The Best 4 Tips to Set Your First Prospect List!
Creating an initial prospect list is anyone’s wildest nightmare. There is so much hullabaloo surrounding the whole prospecting process it is difficult to separate constructive strategies from the noise.
If you have no idea how to create your first prospect list, here are a few tips to set you on the right path.
Define your ideal prospects
The first mistake many people make is shooting at the darkness and hoping to hit a star. Without an ideal prospect in mind, it becomes very difficult to focus and at the end of the day, you will have nothing to show for your efforts but a wasted time. Prospecting can be very demoralizing and even more so if you channel your efforts towards the wrong people.
Any successful prospect list starts with an understanding of whom your business is meant for. Even more importantly, you need to be able to determine whether you will be a good fit for whoever you are targeting. From there, you can go ahead and start doing a little research.
Do your research
After having a clear comprehension of your ideal prospects, it is time to do a little research so as to find the right people to include in your list. The research is particularly important if you are dealing with a whole company or organization and you need to know who is in charge of your area of interest.
You need to know everything there is to know about your prospects before contacting them. What is their name, job position and how do they prefer to be contacted? Defining buyer personas, in this case, might also come in handy as it will help you to identify who exactly within the organization you should contact.
Start with an email
If the prospect does not give a clear indication as to how they prefer to be contacted, it is always safe to start with an email. Remember that on the first contact, your potential client would usually have no idea what your business is about and they need a little time to digest. Cold calling, in particular, may seem like an ambush and is a great way to set the potential client in a disinterest mode. Nobody likes being asked for answers by a total stranger. Use emails to get acquainted and see if there is a possibility for a deal.
Get Introduced
If you know a friend who knows a potential client, don’t hesitate to ask them for an introduction. This is more effective since there is a level of trust build from just being introduced. This way, the frustration of being rejected or getting zero response rate will be reduced. If the person you are introduced to is not interested in your business, you can politely ask him or her to introduce you to someone in their network who might be interested. By the end of the month or year, you will have a chain of quality prospects who might hopefully translate to long-term clients.
Whether or not your first prospect list will be a success depends on how you put together the list. The above tips together with others you may know should set you on the right path to building a quality prospect list. Contact us at Get Prospects to make your work even simpler.
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