Most prospecting training programs employ the same tactics and methods that were created in the fifties and sixties, a world dramatically different than the one we do business in today.
So, why would a B2B sales professional want to understand their target prospect and what relationship does this have with successful prospecting?
In our personal relationships, whether it be with family or friends, we strive – consciously or unconsciously – to understand where that person is coming from. We want to know what makes them tic, what makes them happy or what their challenges might be. We fashion our approach and interaction with these people so that we are sensitive and respectful of their needs and personalities because we want them to listen to us. Clearly, we want there to be a successful communication.
The closer the relationship, the better tuned in, and although we often approach these people on auto-pilot, our effective communication is none-the-less influenced by our understanding of these people.
Now, in prospecting, we are taught to make assumptions about people that we’ve no right to make. Maybe we did “research” on the prospect’s website. Maybe we read their company’s annual report, and from that assumed we discovered a need or pain point. In short, these are dangerous presumptions to make, and are counterproductive to prospecting.
Successful prospecting begins with understanding the person before all else.
In order to acquire a new prospect or client, you need to communicate effectively with them first. To do that, you need to be appropriately equipped with not only a premise, but a premise that is in concert with where that person is coming from. You need an approach that is sensitive and empathetic to the person based on what can be reasonably assumed about that person.
What can you assume?
- You can assume that they are over the top busy.
- You can assume they have a belly full of sales people telling them how much money can be saved or about a solution for their need.
- You can assume the prospect’s opening position – spoken or otherwise – will be one of distrusting you.
- You can assume they will be predisposed to being sceptical of what you are saying or offering.
- You can predict that the mere act of engaging with someone outside their circle of trusted relationships creates work for them, the last thing in the world they want more of.
- You should understand that asking a new prospect – someone who doesn’t know you – is almost like asking a stranger to loan you money. How can they trust you? Will you pay them back?
What can you do?
- You can start by not insulting their intelligence in purporting to know what they are, or are not interested in, nor investing time or energy in today, given everything they may be dealing with that day.
- You can avoid provoking the knee jerk reaction most prospects display once they’ve answered a cold call. You can achieve this by avoiding all the cliché and loathed come-ons that traditional cold calling techniques call for. Example, “I can save you money” or “We have a great solution for your need”.
- You can adopt an attitude and posture that is the antithesis of what you’ve been taught, which is; to be an authority or superior holder of knowledge. Instead, you can become the person who doesn’t know everything about the prospect, and is willing to take on a subordinate role within the proposed conversation or relationship.
- You can actually listen to people on the phone and through that, modulate your approach, your manor, and your vocal cadence, such that it is sensitive to not just what they are saying but how they are saying it.
Finally, instead of always trying to convince people that you are “the authority”, try recognizing them as the authority. Suggest that you would like to learn from them, that in fact they have information that would help you grow versus your helping them.
Try asking the same person who has said “no” to a thousand cold callers for their help, to sit down with you for 10 minutes so you can pick their brain about their industry or expertise. You will be surprised at how they respond.