Three Methods for Better Prospecting with Mario Martinez Jr., #198

Subscribe to Modern Selling on the app of your choice!

The science of getting to the first “hello” has become a must-know skill for today’s modern seller. With so many marketing and sales distractions, coupled with the plethora of options the modern buyer has at their fingertips – the “spray and pray” method of prospecting is quickly becoming obsolete.

In this episode of the Modern Selling Podcast, we switch things up and share a recent conversation I had with Greg Reffner in his podcast, The Abstrakt Podcast. We dive deep into the state of prospecting to explore what’s working, what’s not, and how modern sellers can leverage innovative new techniques to reach more prospects on the platforms they use.

Make sure to download and listen to the full episode to get a front row seat to the winning prospecting strategies we use, here at Vegrenso, to get more hellos.

What’s the current state of prospecting?

In this new digital world, selling has become harder than ever before. To better understand the current challenges facing today’s sales leaders, we asked 1,295 sales professionals a simple, yet powerful question:

What is the hardest part of the sales cycle? 

Over the past 2 years that we have asked this question, the hardest part of the sales cycle has consistently been: prospecting. In fact, according to our October 2021 survey, 69% of sellers say that getting the first sales conversation is the most time-consuming part of the entire sales cycle.

This reveals that we have a major problem when it comes to sellers being able to earn the right to even get a response back from a prospect.

Join the conversation to hear what new sales enablement tools that I recommend sales leaders use to improve the prospecting of their sales teams.

Why is prospecting so hard?

With prospecting being the most challenging part of the sales cycle, the question then becomes: why is this the case?

In my 25 years in B2B sales, I’ve found that there are a few reasons why prospecting is so challenging for today’s modern seller:

1. More tech does not mean more success. Sales enablement leaders are very quick to invest in more sales tools to help increase prospecting success. However, without the right sales training and support, sales teams will still struggle to make quota. The key isn’t in getting the latest sales tool, it is in how sales leaders and sales reps are trained to use that tool effectively.
2. Prospects are increasingly more distracted. With the average person receiving 5,000 marketing messages a day, our prospects have become numb to what I refer to as “digital pollution”. From the many emails, text messages, social media DMs, and phone calls, it’s hard to stand out from the growing sales crowd that is vying for your prospect’s attention.
3. Lack of personalization. With information coming at our prospect from all directions, they’re able to spot a sales pitch a mile away. That’s why personalization has become so important to break through the white noise in their inbox. The days of using generic, impersonal cold outreach messages are gone, and sales leaders must train their teams to know exactly how to craft personalized messages to get people to want to open and read them.

Listen in to the conversation to hear the specific personalization strategy I share that could be an absolute game-changer for your sales team.

How to Master the Art of Prospecting

Even just two years ago, how we prospected was almost completely different. The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a whole new virtual selling environment that so many companies have been slow to adapt to.

Many people are working remotely, so getting someone on the phone has become even more challenging.

Even the level of technology your prospect has access to, to prevent calls and sales emails, has exploded. People can re-route unknown phone numbers to voicemail or block them altogether and SPAM filters have become sophisticated enough to prevent your outreach messages from reaching your prospect’s inbox.

That’s why to sell to today’s modern buyer, you need to master a very different approach. Sales reps have to be willing to meet their B2B buyers where they are, on the platforms they choose to interact on. For example, some buyers may be more responsive via email, others may prefer to communicate through LinkedIn messenger (or even leaving LinkedIn voice messages), and others may be easier to reach by phone. The point is that sales organizations have to understand this new cluttered sales space we’re in and be flexible to accommodate the modern buyer’s communication preferences.

Tune into the full discussion and listen for the eight different connection points sales teams need to be focusing on to reach prospects.

The Three Steps of Effective Prospecting

To reach and engage with the modern B2B buyer, sales teams must follow a proven prospecting formula. It’s not about sending out more emails or more messages because what really moves the needle is to send the right messages, written in the right way, that will speak to your prospect’s pain points in a new way.

At Vengreso, we teach the PVC Sales Methodology for Prospecting that shows sales teams how to master the art of cold outreach. We emphasize the importance of quality over quantity, so that sales organizations can get the most out of their prospecting efforts. The strategy of sending out hundreds of generic messages or making hundreds of cold calls won’t help you get traction with today’s modern buyer.

Instead, to attract and engage with B2B buyers effectively, I strongly advocate using the PVC Method of: personalization, value, and call-to-action in every sales message that is sent to all of your prospects. 

When your sales team knows how to personalize messages and include value-driven content in not just what they send to prospects, but also in what they post on social media, then you will be able to attract prospects that want and need what you have to offer.

So, no matter if you focus on sales calls, emails, or social selling – using the PVC approach will help to increase the level of engagement and responses from your prospects. 

Listen to the conversation and hear the highly tailored prospecting methods Vengreso’s sales team uses to increase our sales pipeline and prospect better (and faster)!