When calling on a prospect, the more you know about the person you’re calling, the better. Understanding what type of company you’re calling on, what product (or aspect of your product) they are interested in and their role within the organization all go a long way toward helping you frame a conversation. A good marketing automation tool can help you collect this information and leverage it effectively.
Building a Prospect Profile
If you’re focused on inbound marketing, its likely that your new leads come in through some type of web form, allowing you to collect useful information like job title or company name. Effective landing pages use thank you content to nudge people along, encouraging them to download additional materials. This not only shows intent, but it also gives you the opportunity to collect additional data points on your prospects. Advanced form technology called progressive profiling allows you to ask different questions on each form, based on your existing database, to slowly and painlessly develop a robust prospect profile.
Using the Prospect Profile
Once you’ve built a profile on your prospect, look for a few key pieces of information to help frame the conversation and touch on the right pain points. The basics include the prospects score (how active they were on your site) and grade (are they a good fit for your product?). You’ll also want to take a look at their activities. Which white paper did they download? Which data sheets did they view? What pages did they spend the most time on? Are there any search terms present, either terms that brought them to you or keywords searched for on your actual site? All of this information is at your fingertips before you even pick up the phone to call.
Connecting with Outside Resources
Connectors with tools like LinkedIn and Jigsaw make it easy to query an individual or a company to learn even more about the call you’re about to make. Not only can they help you fill in gaps in the profile, they can give you deeper insight into both the person’s role in the company and their other business interests. Many people use LinkedIn to showcase their blogs, talk about their specialties and area of focus. All of this information can help you strike up a meaningful conversation with someone who was previously just another name on your call list.
Many people think that marketing automation take the human touch out of the sales process, but really it is exactly the opposite. The information at hand allows you to get to know your prospects before the call, ensuring a that you approach them in a way that is tailored to their needs, rather than with a blanket sales pitch.
