If you are in sales and let';s be honest, we all are… I'm guessing your inbound leads are not what they used to be. Outbound prospecting in some companies is like throwing spaghetti at the wall, I hope this isn't you, sure way to kill your brand. What can we be doing you ask? What I am doing and what I suggest my clients do, Leverage your Network. You are most likely part of many communities and the largest by far, LinkedIn. How can you leverage your existing network? These are the people who support you, validate your credibility and are in your corner. Time to cash in on that relationship. I am sharing 5 ways below to get you started, there are many others however these are what I see working in the B2B world.

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1. Leverage your colleagues in other divisions of your company: cross-promote, introduce each other.
Is your C-suite connected to the C-suite in your target organization, can they reach out? I have done this many times when in corporate and it worked well.

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2. Past clients. Great time to revisit and see what has changed since the last time you supported them. Are there new hires?
Is a deeper dive required from the original solution you provided? This is low risk as you have already worked with them and provided results.

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3. , Are you tracking past clients who have left their company using LinkedIn Navigator?

This is a gold mine. If you provided value in the past, they will bring you with them wherever they go. Can you make them look good? Depending on the role people want a quick win to gain credibility, how can you help them achieve this? Sending a congratulatory message with a hard left turn to hire you, may not be the best way. Genuinely congratulate them and nurture the relationship. Sometimes a meaningful message is enough to keep you top of mind.

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4. Can you revisit those opportunities who went in a different direction or others where the timing was off?

Strike up a conversation to see what has changed? Closed lost or NRN (not right now) Sometimes the timing objection is legitimate.

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5. Build into your sales process to ask for a referral before your contract is complete.

This is an opportunity to ask a few stakeholders BTL (Below the Line) and ATL (Above the Line). Try taking a top-down and bottom-down approach and leave
yourself options for referrals at various levels. Every organization is different. Sometimes building a ground swell below gets the attention of above. Referrals from a trusted source, de-risks the experience, shortens the sales cycle positions you in a class of one.

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Ask colleagues, LinkedIn connections, and friends for an introduction. A warm lead is far more likely to take a meeting based on the relationship of the referrer. Make it easy for them, draft a short, brief message and perhaps some context for the referrer. Take the work off their plate, make it that all they have to do is hit FWD

What else would you add to the list?

The more creative, off-the-wall outreach is breaking through today. There are a lot of look-alike sounds alike. How can you be different?

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#prospecting #b2bsales #outbound

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