Happy New Year to all! As 2013 starts I wanted to share the first of several new outbound prospecting ideas for the upcoming year.
This post is dedicated to outbound prospecting to your target accounts. In most organizations, your field organization usually works with a defined set of target accounts. But in most instances, additional targets within additional accounts remain untapped.
There are several reasons why unexplored potential exists in additional defined accounts. A major reason is lack of resources. Your field representatives may have no additional time to connect with or call these accounts. Often these targets are major Fortune 1000 businesses.
Outbound prospecting resources can provide the added effort you need to penetrate these accounts. This allows your field organization to concentrate on working and closing opportunities.
So the question becomes: How does the outbound prospecting team work with the field organization to prepare to call on these target accounts?
Here are three ideas I’d like to share to help you perform the best tasks to get up and running as quickly as possible.
- Work very closely with the field representative you will be supporting. Be sure to work with him/her to get an accurate list of target accounts to outbound prospect before getting starting. The least productive exercise would be to outbound prospect to the same target accounts the field representative is calling upon.
- Understand whether these accounts have any subsidiaries. Sometimes one account can have several subsidiaries under the same name. In other cases, the accounts will be part of the same corporation but have subsidiaries under different names. For example, we worked with an account that had 96 subsidiaries all under different names. Understand before conducting your outbound prospecting initiative which subsidiaries are associated with a target account and if you should be calling on that subsidiary.
- Know the target audience you will be calling during your outbound prospecting initiative. What is the title or role of the people you will be calling upon? This will help to target the right audience and make the best use of your time.
As always these tips are simple, but they can make a big difference in the results you get from your outbound prospecting initiatives.
Find out if your prospecting strategy really covers your present accounts and provides the support you need to grow your business. See: 10 Reasons Why Prospecting to Few Accounts May Need More Support.
Need to make the most of limited resources? Find out how our B2B Focused Outreach consulting services help you uncover higher quality leads.