Prospect research might not be much fun for a determined salesperson, but it’s fundamental for success. Taking the time to identify people with the greatest chance of buying your product will do more than just give you a name and a number. If you research prospects correctly, you will also learn more about the why […]
Prospect research might not be much fun for a determined salesperson, but it’s fundamental for success. Taking the time to identify people with the greatest chance of buying your product will do more than just give you a name and a number. If you research prospects correctly, you will also learn more about the why and when of a potential customers’ buying needs and maximize your ability to close deals.
Why Is Sales Prospect Research Important?
Lusha’s Sales Outreach Survey Report revealed a shocking fact – sales people spend an average of 45.5 hours each month on outreach efforts that don’t turn into sales. In terms of sales productivity, that’s about a week per month – or 25% of a salesperson’s time – that amounts to nothing but disappointment.
Although there are many reasons for failed outreach, a lot of the blame can be traced back to poor preparation. Having sufficient high-quality information about prospects is key to advancing to the next stage of the customer lifecycle. Prospect research is also a decisive part of other critical sales activities, like:
- Getting your sales prospecting activities off to the right start
- Collecting accurate data for a sales prospect list
- Leveraging the second of the four basic prospecting questions: who’s your ideal customer?
What Are the Essential Information Goals for Prospect Research?
Good prospect research results in more than just contact information. Here are some of the benefits that result from a thorough research process:
Customer Insights
One of the essential prospecting questions is, “who’s your ideal customer?” If you know the answer to this question, then you likely also know about prospects’ key issues and business objectives – AKA, their pain points. With this information, you can start building the most effective pitch.
Personalization Data
Whether you are relying on a finely written email or a cold call to open doors, crafting your approach through personalization makes it more appealing and genuine. Research should provide you with a bit of personal background for a prospect. By leveraging this insight, the pitch will give the (accurate) impression that you have prepared it just for that one person, and they could reciprocate by giving you some of their time.
Current Need
Part of prospect research is taking a look at intent data. Among other things, intent data might tell you:
- What solutions the prospect already uses
- Whether they’re searching for the kind of solution you provide
- If they have interacted with your online presence, and what they looked at
- How their purchasing process works, and the role of that individual prospect
Putting this all together will tell you if they are urgently searching for a solution, if this person has decision-making power, and if now is the time to talk to them about what you’re selling. If the data hints that you should wait, you can still contact the prospect– but with the goal of staying in touch and sending them relevant marketing material, not giving a whole pitch.
Researching a Prospect
The great thing about prospect research is that it gets easier as you gain more knowledge about your target industry. There’s also a possibility that the companies in your target market are similar, and after a while the main challenge will be to figure out their differences. Add to that some data about the individual (their background and role), their competitors, and their customers, and you’re all set.
To tap into this range of data, here are some good places to look (which can all help with competitor research as well):
LinkedIn was created with the express purpose of business networking. It currently has more than 900 million users from almost every country on the planet. On LinkedIn, both companies and individual employees are considered users, so you can do a lot of prospect research on this site alone.
LinkedIn extends their usability with its Sales Navigator prospecting tool. Although many salespeople like it as an “all in one” solution, it has some weaknesses, so it’s best to use it in conjunction with other prospecting tools.
Another disadvantage of LinkedIn is that some users load their pages with data, while others… not so much. But finding a “talkative” LinkedIn user can provide an outstanding level of detail into both their professional and private lives.
Prospect Company Website and Blog
No prospect research is anywhere near complete without the most basic step: a visit to their website. There’s typically a lot of quality stuff there, especially on the About Us page. Product pages are also vital and can provide more background about how your solution is a good fit. For example, let’s say that a scan of the prospect’s homepage shows that they have a mass-market, mature product that isn’t related to what you are selling. But a quick drill-down to their product pages reveals a new addition to the product line that puts them exactly in your target market.
And don’t forget the blog and resources pages, which often contain posts and material that hint at a new strategy or product line.
Lusha Everywhere can make company websites even more helpful when researching your prospects. You can go to any site and open the extension, immediately revealing valuable information about decision makers at that company. From the extension you can enroll decision makers in a sequence, email them directly, or begin a new company search – right from whatever page you’re on.
One issue with company websites is that they generally won’t give you any negative information about themselves. To cover the bases, you should spend some time doing a simple Google search. With almost 85% of the internet search market in its hands, Google is full of useful prospect research information. For example:
- By Googling the prospect company’s name, you can discover information that might not appear on their website. This can include insights like financial and legal matters that are affecting the prospect’s future or ability to purchase.
- If you search for individual prospects, you might find personal and/or work history data that you can use to build a personalized approach.
- Google Alerts are a convenient way of keeping up to date on public mentions of your prospect, without the need to do a search for them on a regular basis. This can be very useful if, for instance, the company signs a major deal that might change their purchasing needs.
Third-Party Data
There are many firms that provide research about companies, for companies. This can be anything from a few lines to many pages, depending on the provider (and how much they charge). A typical entry will discuss the company’s products and industry; managers, financing, investors, and acquisitions; and news and competitors.
Internal Systems
Don’t forget–there’s always a chance that a prospect has been contacted by another salesperson at your company. Save time (and face) by making sure that you’re making first contact –and if not, finding out the nature of previous interactions. A good place to search for this information is in a CRM or your own department’s records.
Key Takeaways
- Prospect research is important when starting a sales process to help salespeople be as efficient as possible.
- The basic goals of researching a prospect are to find out about the needs of the customer, gather information that can be used to personalize an approach, and discover if your solution is relevant right now.
- Methods of prospect research include LinkedIn, Google, the prospect’s website, third-party data suppliers, and your own databases.
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