Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly
By targeting the right business at the best time with the best offer, you will dramatically increase your B2B prospecting success. It will also help with the overall growth of your business. Not only does careful B2B targeting help maximise the chances you have to make a sale, it will also prevent you from wasting your money.
There are several steps you can follow that are cost effective, easy and profitable ways to help you build a targeted B2B prospect list.
Know Who Your Customers Are
The first thing that you will need to do is take some time and think about your current list of customers. Who are they?
While thinking about this, you will be able to complete a picture of your prospects by looking at all of the information you have about them. Some of the things you should look at are:
- The business sector your customers are in
- The size of the business by turnover and number of current employees
- Geographical location
- Ownership of products
- Number of locations
- Purchasing behaviour
Reveal Prospects That Look Similar
When you create a new list of business prospects that ‘look’ very similar to your current customer list, you will be able to target businesses that have some of the same characteristics. This will increase the possibility that they will also become your customers.
This is one of the reasons why it is so important that you have a flexible database so you can refine the criteria for your business prospects as necessary. Adding selection filters for the data you have will add quality and depth to your targeting.
You can also use other methods to find the viable businesses prospects. One method is to use an email finder software program to verify your targets’ email addresses and analyse any replies you receive. Research can also be conducted via a telephone or postal questionnaire.
Segment All Business Prospects
In order for your B2B prospecting to be successful, you must know when to make the right type of offer to the right business. You also need to know the best time to make the offer. With that being said, if you send out direct mail, it must still be able to grab the attention of your prospect. The direct mail should keep their interest whilst also encouraging them to take the action you want.
The easiest way to do this is to segment your business prospect list. This simply means that you identify a subgroup or a segment of your list with similar needs. By doing this, you will be able to customise your messages so they will be more interested in your offer.
If you are actively vying to target B2B contacts, these steps will lead you in the right direction. You will be able to build rapport with the primary decision makers of the business, and in the process, you will understand the companies’ overall objectives more clearly.
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