It’s plain and simple: without a solid prospect list, it’s difficult to build a sales territory. So the first step is to focus on crafting out a territory for you. Easier said than done.
As a salesperson, qualifying leads and prospects is the single most important task you will ever have to do, even more important that working on the sale itself. The reason for this is because your territory is like a gold-mine. You can explore new avenues, revisit old ones, and with persistence, strike lucky on every new attempt you make. Without your prospect list, it is difficult to build a successful sales territory and once you’ve got yours, guard it and prevent others from encroaching.
Building a sales territory requires you to do the following:
Focus your efforts: The best way to qualify prospects is by asking yourself- where, who, how, why, and when can I find my target audience? It’s important to prioritize your industry so you know which ones are liable to translate into higher conversions, and which ones can be saved for a rainy day. You start by identifying the industries and companies that meet your lead qualification criteria, using the many resources available like Hoovers, which is an excellent source for company profiles and industry information, or OneSource, which offers accurate critical company and executive information.
The biggest mistakes made when building a territory are by targeting the wrong industry and overlapping sales territories. Good CRM software and regular internal meetings should take care of these two issues.
Build the list: Once you’ve sorted your industries by priority, the next step is to find people within the organization that you can proactively target. If your business attracts a decision making unit, identify anyone that can influence the deal, such as a CFO, CTO, CMO, Sales VP etc.
There are different approaches you can use to identify your key people – business directories like Hoovers, OneSource, and NetProspex are an excellent way to begin your search. Broadlook is a data mining company, which helps you access real time data online. You can also buy niche lists; use business and trade directories; and of course, browse social channels. Jigsaw and Biznik are invaluable in allowing you to grow your contacts database and accounts through online networking. You can use them to find and refer leads and grow your community. Others in a similar category include Inside View, Zoominfo, and Spoke.
Start prioritizing: Take your prospects and prioritize them into A’s, B’s, and C’s. Once done, it’s easier to clean, update, and confirm the names and move forward. Your cleaned list forms the basis of all your sales actions – cold calls, emails lists and online networking. Put those hot, potential prospects at the top, and cull those people who show no activity or who have moved, retired, or closed shop as you make it through your list. You can also use your CRM software to help you place referrals, no interest responses, and potentially interested responses into their own slots.
You can use the same approach for industries, in a Top Down Vertical Campaign.
Just as you would qualify your prospect, so too would you qualify your industries. You can place them in a similar, A, B, C category, where A refers to the top industries you will target. By working your way from the top down the list, you are sure to capture those leads which have greater conversion potential and avoid those which don’t.
Once you’ve crafted a territory for yourself, the second step is to define your sales campaigns. Here are some basic categories of B2B calling campaigns you can create:
- Dead or closed opportunities, which refer to companies and previously prospective clients that are not interested in your offering.
- Open opportunities with no activity in the last 2-3 months, which are an excellent way of re-engaging with clients that already know who you are and what you do.
- Archived leads, which are the responses from previous campaigns that may have lost interest, or maybe were never reached.
- Partner leads, which can be a bit tricky, but leads passed to the channel may have fallen through the cracks.
- New accounts, which are new companies you haven’t worked before, that you need to start anew and build a relationship with.
Starting with your one-to-one email programs, develop your email campaigns, so that each and every one you conduct works for you. Leave mass emails for the marketing folk. When it comes to sales, concentrate on the company at hand, their needs, their budgets, and their buying patterns. Keep it personal, and always use your own integrated Outlook tools.
The third step is possibly the most difficult of all three steps and yet is often overlooked. It includes going through each minute detail with a fine tooth comb to ensure you get it right! You need to put in some computer face time to ensure your contacts are up-to-date and their usernames are valid. Say your lists are also built from non-inbound leads; a person may have entered a nickname for his username thereby throwing you off guard. Such details can only be caught by a thorough manual search through your lists.
Similarly, look at email bounces – they can save time and give you the chance to make an immediate decision. Delete those contacts which are ‘hard bounces, and put a plan in place for a 2 or 3 times email hit on soft bounces.
Cleaning up bounces improves the quality of YOUR data, making life easier on you over time.
Here are some steps to follow, which work!
- If it’s a low-level contact (for example, a communications manager as opposed to VP Sales), either delete the contact or email, or place it in a separate grid.
- Go through each high-level contact (for example, CEO, VP Sales, General Manager etc.)
- Confirm the name of the executive via phone or email
- Confirm the spelling of their name
- Check the website to obtain current names
- Try a nickname, e.g. Bill for William, to see if that works
Tip: Either process bounces as they come in so they don’t build up, or create a folder and clean it up at least once a week. Set the day and time in advance, so it becomes a regular practice.
- Always process the ‘removes’ with caution following your company’s opt out process to a tee.
Spend some time each day reviewing potential leads, which may arise from inbound programs, the website or through your 1 800 #. By creating a ‘Leads View’ in your CRM, you can monitor and respond to leads quickly, helping prioritize your list and balancing your time between inbound and outbound programs. If you are in sync, with marketing, then their programs will be driving those same organizations on your prospect list straight to you.
Defining your lists is the most critical part of sales prospecting and marketing programs. With the right list, you can create a successful sales campaign every single time.
