Prospecting techniques to grow sales

January 12th, 2017

The task of creating and organizing a sales list and accompanying sales process can seem daunting. But just a few minutes of prospecting, organization, and outreach per day can drive higher conversion. If you're just getting your business up and running, or your prospecting and sales process has stalled, try these techniques to give your sales a jump start. 

Get organized:

  • Identify the businesses that you want to work with. Think about who you want to work with, where they are located, and other information that may be relevant in your dialogue with them.
  • Use SocialOwl's Prospecting tool or do Google searches for those businesses. For example, if you want to target cafes to start, search for "cafes near me"
  • Once you a search list pulled up, create an excel spreadsheet (or use SocialOwl's sales contact spreadsheet) with columns for the business names, phone, website, email, and then columns noting when you reached out, followed-up, and notes of your conversation, etc. For SocialOwl licensees, we have created a Sales Contact Spreadsheet available for you to download in your resources section.

Find and communicate with prospects where they are:

  • Join your local chamber of commerce - membership is usually relatively inexpensive and the return can be high. Often times, the chamber will send an email to all of its members announcing you/your business as having just joined. You'll be listed on their website which will link back to yours (good for SEO), and many have a monthly "Business Afterhours" or "Social Hour" or "Happy Hour" etc. These are great, in-person networking events where you can meet other small/medium sized business owners and industry leaders who are looking to expand their own business as well as find new solutions to make their business more profitable. You'll be able to shake hands, exchange business cards, schmooze with members and make your sales pitch.
  • Join www.Alignable.com - a free network where business owners meet, increase word of mouth marketing and generate referrals. This is basically like a digital version of the chamber of commerce. You'll be able to create a profile of your business and link it back to your website (good for SEO), and digitally connect with other small/medium sized business owners and industry leaders.
  • Get your business listed on other hyperlocal / local / regional websites; business directories, Patch, Nextdoor, Craigslist, etc. Anywhere where someone may be looking for your services. Plus, you'll be able to link back to your website (notice a pattern? Good for SEO).

See the sourcing and organization of leads and prospects in action in this video tutorial: