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If you prospect the right way, your pipeline will be a flood of opportunity. We want to help you to accelerate and share 6 of the best tips that Miles Croft, a prospecting expert, shared in his LinkedIn Learning Course: The 52 Best Sales Prospecting Tips

 

1. Have integrity and never lie

“It can take a lifetime to build a personal brand with customers, suppliers, colleagues, whoever. But if you get caught, all that disappears in an instant.”

 

2. Start with your scariest prospect first

This tip is similar to Brian Tracy’s advice shared in his book, Eat that Frog: complete the most difficult task first. Croft adds to rank your prospects for the day on a 1-10 scale based on the difficulty of the call and start with the call you’re dreading the most. All the other calls will be a lot easier!

 

3. Find the right price, not the cheapest price 

If you have the authority to control pricing, you should experiment with three price points. Check the example below by expanding the text below:
 

Price A: $200

Price B: $400

Price C: $600
 

Each of these price points sells at different rates. 

Price A: At this price point, the seller closes 60% of the time. 

Price B: At this price point, the seller closes 40% of the time. 

Price C: At this price point, the seller closes 10% of the time. 

 

To determine the optimal price, the seller can multiply these numbers together:

Price A: $200 x 60% = $120

Price B: $400 x 40% = $160

Price C: $600 x 10% = $60 

 

Based on this formula, Price B is the optimal price point. 

 

4. Beware of time-wasters

Saving you from losing a deal because your prospect had no intention to buy, an important tip to keep is to qualify an opportunity by answering these questions:

  • What is the deal size?
  • What does the prospect is looking for?
  • Does the prospect have the budget to commit?

 

5. Rely on your team

The best way to achieve your goals is to “find your opportunities, foster relationships, and help prospects with their problems by finding solutions for them.” It means you have no time to try to be good at everything. What works better is to delegate tasks that are not the best use of your ability. 

 

6. Know when to walk away - but use the Negative Reverse Technique

This tactic will help you identify if a buyer is interested after not responding to your messages:

Send a message to your prospect indicating that you understand they are not interested. Make it clear that it will be your last communication. 

If they want to do business with you, they’ll come back.

 

These are some really great advices. For more detailed explanation I recommend reading this full blog post to learn more about these tips. 

 

I’m curious to hear from you, if you had to pick one, which is the most useful tip for you that you can implement right now? Please share with us in a comment below!

These are excellent tips! #2 starting with your scariest prospect first is the one I need to work on. Thanks for sharing @Zita_Community Manager 


Thank you, @stan. I’m happy to hear that you got inspiration from this 6 prospecting advice. I also know that you have a lot more tips under your belt, so feel free to add 1 or 2 more to this list! @Dustinlevy @larry.holt I loop you in here if you’d like to reconnect and I add your #1 prospecting tip! 😊


I don’t see ‘know your customer’s pain points’ but that would be my #1!


Schedule time in your calendar for prospecting and keep this appointment with yourself. 


Thank you, @stan. I’m happy to hear that you got inspiration from this 6 prospecting advice. I also know that you have a lot more tips under your belt, so feel free to add 1 or 2 more to this list! @Dustinlevy @larry.holt I loop you in here if you’d like to reconnect and I add your #1 prospecting tip! 😊

I like #6, but if you find that you’re using it too much, there’s something else about your prospecting approach that needs to be improved. Could be the wrong targets, wrong message, etc. I tend to use #6 just in cases when I’m super confident in the quality of the prospect that might be “missing out”.


@stan  That’s also so important whether it’s about prospecting or any other task. I like the way you said ‘keep this appointment with yourself’. Consistency is needed for you to build habits that stick in order to take the most efficient actions in auto-pilot mode! 


Thank you for adding your #1 tip @larry.holt. Would you elaborate on this a little bit? What is your way of exploring the pain points for your prospects? 🚀


It’s such a good point @Dustinlevy, that if you use it too much there might be something to improve on your end. It creates self-awareness and room for growth. I believe this is the key to ensure continuous advancement in your career or in other areas of life. I’m curious to hear if you think there is a tendency in the prospects’ behavior when they’re ‘missing out’. 


Thank you for adding your #1 tip @larry.holt. Would you elaborate on this a little bit? What is your way of exploring the pain points for your prospects? 🚀

Hi @Zita_Community Manager

This is where doing your homework on the front end is so important. Taking time to understand your ideal customer profile, and then building a persona off that can really save a few steps. For instance, many of my roles have been marketing services, so my ICP would growing B2B orgs, who lack in house marketing teams, i.e. a pain point.

This is a pretty easy group to identify in Sales Navigator Advanced search-you can refine by industry, geography, overall company growth >25% and Marketing dept growth 5-10%<. From there, it’s all about finding your decisionmaker!


Thank you @larry.holt. Very helpful as always! :) 


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