Sales and marketing professionals are constantly looking for novel ways to generate leads. With so much of our communication done online instead of in person, it can be challenging for your message to stand out in the midst of the hundreds of emails your prospects get each day.
In my sales career, I’ve seen success using two approaches to grab the attention of past clients and even prospects that I’ve never met.
Relevant Information
Staying abreast of company and industry news is an important aspect of prospecting. It will help keep you sharp while you generate needed information to share with your prospects.
Sharing information that is relevant and timely to your prospect can help your emails stand out from the rest. Let’s say you run a marketing agency and have a prospect in the legal industry. If you come across an article about a new state law impacting your prospect’s business, they will find it helpful if you shared that information. Not so much the new law, as they may already be aware, but more so how that law may impact their clients and may impact content and design on their website. So you share that information, but also ask them a few questions that they probably haven’t yet thought about.
On one hand, you will have given them food for thought that will be appreciated and remembered, and on the other hand, it may open up a dialogue where they are looking for more insight on how your company can help them with this change.
It’s not about selling them on how what you can do at first, but rather helping them identify and understand a potential need.
New Ideas
While you are keeping up to date on your prospects, their companies, and their industry, you will also have a better understanding of their pain points. If you understand these pain points, you can make well-informed recommendations on how to solve some of their challenges.
What business person doesn’t want to solve problems?
Spend some time, not a lot of time, identifying ways that your company can help solve a real problem for your prospect. Don’t focus too much on just what you can sell, but rather focus on helping. It’s the idea that will get you further conversations. It could be a marketing idea or it could be an audience targeting idea, it really could be anything to get your message read. Similar to sharing information, bringing a new idea to the table isn’t going to close a deal for you, but it will be appreciated and remembered and likely get you future conversations.
You don’t know when the timing is right or what product or service is a good fit for what your prospect needs. By sharing relevant information or providing them with a new idea, you are giving them something of value for free, which is more likely to get a response and get you more and better leads.
