Introduction
Hopefully, your sales pipeline is full of opportunities from “Blue Chip” clients and new prospects who have been referred to you. Hopefully, your referrals are steady and reliable, and your digital marketing efforts generate interest from the right stakeholders.
Hopefully. Hopefully. Hopefully.
We all know that “hope” is not a strategy. Simply hoping or wishing for a positive outcome isn’t enough to achieve it.
While I hope you don’t have to rely solely on cold outreach to develop new business, it is critical to do it well and do it consistently.
The Importance of Cold Outreach
Instead of hoping for referrals and inbound leads, regain control by identifying, prioritizing, and pursuing prospects who align with your “Blue Chip” client profile. Selecting your prospect list, which also means choosing how you will invest your time, is one of the truly strategic tasks in sales.
The best salespeople provide value and expertise to their prospects with consistency. They take an “inch wide and mile deep” approach with a finite number of prospects.
Average salespeople do the opposite. They take a “mile wide and inch deep” approach, casting a wide net of one-and-done messages—the proverbial “spray and pray.”
The Tools for Effective Prospecting
To embark on your prospecting journey with precision, arm yourself with two essential tools: your meticulously crafted "Blue Chip" client profile and a comprehensive list of key stakeholders.
Use a prospecting tool like ZoomInfo or LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find the most aligned prospects within your target market. Start by inputting the unique characteristics of your “Blue Chip” client profile (demographics, trigger events) to create a tight and targeted list of companies.
Gaining Confidence in Your Prospect List
Dive deeper into each prospect, seeking additional insights such as psychographics to better understand and connect with them. This meticulous approach ensures that every prospect on your list holds the potential for meaningful engagement, which is critical for a salesperson to have confidence in their prospect list. If they know there is business on that list, they will be more committed to their daily activities.
Engaging Key Stakeholders
Identify the key stakeholders to initiate your outreach and incorporate them into your sales process.
Tailor your outreach messaging to each stakeholder’s unique role and responsibilities. They are measured differently and paid differently. They have different wants, needs, pains, and desired gains. So why would you send them a generic message? Make sure to include valuable assets and resources that are timely and relevant.
To increase your odds of making a connection, seek out mutual connections whenever possible. A trusted referral from a mutual connection can open doors that would otherwise remain closed.
Conclusion
Consistent and valuable outreach aimed at your best prospects is the opposite of “hope.” It’s a strategy that will help you replace unpredictability with intentionality by connecting with key stakeholders within your best prospects and could lead to trajectory-changing wins.
This highly focused and customized outreach may never become your primary method for winning business, but it will be a vital component of your strategy.
Nexts Steps
For Founder Rainmakers eager to take action, here is my "live" 5-week cohort-based course: "Beyond the Founder Rainmaker - Building Your Outbound Sales Strategy". Limited to just 8 participants, this course provides the direction and guidance you need to design and customize your outbound sales strategy, including building your “Blue Chip” prospecting list.
Go Deeper
Carver Peterson helps growth-minded leaders and organizations achieve predictable and sustainable revenue growth through a refined strategy, defined process and aligned structure.
We are systematic and process-driven.
We value unique strengths.
We communicate openly and directly.
