Navigating companies to find the right prospects is the most common problem in business-to-business (B2B) sales.
Every business deal starts with the idea of attracting new customers. Professionals who sell to businesses must make people aware of who they are and what they do. As they go through the process of looking for new customers, they incur a lot of uncertainty, challenge, and stress.
Professionals who sell to businesses often compete with other firms within the same industry. They also compete with coworkers on their sales team. Sales prospecting is what sellers do to identify contacts and offer their product or service. Most people want it to be easy, but it’s hard to do in practice because the skills involved in finding leads don’t apply to closing deals. Looking for the right prospects is complicated.
Incidr wants to change that with connected prospecting.
What is Connected Prospecting?Connected prospecting is the strategic action of building relationships with someone you’re not competing with who targets a similar business.
Professionals who sell to businesses rarely think about the advantages that connected prospecting has over the randomness of approaching a stranger.
For example, if you sell telecom or internet services, you probably look for new customers in commercial office buildings to find tenants who are preparing to move in or out of an office space. Your goal is to reach them between the date they sign the lease and the day they move into the building.
On the other hand, a commercial real-estate agent may know about a company preparing to lease office space before anyone else. If the telecom sales rep and the commercial real estate agent were connected, they could work together in a smarter way to find the right prospects.
Connected prospecting helps you meet other sellers you're not competing with who target similar businesses.
Another example is if you sell furniture or moving services, your goal is to keep in touch with past and current customers, so that in the event they expand their business you become top of mind. The telecom sales rep and the commercial real estate agent can’t see behind the walls of a company to know who to pitch their service to first. If they need help finding names of prospects for their efforts, they could network with the furniture and moving sales reps. Professionals who sell to businesses should build a sales network with sellers at other firms who target the same companies, because those reps may have similar motivations but are not competitors.
Connected prospecting enables you to find new connections in specific industries to spot more opportunities so you get leads before your competitors do.
Don’t be limited by what you know to find the best prospects. Opportunities come from people you don’t know. Discover companies you have in common with a fellow Incidr and connect.
Incidr offers direct access to business information that can be shared between sellers across industries. Gather information and use the data you have to get better sales results with connected prospecting.