There’s no point having a killer pitch and then wasting it on the wrong sales prospects. To ensure you close deals, try to find prospects who have a real need for your product or service.
Sales might feel like a numbers game, but delivering a sales pitch to every prospect that comes your way isn’t going to get you anywhere. Quality trumps quantity. Firstly, you need to research your buyer, so you can address how valuable your product or service might be to them. People are inundated with information on a daily basis, so they won’t be interested in your offer if it’s not specific to them. Here’s how you can findright prospects and reduce sales pitch failure:
Figure out who you’re selling to
You need to find out who your target audience is before you can sell to them. Get into detective mode and study them, the company they work for, and its needs before executing the pitch. Where are they from? What do they do? How big is their company? Who is their competition? Figuring this out will help you find your most relevant audience.
Search LinkedIn for contacts
With over 360 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is like a goldmine for professionals. To get the most out of it, search for people at the vice president or senior director level, as they’re often the decision-makers. LinkedIn gives you most of the information you need about someone in order to make your sales pitch more relevant and useful to them. Pay attention to connections you have in common, what groups they engage with, and their status updates. With a little digging around, you can quickly build up a picture of who you should be talking to, what their interests are, and what they’ve done before.
Get leads from existing customers
Your existing customers can easily become brand ambassadors. If they’re loyal and have been with you for many years, sooner or later they’re going to tell their networks to do the same. This way you can directly get hot prospects. Wouldn’t you be more interested in a product or service if someone you know and trust recommended it? Reach out to your existing customers and think of ways they can help you reach new customers in their network.
Build your data lists
Without relevant, accurate data, you’ll end up chasing a lot of dead ends. Spend some time working on your data lists. Remember, just because you have a big list, doesn’t mean you have a good list. Big numbers can camouflage ineffectiveness. When building lists, try and blend in additional insight and relevant information that complements and helps create a richer understanding of your prospective audience. To ensure that you have the best data possible, enrich your data with extra fields and clean your data regularly.
A sales pitch to the wrong prospect is a sales pitch wasted. For advice on how to deliver a winning sales pitch, you can download our sales pitch guide right here.
