I found these Tips to be helpful in managing my different accounts I hope you do as well:
Get rid of what you don’t need: Prospecting lists can get messy. Sometimes a company will be imported with so many contacts it actually is a better use of your time to weed out the ones that are going to be of no use to you. Send a referral email (just in case that Director of Automotive Procurement happens to eat lunch with your target contact every day), mark them as “Not Appropriate Contact,” and move on.
Organize what you have: Now that you’ve cleaned up your list, look and see what’s left. Clearing out the clutter can actually reveal potential opportunities you might’ve skipped over. Make sure to follow up with the prospects who told you to hold off until after the new year, and check in on contacts you haven’t spoken with in awhile to see if anything has changed in their company. And of course dive into any untouched contacts.
Replace what you need: If your ideal contacts work in IT, and you only have the Sales Director and a Marketing Executive on your list, go find some new contacts! See if there’s anyone you missed on sites like Jigsaw and NetProspex, check out LinkedIn to see if there’s anyone listed in the right department, and don’t forget about the company websites.
Focus on the result, not the product
Prospects need to understand how your product/service will solve their problems and be able to quantify the benefit. Companies are tightening up on buying authority. Before ever thinking about getting buy-in from senior management, your buyers need to believe that this is a priority and that the results will be significant.
Slow down & insert pauses
There’s nothing worse than trying to keep up with a motor-mouth – trying to digest what they said three sentences ago. Reps should provide an opportunity for the prospect to process information and ask questions. If prospects are given time to think, they will be more likely to open up and discuss issues.
Listen
Many reps are so eager to ‘close’ that they forget to listen to the prospect. We’ve all seen Reps framing the next question or comment while the prospect is still speaking. I love this line from Geoff Alexander, “As a rep, keeping to your own objectives is important, but in doing so, remember to stop when you hear a great clue, and address it right then.”
It’s easy to forget the fundamentals. These tips might be generic and many would consider them below their current level of expertise, but something new can always be learned by going back to the basics.
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