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3 Sales Prospecting Tips for Booking More Sales Meetings

3 Sales Prospecting Tips for Booking More Sales Meetings

July 13, 2022·6 min read

Great sales prospecting is your ticket to a calendar that’s crammed with meetings. Learn our three top tips for prospecting success.

If you’re a sales rep and you’re not prospecting every single day, chances are that your sales pipeline is looking pretty barren.

We get it, though. Prospecting isn’t that simple and can be one of the most challenging parts of B2B sales. But it’s a crucial step to maintaining a healthy pipeline and filling your calendar with meetings.

So you’re in the right place if you’re unsure where to start or need a little advice to give your prospecting that extra push.

Keep reading to learn our three top prospecting tips that’ll get you booking more meetings in no time.

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  1. Contents
  2. 1. What is Sales Prospecting?
  3. 2. Three Sales Prospecting Steps to Book More Meetings
  4. 2.1 Identify Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
  5. 2.1.1 How to Identify Your ICP
  6. 2.1.2 Identify Triggers
  7. 2.2 Implement These Sales Prospecting Methods
  8. 2.2.1 Cold Calling
  9. 2.2.2 Cold Emailing
  10. 2.2.3 Video Prospecting
  11. 2.2.4 Social Selling
  12. 2.3 Structure Your Day to Maximize Your Time
  13. 2.3.1 Time Management Tips for Sales Prospecting
  14. 3. On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!
Sales Stuff Explained: How to Book More Sales Meetings

Rather watch than read? The Sales Feed team asked top sales experts for tips on booking more sales meetings on this episode of Sales Stuff Explained.

What is Sales Prospecting?

Sales prospecting is the first step in the sales process. This includes reaching out to people you think might be interested in your product or service.

The goal is to book a meeting with your prospect so you can educate them on your offering and convince them to buy.

Three Sales Prospecting Steps to Book More Meetings

Let’s jump into three prospecting steps you can use to start booking more meetings ASAP.

1. Identify Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

To start, getting an idea of your company’s ideal customer profile (ICP) is crucial. An ICP captures the ideal or perfect customer—that is, the customer that’s the perfect target for your solution.

How to Identify Your ICP

Luckily, your organization has a wealth of knowledge you can draw on. Talk to sales development reps, your manager, account executives, or customer support reps to determine your ICP.

Remember the following when identifying your ICP:

  • What does the typical customer look like?
  • What’s the status quo of what goes on within their organization?
  • What are they typically trying to accomplish with a product like yours?

Once you have your ICP, you might get overwhelmed by the sea of people you can potentially call. The best way to approach this is to select a specific niche of ICPs to narrow down on.

“If I get more into that ICP niche, my confidence in selling to that customer will increase, and my ability to provide value to that customer quicker will also go up.”

Kara Smith Brown headshotKara Smith BrownLeadCoverageFounder & CRO

You can do this by looking up people who work at companies in the niche you’ve chosen. From there, make a list of people who’ll benefit from your product, and then choose people who are senior enough that they can probably make the purchase.

Once you’ve found the right prospect, do additional research on them to give yourself a jumping-off point that’ll help you stand out.

Identify Triggers

All the information you’re gathering on your ICP is called a trigger.

Triggers provide context behind the reason why you’re reaching out to the prospect. Triggers can typically be the first sentence in an email or cold call. This way, the person you reach out to (who may not know who you are) has some summary/context.

A few good ways to identify triggers include looking at:

  • The prospect’s LinkedIn profile
  • The prospect’s company website (press releases, newsroom, etc.)
  • Interviews on YouTube done by the prospect

Once you’ve identified those triggers, start reaching out to your prospects so you can start filling up that sales pipeline.

Free Cheat Sheet Grab the outbound prospecting cheat sheet.

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2. Implement These Sales Prospecting Methods

With your ICPs identified, it’s time to choose your prospecting method.

Right now, the most popular prospecting methods are:

  • Cold calling
  • Cold emailing
  • Video messaging
  • Social selling

The best sales reps don’t just use one prospecting method, though. They use a good mix of all of these.

Cold Calling

The first prospecting method, and probably the most well-known, is cold calling.

If you’re calling a customer without having an appointment on their calendar, it’s a cold call.

When cold calling, always introduce yourself and recognize that you’re calling out of the blue. From there, get into your sales prospecting.

Cold calling can be awkward initially, and you might encounter failures or rejection. But don’t take them personally. Truthfully, customers have different priorities, and sometimes they’re just not interested in buying. Just keep cold calling, and you’ll eventually find the people willing to buy from you.

Cold Emailing

The next most common prospecting method is cold emailing. Like cold calling, you’re sending an email to a prospect without any prior contact.

Some people waste no time deleting prospecting emails in their inboxes. So the best way to approach cold emailing is to keep your email short and structured like this:

First sentence: Quick context as to why you’re reaching out.

Second sentence:Describe the current state and the current problem with it.

Third sentence: What does the future look like for them with your product or solution?

Final sentence: Finish with a call to action (CTA) like booking a meeting.

Try to avoid the following when sending a cold email:

  • Long emails
  • Poorly formatted emails
  • Cliches (“I hope this email finds you well,” “bumping this for visibility,” etc.)
  • A calendar link to book at their convenience—instead, suggest specific times (“book a call with me tomorrow or Thursday”)
The BEST Cold Call Opening Lines

In this episode of Sales FAQ, eight trainers, leaders, and practitioners dish out the best way to open a cold call. Watch this video to learn what works best for them!

Make sure to read your email out loud before sending it. You’ll hear issues that aren’t apparent while reading and can edit them before the email goes out.

After sending, don’t be discouraged if your email doesn’t get a response. Even the best emails don’t get responses sometimes. Don’t give up! Just keep sending.

Video Prospecting

Using video messages to prospect is a game-changing outreach method and is a powerful way to book more meetings.

Video stands out in inboxes. The customer gets to see you and feel your energy. And best of all, you can personalize your message in no time flat. Using video for sales (even if those videos are only 15-30 seconds long) is proven to increase response rates for more than 70% of sales reps.

The Best Video Prospecting Tool Easily record and share prospecting videos.

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See it in Action

This prospecting video is short and sweet. It gets straight to the point: Booking a meeting with Ryan can help property managers fill their glass and increase occupancy across their properties.

Vidyard video thumbnail - click to play

With video tools like Vidyard, you can easily record and send a video via email clients, sales engagement platforms, or even LinkedIn InMail messages. You can also take advantage of video analytics to see how much of the video somebody watched and even get notified when they view it so you can follow up right away.

Here are a few things to consider for your video outreach:

  • Avoid looking creepy (filming in a dark room, in the corner, etc.)
  • Don’t make it too long (shoot for 30-60 seconds)
  • Provide a brief written summary before the video embed in case they can’t watch it in their current situation (i.e. a company firewall blocks it)

New to video prospecting? Here are the 10 best video templates and ideas to help you get started.

See it in Action

In just one minute, Amelia McColl from Rant & Rave showcased her pup, got a quick response, and closed the deal. See the cuteness for yourself!

Vidyard video thumbnail - click to play

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