Wow, what a relevant question. It is always a given that you should learn something relevant about your prospect or client before engaging in a conversation or correspondence with them. However, over the last few years the concept of planning has gotten a high level of publicity. This should remind us all that that pre call planning during outbound prospecting is necessary.
Where to Turn For Information When Planing Your Call to Your Prospect
There are so many places that company and contact information live, and so many end tools and services that aggregate data about companies and contacts. If you have not been engaging in pre call planning due to lack of sources, you do not have this excuse today.
Granted, with so many sources, the most helpful data you need is not always available in one place. It may all reside in one tool, or it may not. The information you need may be located on a social network site, a website or in the news to name a few possible sources.
Regardless of where the data is, it takes time, effort and smarts to plan your call ahead of time, and make a meaningful connection or correspondence.
How to Plan Your Pre Call Research Time
So how much time do you spend? At one extreme, you cannot spend a day finding all there is. You’ll be muddled with too much information before picking up the phone. At the other extreme, you cannot blindly call without any information about your prospect: That is the recipe for a wasted effort.
So how do you know you’ve invested the right amount of planning time? I think you need a balance. You need to use the shortest path possible to find the right information that uncovers a problem the prospect is having, that you can solve.
For some prospects or clients, this may take a short amount of time. For others it may take you a bit longer. As always strive for a balance. Remember that the quality of your insight does matter, and can help you stand out in the eyes of your prospect and future client.