Social Selling Tips of the Week: Spend Time with the Right Prospects

Time is our most valuable commodity.

Sales teams in particular know how important it is to spend your time wisely. But when it comes to prospecting, many sales reps make the mistake of going after every bite.

By targeting the right prospects at the right time, you can spend your hours much more efficiently. The lowest hanging fruit isn’t always obvious, but with a little work and a lot of strategy, you can start to differentiate between buyers who are and aren’t worth your time.

This week, sales leaders reminded us how important early research and discernment is to higher sales, customer retention, and ultimately, resource management.

Prospects Who Will Never Become Customers

The hungry salesperson who sees everyone as a potential customer sounds good at first blush, but in reality, there are some people who will never be your customers.

According to Chris Murray, too many companies are focused on figuring out who their potential customers. “It's equally as important to be able to work out who definitely isn't a potential customer,” he writes. “[Who] it is that we shouldn't be wasting our precious time with.” And how do you figure that out? By using social selling tools to conduct careful research and asking the right questions once the conversation begins.

18 Sales Qualification Questions to Identify Prospects Worth Pursuing

Emma Brudner’s post this week serves at the perfect action-oriented companion to Murray’s advice. Her list of 18 questions to identify worthwhile prospects, such as “Has your company ever considered/used a product like this before?” will serve to focus your sales efforts.

Luckily, thanks to social selling, even if we can’t get prospects on the phone, we can still answer a lot of these questions by using social channels to do intelligent research and engagement.

How Focusing on the Best Leads Yields Better Customers

This article is not only about turning the best leads into better customers, but also the consequences of spending time and resources on “less-than-qualified” leads. In this piece we recognize yet another opportunity to improve lead quality with a research-heavy social selling strategy.

With the last affirmation of this week’s top sales advice, Sharmin Kent cautions that, “not every prospect is built to be your customer, and recognizing it – at any stage – gives companies the opportunity to pursue prospects that are the best fit for their business.” We couldn’t agree more.

The main takeaway this week is that you won’t be everything to everyone: you’ve got to find the right prospected primed to receive your solution. Instead of blindly going after every prospect out there, do your research to prioritize the ones mostly likely to buy—you’ll see your success rate jump and save untold hours of that most precious commodity: your time.

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