales executives who work on closing deals.
Of course, it may sound simple, but outbound prospecting requires a lot of ingredients other than picking up the phone or writing an email in order for it to be successful.
So, let’s look at some strategies on how you can add outbound prospecting into your sales activities.
Proper introduction
When it comes to cold outreach, it’s important to introduce yourself using your full name as well as your company’s name.
The main point behind this simple but very effective trick is to add some importance to yourself and behave as if your prospect is supposed to have heard of you and your company before already.
So, whenever you talk with your prospects, take a cue from them and add an air of importance to your prospecting. This way, you’ll be able to command respect and trigger a sense of respect with your potential customers as well.
State the purpose of your outreach
Doesn’t matter whether you’re cold calling or cold emailing your prospects, you have to make sure to state the purpose of your outreach right off the bat.
Take into consideration that your prospects are just as busy as you are hence why you shouldn’t beat around the bush. Plus, you don’t want to come off to them as being evasive. Be sure to be able to tell them why you’re calling before they lose interest, reject you, or worse, hang up on you.
Including social proof
Establishing your credibility from the get-go plays an important role when it comes to the outcome of your outbound prospecting, you have to find a way to convince your prospects that you’re a credible as well as a reliable partner.
Keep in mind that this might be the first time they have heard of you, which means that they would have to do some research on you or look you up on social media channels, read reviews, etc. Of course, that’s a natural process and it’s completely understandable that they’ll be doing that.
However, you can do yourself as well as your prospects a favor, and include social proof, which is a piece of information that will show them how you successfully helped other companies from the same industry achieve their certain goals.
Conclusion
Ultimately, outbound prospecting is all about making sure that your outreach is professional and that you are providing value to the prospect immediately and by adding this to your sales activities, it will surely boost up your lead funnel. Remember to always solicit a better response from your prospect that will lead to more quality sales opportunities for your sales team. Use timely and valued-based outreach to connect with your prospects on more personal and social levels.