Here's a simple three-step plan to help earn your prospects business while leaving your competitors in the dust.
Anytime I ask a salesperson "Who's your targeted audience?" and they respond with "everyone", almost always that salesperson is struggling to meet quota.
Even if "everyone" truly can use or benefit from your product / service, there are critical KPI's (key prospect indicators) that will identify higher probable prospects.
You have to know what those KPI's are for your industry.
If you sell fixed asset software – maybe one of your KPI's are prospects within a specific vertical that currently use Excel to manage their assets.
Maybe you sell logistic services and your primary audience ships items that need to be temperature controlled.
Maybe you sell Kegerators and your targeted audience is high-end luxury homebuilders (and / or buyers) that want a unique bar in their home.
Most businesses will have multiple verticals of prospects, no matter if they sell one specific product/service or hundreds. If you don't narrow it down and get specific, you'll feel like you're lost at sea without a compass.
Once you've identified and picked a targeted vertical (or two or three) to go after, use a combination of email, LinkedIn, webinars, twitter, etc. to brand yourself (or your company) as an SME (Subject Matter Expert) in your field by offering free advice / help in areas that will matter to your targeted audience.
So for example, if you sell in-home kegs, you could have email newsletters / articles that discuss what the perfect beer temperature is for taste, how to clean your tap with ease, or a special recipe of the month. You could also do an occasional webinar on how to brew your own beer or how to make three unique drinks that will knock your guests socks off!
With today's automated and semi-automated low-cost drip marketing platforms, you can routinely "touch" prospects with valuable information, simultaneously, without picking up the phone.
Offering those kinds of useful solutions while having a strong, but subtle call to action at the end of the webinar or newsletter, will start to drive so many INBOUND requests, you won't have time to sit and ponder about how much you hate cold calling.
But for that to happen, you need to separate yourself from the rest of the competition. And in order to do that, you need to be willing to do what no one else is willing to do to earn your prospect's trust and business. Working with your marketing team (or if you are a one-man band) to have a simple drip marketing process in place, combined with knowing EXACTLY what to say in order to pique your prospect's interest on the phone, will give you a competitive edge that will have you winning more business.
"Hi, this is (your name) with (your company) and we offer blah, blah, blah and wanted to see if I could get a few minutes on your calendar to show you blah, blah, blah" isn't building up value, it's creating a wall between you and your prospects.
Now here's the best part… even if on that sales call attempt, you've identified that right now, there is no need… If you continue to follow the advice given in step 2 above, when a need does arise, you will be the first person they call.