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Retro-Prospecting: Get Your Prospects to Remember You

Posted Mon, 2011-03-07 05:17
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I’ve just invented a new catch-phrase — Retro-Prospecting — and if you like the concept, you’re welcome to steal it from me.

Anyone who has been in B2B sales for any length of time appreciates the fact that no matter how great your selling skills are, if you don’t have someone to use them on, you don’t make a sale. Duh… talk about a blinding flash of the obvious!The Good Old Days
Prospecting today is far more challenging than it used to be. Sales managers who are long in the tooth like me will remember the old days when we had to walk two miles to school, barefoot, uphill, both ways. They will also remember how prospecting used to be.
In those days, whenever we finished a call on a company, it was good form to do a cold call on one or two businesses on each side of the company we just had visited. In most cases, but not all, we actually got to talk to someone and often were granted an instant appointment. When the person didn’t have the time to talk right then, most were amenable to setting up a time for you to return.
Man oh man, how things have changed. It’s almost impossible to do a physical cold call anymore. And trying to get through the technological moat that people throw around their businesses and themselves presents a whole new set of challenges for our salespeople.
I don’t know about you, but I’m dragging forty years of sales and sales management baggage behind me, and what we face ahead in terms of prospecting is daunting.
Recent Changes
Here’s my take on what’s been happening over the past three to five years. There has been a growing tidal wave of information and technology that is simply overwhelming people.
Look at your own business life:
  • Are you finding that you just don’t have enough time to get things done?
  • Are people becoming an interruption?
  • Are too many people wanting too much of your resources?
  • Are there just too many emails and voice mails needing attention?
  • Are you spending more time fighting the alligators than draining the swamp?
If so, you’re not alone, your prospects feel the same. Compounding the situation, from your salespeople’s perspective, is that they are no longer needed as the primary source of information like they were in the past.
To a great extent, the Internet has replaced the salesperson as a source of technical and sales data. Salespeople can no longer be the exclusive providers of information. They have to find other ways to add value to the relationship.
Basically, we all have become so busy that we no longer have the time to deal with unsolicited personal visits and leave behind literature
In other words, in today’s new sales world, you have to be findable when the prospect needs to find you. In addition to being findable, you need to be top of mind when the prospect goes looking. Hence, retro-prospecting.
There are two key elements of reverse prospecting:
  1. Be findable
  2. Be top of mind
Be Findable
Being findable doesn’t just mean ensuring that your Internet presence is as good as it can be. Findable also means letting Prospects know that you have what they want and that is not you products or services. It is the solution for them.
Sometimes, what you sell is just so generic or so competitive that it is all but impossible to rank high in the search engines. Some companies still use more traditional media such as print and broadcast advertising to get the word out. And more and more companies are availing themselves of the social media platforms such as blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook, etc.
All of the above means of marketing is static and most of the time all about you not your Prospect. One message to reach them all simply won’t supply you with enough Prospects. Worst of all none of the above means of marketing can answer specific questions a Prospect has.
While your salespeople or a Sales Process Outsourcing (SPO) company can impact your findability, they can be instrumental in creating top-of-mind awareness. The answer is pro-active multi touch ‘Cold Calling.’ The advantages of Cold Calling:
  • Your are reaching out to the prospects
  • You not your website is communicating to the Prospects
  • You are making it personal
  • Fulfill instant gratification needs – provide answers
  • Build credibility
  • Branding
Be Top of Mind
It’s important for your salespeople to maintain a presence with your prospects. When a busy prospect comes up for air and is looking for what you offer, you want him to remember you. Retro-prospecting at work.
The key to creating top-of-mind awareness is touch points. A touch point is any time you come in contact with the prospect, or any time the prospect comes in contact with you. It doesn’t matter who initiated the touch. It only matters that the touch occurred. A value-added touch point is a bit different. This is where the prospect walks away from the experience with something that she considers of value.
The Bottom Line
If you want more prospects, move to cold calling. Being findable and getting people to remember to find you — retro-prospecting — is the way to go in today’s busy business world.