Sales Prospecting:

Closing sales is a make-or-break moment. Choosing the right moment or the right medium is essential. Let’s find out more about some sales prospecting methods that work, how to find customers without being pushy and sales follow-up techniques.

Quick Links:

• TIP: 4 Prospecting Tips Guaranteed to Improve Your Close Rates: [Infographic Download]
• Episode Overview – Sales prospecting methods that close the deal without being pushy – using your content to sell.
• Personal Note from Jenn Neal on Sales Prospecting and My Failure as a Painter
• Featured Guest Expert: Justin Stephens
• Episode audio [Podcast on Spotify]
• Blog Post – Sales Prospecting: Closing with Content
• Related Posts

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TIP: How to Improve Close Rates with Sales Prospecting

What’s In This Episode on Sales Prospecting

I talk with guest expert Justin Stephens about how he uses content marketing delivered one to one for his sales prospecting. We review tips for prospecting methods that work, how to find more customers without being pushy, and lead and sales follow up techniques.

I firmly believe that if you’re selling services or coaching things, you should never slice your prices.

-Jenn Neal

Hugging the side of the ladder, I stand on my tiptoes. I grip the very end of the paintbrush to extend my reach juuuust enough.

Pretty sure my tongue came out as well… (to help with concentration, of course)

It’s the last spot – and I can just reach it!

Long ago, I had gotten tired of going up and down the ladder to dip my brush in the bucket of paint. So now the gallon was sitting on the little shelf at the top of the ladder – exactly at my eye level.

Losing My Balance

I carefully dip my brush in the paint and load up with extra blue, and go back to my stretched out position…

…then I feel it…

The ladder was positioned on the angled concrete of the garage and I had put just enough weight off balance.

It was as if in slow motion – I feel the right side of the ladder lift from the ground and myself starting to fall back.

Just in time, I look up to see my full gallon of paint follow me down – as it ever so gracefully tipped towards me and completely emptied out… from the top of my head down… all while I’m still falling to the ground.

End result? I’m a FAILURE as a painter.

And, I looked like a dripping wet smurf.

That was the time I failed at painting. But there have been plenty of other failures as well.

Let’s Talk About Failure

Funny enough, failure was a topic that came up in my latest podcast episode. My guest is a sales master and was talking about using content to prospect and close. But it was funny how we also talked a lot about failure.

Here’s part of the story he shared:

“So I was walking with my six year old daughter the other day and she was a little downhearted and she said, dad, I’m a failure. And I say, that is so great, honey. She was really confused and then I told her, I am successful because I’m a failure.”

-Justin Stephens

I love the story and we talked in depth about how failures can be shared and used to help prospect and close more sales.

It’s definitely an episode you don’t want to miss out – join me and Justin Stephens as we walk through prospecting methods and talk about failures. Episode #014: Sales Prospecting – Closing with Content.

Sales Prospecting: Closing with Content

Closing sales is a make-or-break moment. Choosing the right moment or the right medium to close your sales is essential, and it will determine whether days and weeks or even months of hard effort will amount to anything.

In this blog, we shed light on sales prospecting methods that work, how to find customers without being pushy, and sales follow-up techniques.

Sales Prospecting Methods That Work

One of the biggest mistakes that salespeople make is they assume that people care about what they do. Businesses that have years of experience and a huge number of clients often fall into this trap. However, it is not your customer’s job to care about your business.

When you start to make a sale, you need to make the process about the customer — not about you. It is about what your customer is dealing with and how you can help them. It’s about whether you can provide a solution to the problems they have.

Another common sales mistake is that salespeople give up too soon. A typical salesperson would call a prospect between three and seven times. It might seem a lot; however, to convert a prospect into a buyer, you need to touch them between 15 and 20 times, or even just to get them into a sales call.

If you feel that a customer is being bothered by your call, all you need to do is ask them whether your offer is a good fit for them. The thing that salespeople need to keep in mind is that they should not give up a sales call unless the prospect tells them to give up the sales call.

This is one of the biggest mistakes that salespeople need to resolve. They give up too soon and pretty soon find out that all their leads are gone — because they let them go.

Hence, while sales prospecting, salespeople need to get over their fear of being a bother and learn to never give up and keep going.

Finding Prospects Without Being Pushy

The prospecting journey starts when a prospect realizes they have a problem. You cannot just go to your client and tell them they need to buy your products or services. They need to identify the problem themselves. Once they do, you can go to them and let them know you have a solution that can resolve their problem.

However, they are also many people who are not problem-aware. This means they have a problem, but they are not yet aware of it. Hence, a salesperson’s job can also be to help prospects see that they have a problem. However, a salesperson cannot create a problem when there is none. When there is no problem, some salespeople make the mistake of becoming pushy. However, that never works well. People want your help buying — but they do not like to be sold.

Sales Follow Up Techniques

Different people like different methods of communication. One person may like watching YouTube videos but not view blogs. One may like phone calls over text messages. There are so many different ways to communicate, and it is the job of a salesperson not to force their methods.

So, one of the things that salespeople keep in mind is how to touch every modality. Ideally, the first step is a three-step email sequence that is sent to see if the prospect has any interest in your business. If your prospects open your email, they may be put on the second step sequence.

This sequence involves picking up a phone and calling the prospect or sending them letters through traditional mail. We are a nation of unboxers, so if a mail arrives addressed to you, there is a high chance you will open it. Done right, you will be putting the right content in front of the right client at the right time.

To sell something online, how much you can charge is based on your communication method. If you are hoping to sell thousands of dollars worth of product or service, you cannot close it online – you will need to get on a sales call.

In sales, it is all about who gets remembered when the problem is front and center, and if you are following only three to five times, you will not be remembered. Hence, the business that stays top of mind wins.

Bottom Line

Hence, the summary of this article is that to close a sales prospect, you need to persevere and not give up. However, that does not mean being pushy and creating problems where there are none. As a salesperson, your job is to solve problems for your customers using the right content at the right time.

You need to be realistic, and you need to accept failure so that you can try harder. This is where the secret of true success lies.

Related Posts

Sales Prospecting Definition, Techniques, and Why It’s Important

Sales Prospecting: 26 Tips, Techniques, & Tools to Succeed

The Storyselling Secret That 10X’d Revenue in One Month

Finding & Capturing Free Hidden Traffic

Where does your sales prospecting journey start?