The Ultimate Guide to B2B Sales Prospecting

If their answer doesn’t reveal anything usable, we then move to more specific questions, asking whether time, team or money is their main issue, but still leaving the door open to the possibility

Hello [NAME], it’s Richard from XYZ company.

We help businesses maximise returns on their excess industrial assets by selling these for them on our online auction website. We auction a diverse range of assets, from office furniture and cars to major mining and civil equipment and infrastructure.

Right now, we’re looking for people who are open to having a chat about how they can better manage their stock levels and free up cash flow by disposing of excess assets.

Now, I don’t know enough about your situation to know if something like this would make sense for you, so would it be okay if I asked you a couple of quick questions?

Immediately after your introduction, say this:

“Now, I don’t know enough about your situation to know if something like this would make sense for you, so would it be okay if I asked you a couple of quick questions?”

Keep your introduction short and sweet, using punchy sentences that make it clear from the outset who you are and how you help your customers. After your introduction, you’ll want to start asking questions immediately, but you need to approach this carefully.

It should be simple, and it should be in three stages:

1.Introduction

2.Questions to build a conversation

3.Wrap-up.

You only eliminate a prospect if they really don’t have a need for what you sell, or if they don’t meet your minimum client profile and are unlikely to grow to that profile. Qualifying your prospects in this way is an extremely important part of the process,

The objective of a discovery call should be to find out the following about the prospect:

•Are they a valid prospect or not?

•What is the prospect’s current situation?

•Where are they in the buying cycle?

I recommend, will allow you to engage with your prospects easily. There are two key ingredients to this approach. The first is the use of good questions that get the prospect talking—and talking as early in the conversation as possible. The second ingredient is a mindset: I want you to treat the prospecting call as a discovery call, not a sales call.

Once you have completed this step you should be able to identify three things:

1.Your prospects’ pain

2.How your product or service can address this pain

3.Questions that will help you get the prospect talking about their pain and lead you into a conversation about your solution.

Keep circling back to the question, “What is the problem (that is, the pain) my prospects experience each day?” The trick is to look at this from the prospect’s perspective, not from yours. This can be difficult if you haven’t yet tried to walk a mile in your prospect’s shoes, noticing where they rub and pinch.