You only get one chance to make a first impression. If you mess it up, you don’t get a second chance at it. That is why being prepared for the initial call with the prospect is so important. When you are juggling a lot of leads and prospects, you will have a lot of information to keep on top of. You want to make sure that each prospect feels special and important. Prospects want to know if you can help them, that you care about their problems and whether your solution will work from them. They don’t care if you are the first or last call of the day.
5 things you must know before calling your prospect
1. Their name and job title
Obvious. We know. But if you are calling a list of prospects, you can easily mix up names of the different appointments. You might laugh it off on the call, but I can guarantee your prospect won’t find it funny. And it will kill any future relationship. Again, obvious. Asking a prospect what they do at the company or what their job title is not a good look. You can easily find out a prospects job title on LinkedIn. You can ask them about their team structure or who they work with or how they fit into the company.
2. Social media profiles
3.6 billion people are using social media worldwide. There is a solid chance that your prospect is on social media. Take a few minutes to check out their LinkedIn and Twitter, so you have a basic understanding of who they are and if you have commonalities. If you want to dive deeper, you can look for them across all of the platforms, but you don’t necessarily have to. Look at what they post, who they interact with or if they have shared any information that might be useful for you when you’re on the call.
3. Network neighbours
Check your prospects LinkedIn connections to see if you have any common connections. It could be former colleagues, past or current customers or mutual friends. A common connection may act as a referral or can act as a talking point to build rapport. 4. Company announcements
This is again a very obvious thing to look at. Did the prospect recently announce anything of interest? Any new projects or products? You are going to need to have a read through their latest news so that it looks like you are well informed and up to date.
5. History with your company
Your company’s CRM is one of the first places that you should look for information. Search for the company in your CRM system, see if there has been any contact with the company before. And then look up the person, have they been spoken to while they were at another company? It might be the first time that you are speaking to them, but it may not be the first time that they’ve been connected.
2 things that are nice to know
1. Competitor announcements
You should take some time to understand your prospect’s competitive landscape. Their competitors may have just done a new product launch or news. You aren’t going to be throwing competitor updates in your prospects face, but you do want to show knowledge of the industry.
2. Sponsorships, conferences and events
Take some time to look for what events and conferences they’ve spoken at or sponsored. If you find that they have done a keynote presentation, see if you can find some information about it. If they sponsor any events, teams or charities take a note and have it there for the call. If you find that you have been to the same events or conferences or are connected to the same charities, then that is a great rapport building opportunity.
We understand the demand for quality leads and the need for your team to meet those demands. We are here to help and add value by finding tangible, highly qualified leads where we have secured a date and a time for an appointment. These individuals are in your target audience, at the right decision-making level and have an interest in your solution. Taking away this pressure from your Sales team allows them to focus their time on closing deals and generating revenue.
If you are considering outsourcing your appointment setting, contact us by email info@integrileads.com or phone (+353) 00353 87 3932630.
