18 Proven Sales Prospecting Techniques & Tips From Experts

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Sales prospecting (aka outbound lead generation) refers to identifying, scheduling, and then directly communicating with potential clients. There are proven methods to successfully prepare for conversations with leads, diversify your techniques in real time, and automate your prospecting process. To show you a few, we gathered tips from sales experts on how you can take your lead prospecting to the next level.

• Tips for Preparing for Sales Prospecting: Read more below.
• Tips for Diversifying Your Prospecting Strategy: Read more below.
• Tips for Automating Your Sales Prospecting Process: Read more below.

The following sales prospecting tips are from our experts and their own experiences. Check out our article on sales prospecting for the top six prospecting strategies that you can adapt into your own selling strategy, plus outbound lead generation steps, benefits, and tips.

Tips for Preparing for Sales Prospecting

Sales prospecting may present itself as an intimidating taks, especially since it can be time consuming task to gather and then connect with leads. Here are tips from sales professionals that emphasize the value strategic research and preparation can add to your process.

Kami Turky

CEO

Start by Identifying Your Target Market

“Who are you trying to sell to? You can't prospect effectively if you don't have a specific audience in mind. Seek out opportunities to network with your target market — this can be a great way to build relationships and find potential leads.”

— Kami Turky, Solar Energy Hackers

Jared Weitz

CEO & Founder

Recognize Your Ideal Prospect

“My biggest tip regarding sales prospecting is identifying who your ideal prospect is. It’s common knowledge that 20% of your customers typically drive 80% of your revenue, so what does that 20% look like, and where can you find them? Once you identify this, you can craft an outreach strategy built around your ideal prospect, thus making your sales prospecting much easier and more fruitful.”

— Jared Weitz, United Capital Source Inc.

Rene Delgado

Founder & CEO

Conquer the Phobia of Rejection

“People struggle with this rejection anxiety when prospecting. You must remain concentrated and consider the worst-case situation if you want to get over this phobia. You must put your skills into practice and determine the best practices to follow in order to advance. The worst-case scenario is always someone hanging up, which is not the end of the world and can happen at any time. Don't worry too much about being the perfect prospector because nobody is perfect, and don't worry too much about getting rejected because it can happen to anyone.”

— Rene Delgado, Shop Indoor Golf

Barry Maher

Owner

Prepare for Failure as Much as Success

“When it comes to working with your prospects, whoever hears the most no's makes the most money. The more no's you can hear in each call — without irritating the prospect — and the more of those calls you make, the more successful you're going to be. The leading salespeople in any organization are always the people who hear those no’s. Successful salespeople see every no as a small victory, a step on the path to ultimate success. And motivating yourself to take those steps and make each step as meaningful as possible should be part of your job description.”

— Barry Maher, Barry Maher & Associates

Paul Somerville

Editor-in-Chief

Practice Natural Rebuttals

“Most sales representatives are able to anticipate potential objections and are prepared to deal with them right away. However, one of the most frequent blunders in sales is interrupting their objection and responding with a prepared or scripted response. People genuinely want to be heard, therefore if you practice and roleplay incorporating the three-second rule (wait three seconds before responding) into your approach and procedure, the results will become apparent quickly.”

— Paul Somerville, Electric Scooter Guide

Jake Cohen

Owner

Research Small Talk Anecdotes

“Sales prospecting can seem like a daunting task, but if you focus on building relationships with your prospects, they're more likely to buy from you because they trust your company and know that you understand their needs. Try to learn as much as possible about them — what they do at work, where they're located, who their competitors are, etc. — and then use this information in future conversations. You'll be surprised by how much it helps build rapport with your prospects over time!”

— Jake Cohen, Waterskiers Connection

Tips for Diversifying Your Prospecting Strategy

Relying on one outlet for leads can hinder having a growing and continuous pipeline of prospects, whereas using multiple channels ensures lead sourcing that is constantly growing and refreshing. Below, read how sales experts have found creative ways to source and reach out to new leads.

Emmie Brown

Partner & Elite-Level Sales & Leadership Coach

Grow Your Outreach by Contacting New People

“One mistake a lot of people make is prospecting in the same pond over and over again. Maybe you’re comfortable calling through a lead list and you’re not really comfortable asking for referrals or using other methods, so you just call your cold leads over and over. Or maybe you work in your sphere of influence where you’re comfortable talking to people you know but you’re a little afraid to approach someone that you don’t. To really maximize your results, you have to fish in a lot of different ponds and prospect in a lot of different ways.”

— Emmie Brown, Southwestern Consulting

Tim Connon

Founder

Keep Direct Mail in Mind

“One of the best outreach strategies is direct mail marketing. This is where you obtain a demographic list pertaining to the product you sell and send direct mailers to them. The reason these are so effective is the amount of effort it takes for a potential prospect to fill out the card you sent them and mail it back to you. This results in a high-intent lead for you to visit and pitch. These types of leads convert very highly due to the amount of intent it takes for a person to physically mail back the card.”

— Tim Connon, ParamountQuote Insurance Advisors

Adam Purvis

Founder

Use Out-of-Office Replies in Your Favor

“The prospect's email signature is often located in automated email replies and will sometimes have valuable phone numbers that you can import into your CRM. You can also email the person the out-of-office (OOO) alert points to get a response or intel from them, as chances are high that they work directly with the person you're trying to contact. Responding to OOO replies typically has a higher response rate than a general cold email, because the responder knows your email isn't automated.”

— Adam Purvis, adamjohnpurvis.com

Jayesh Jain

Senior Vice President

Use Social Media Marketing & Direct Outreach

“Today selling a product is a tedious task. Sales executives must find multiple creative ways to reach their prospects. Social media is a great way to directly reach out. Also gather insights to create meaningful and engaging content to market your product. Social media channels offer a lot of marketing tools in the form of reels, stories, image posts, carousels, videos, etc. When you use these marketing tools in tandem with direct outreach, your prospective customers are more likely to know a little about your company when you contact them.”

— Jayesh Jain, Sage Software Solutions

Yoav Morder

Search & PR Director

Use LinkedIn’s InMail Feature

“Offering a more humanized experience and being a more organized platform for interactions, Linkedin has some great features for sales prospecting. One such feature is InMail, which our sales teams regularly use for sales prospecting via cold outreach. For using InMail effectively for sales prospecting, our recipe is using personalization based on common interests and offering value with our solutions. Personalization and offering value in the cold outreach on LinkedIn at the right time is a guarantee to bring unprecedented success in sales prospecting.”

— Yoav Morder, Sonary

Arvin Joanino

Chief Financial Officer

Contact Multiple Reps Within an Organization

“Connect with several leads from the same organization. It might seem like it’s better to connect with a smaller number of people, but connecting with several leads, also described as multi-threading, highly increases the chances of getting in touch with the right person at the company.”

— Arvin Joanino, EnergyCasino

David Reid

Sales Director

Ask for Referrals

“Referrals in sales lead generation means the ability to talk to current customers to attract new leads to the business. Consider offering benefits to active clients as a strategy for getting a referral for potential customers.”

— David Reid, VEM Tooling

Tips for Automating Your Sales Prospecting Process

There are unlimited tools and tricks of the trade to effectively prospect leads, including using CRM and engagement tracking software. Using our experts' proven techniques and technologies can help automate and consolidate efforts in sales prospecting.

Bram Jansen

Chief Editor & Co-Founder

Find & React to Effective Sales Triggers

“You can use a smart lead generating software to keep tabs on trigger events at organizations that are of interest to you, and then reach out to them when a window of opportunity opens up. Knowing of any major milestones, conferences, or breakthroughs in your target organization’s industry helps build credibility.”

— Bram Jansen, vpnAlert

Daniel Foley

Founder

Invest in an Up-to-Date Database of Corporate Information

“There are dynamic corporate databases that collect a wide variety of data about millions of businesses each day by utilizing web indexing technology. You can utilize an infinite number of criteria to narrow down the most promising companies with a dynamic database, based not just on the static data such companies provide but also on the insights gained from open data. You can uncover businesses that exactly fit your desired customer profile by conducting a simple search and looking for those businesses.”

— Daniel Foley, Daniel Foley SEO Consultancy

Trevor Sookraj

CEO

Utilize Marketing Analytics Technology

“Paying attention to your marketing analytics can really help with sales prospecting. Marketing analytics goes beyond listing numbers that indicate the level of success a campaign or strategy had. Instead, it evaluates consumer behavior — from clicks, to the specific places where leads fall through, to actions in all areas of the sales funnel, and more. This provides greater understanding not only of what works well for securing leads, but also of who your customer really is. Analyzing their actions can help strategize better ways to appeal to them and strengthen your relationship with them.”

— Trevor Sookraj, Divisional

Dan Gower

Owner

Schedule Your Engagements

“My number one sales prospecting tip is to stop thinking about individual touchpoints and start thinking about sequences. Most sales reps reach out one or two times then give up, but the data shows that longer sequences are 160% more effective. Ideally, you should create a sequence with several touches across multiple channels — I like to use email, phone, and LinkedIn. This sounds like a lot of hard work, but it gets way easier if you schedule it in your CRM tool or sequencing solution.”

— Dan Gower, Buddy Gardner Advertising

Samantha Odo

COO & Sales Representative

Schedule Engagements With Current Clients

“Connecting with customers through their creative feedback will help generate new business ideas. It’s mandatory and necessary to conduct sales evaluations over a regular period. Feedback questionnaires help firms to acquire, maintain, and connect with targeted active customers. This includes sending personalized emails, doing weekly or monthly blog posts, trying to be in contact with the customers via calls and SMS, and conducting webinars and Q&A sessions.”

— Samantha Odo, Precondo

Bottom Line: Sales Prospecting Techniques

Having a streamlined sales prospecting method will directly translate into efficient lead generation. Sales professionals globally are taking advantage of the research and prep phase, finding creative ways to source leads, and storing engagement and marketing information in an automated manner. Continue using these sales prospecting tips and techniques and you will expand your own expertise in outbound lead gen.