Prospecting process steps for Entertainment

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in this video you're going to learn exactly what b2b sales prospecting is how it works and why it is a absolute must-have skill if you want to succeed in the world of sales [Music] what's going on everybody it's patrick here make sure to give this video a like subscribe turn on notifications if you want to see more videos like this and let's get started now b2b sales prospecting what exactly is it and the definition we are gonna use is the act of finding and reaching out to potential buyers with the intentions to build a relationship and eventually close a deal so why exactly do companies need b2b sales prospecting right so for example if you're let's say a software company right and let's say you just started you're not really doing any marketing nobody knows who you are and you just hired a bunch of sales people to try to sell your product or service okay so as a salesperson or business development person it's your job to sell this product or service to people who have no idea who you are and that means you're reaching out to people cold right ice cold they don't know anything about your company but somehow you're supposed to magically generate a meeting with them with their high level decision makers and convince them to buy your product and service and eventually close more revenue for your business now b2b sales prospecting is so important especially for startups and any new company because that's the process of finding people who will actually buy your product and services generating meetings with them with either email linkedin or cold calling and then eventually turning those interested potential customers into paying clients right so prospecting is that entire process of turning a stranger into somebody who is interested right if you do not have this process well if you don't have any meetings you don't even have an opportunity to sell so that's why sales prospecting is one of the most important skills especially if you're just starting your sales career because a lot of times that's the majority of the job when you're just getting things going now the whole goal when it comes to b2b sales prospecting is this it's to set an appointment okay pretty much nothing else matters except setting appointments with qualified customers or pre-vetted customers so that somebody can come in talk to them on the phone or meet them in person or video conference and then close the deal now to make sales prospecting happen and to make it all work the first step or the first thing that you really need to pay attention to is identifying your ideal customer so first step is to identify who is a good fit to buy your product and service right so if you have you know the most amazing product or service or maybe you have the cure to cancer right and if you're selling it to the wrong person well no matter how good of a thing you're selling or no matter how good you are as a seller that person is just not going to buy because they're not a good fit to buy your product and service that's why the most important part in the beginning is to identify ideally who you should even be paying attention to who you should spend your time on and have a conversation with because if you don't have this strategy down and you're going after the wrong people who don't have the money or don't have the need to buy your product and service you're just going to be completely wasting your time so that's why identifying who you should be selling to is the most important first step and that comes down to what industry these people are working in what pains do they have what problems what are their challenges what are they willing to pay money to make go away and how does your solution make those pains go away you know can they realistically see themselves purchasing your product and service do they have the money to even pay for your products and services especially if you're selling something more high-end right these are all questions that you need to consider as you do your ideal customer profile research now the next step of b2b prospecting is outreach methods right so the main three that are working really well are cold email linkedin messages and code calling now people always ask me patrick which one should i do should i try all of them at the same time should i focus on email should i focus on cold calling and my short answer is this you want to first look at your industry and your competition and see how other people are generating leads so if everyone in your industry is generating meetings with cold email well that's a good place to start because it's already proven to work in your industry selling your product and service if everyone's doing cold calling we'll do cold calling because that works as well so every industry is going to be different right cold calling might work in this industry but may not work in another industry or cold emailing might work here but not over here right so that's why you've got to pay attention to your competition and as you're starting out sales prospecting right i know it's tempting to try to do everything at once you know add someone on linkedin send them a message they don't respond send them a cold call send them an email right it's like you know there's multiple steps you can take to do this however my recommendation if you're just getting started and you have no idea about sales prospect and you're doing it for the first time just try one channel at a time so if you are doing let's say code email just focus on code emailing and try to get some results right because if you're not getting results there you know if you're trying to do three different things at once and each of them are equally as hard well trying to do three things at once and splitting your time that way it's not going to lead to any great results instead if you focus on one thing get it right and then add another element to increase your response rate that's a better approach in my opinion but as you start learning this process and you start sending cold emails and you start booking meetings because people are interested and these strategies do work the next step you have to do is what do you do after you book a meeting right so if you are let's say starting your career as a sales development rep or a business development rep which are generally entry level sales role where all their role is is to generate a meeting and qualify customers well the next step naturally is to qualify the customers right so this is how it works as a seller right entry level sales person you're gonna you know send an email someone's gonna say hey i'm interested in taking a meeting with you and you hop on the phone right or a video chat whatever it is for 15 minutes 20 minutes and basically what your job is to do in that 15 minutes it's not to sell into them anything actually because selling it it usually takes multiple steps before someone actually makes a purchasing decision your job in the beginning is to qualify them to make sure that you understand what their pains are and that they're actually a potential customer someone who has a high likelihood of buying your products and service right and if you meet a time waster or someone who just wants to get information but they're not going to buy anything well after those 50-minute calls you drop them right there and you just you know maybe you'll follow up with them later on when they're ready but if not let them go right so you have to qualify the customer to see whether or not they can even be a customer right but once you qualify you ask the questions you know they have pain you know they have a budget and things like that the next step is actually usually to pass this deal pass this lead to a qualified closer someone who has experience closing deals and they're going to be the ones that take some through the rest of the sales process whether it's a presentation demonstration all things like that an account executive right a sales person or closer is the one that actually does that job but when you're just focused on prospecting your job is to generate the meanings other times your job might be to prospect and close deals in that case you have to do both steps but no matter the case whether you're just generating the leads or generating the leads and closing the deals the final step of the process is to refine the process right because with every campaign or email campaign that you send out and every meeting that you take with a potential customer and you qualify them you start to understand who is a good fit to buy your product and service and who is not a good fit right and you want to keep adjusting your sales strategy so that you're going after more people who are willing to buy or have the power to buy and going after less of the people who just don't have the money or don't have the pain and need to buy your product and service right and so as you repeat the cycle over and over you basically refine who you're going after your ideal customer profile gets tighter and tighter and you really clearly know who should be buying your product and service and you know what messaging you should have when you send your emails or your code calls or wherever the case is and you also get a lot better on the phone and you know what to say in order to get someone interested your results should just keep getting better and better and better as you practice over time in the beginning when you don't know what you're doing you might send a bunch of emails out and nobody responds that's totally normal however you know it shouldn't keep happening month after month you should be getting better you should keep adjusting your strategy because you're understanding what works and you're understanding what doesn't work because if something doesn't work don't do it again and then you try a different strategy eventually you'll hit something that does work as you start getting meetings and you can start closing more deals and this is really an overlooked strategy right because the sales prospecting you know in general it is a simple process but it takes energy effort discipline to actually get better and better at this process and with that said that's going to be b2b sales prospecting explained if you enjoyed this video make sure to give it a like subscribe turn on notifications if you want to see more videos like this and make sure you check out my other videos and let me know in the comments do you enjoy videos about this where i explain concepts about sales and strategies let me know because i'm always happy to make more videos for you so with that said my name is patrick ding and i will see you guys in the next one