Fishing and prospecting both require patience, persistence, and skill. You can try different lures or bait, and a salesperson should constantly adjust their pitch to better connect with potential customers.
Just as a fisherman's success depends on knowing the habitat, a salesperson's success relies on understanding the industry and market.
Cold leads may not know you, but casting your line thoughtfully will eventually land a great catch.
How to Reach People You Have Never Met
When you contact prospects and potential users who barely know your business exists, you quickly and concisely want to convey strong reasons for them to care.
Attention. Make the subject line and opening sentence of an email powerful and clear.
Personalize. Learn about the other person: Pull insights from their LinkedIn profile, social media, or mutual connections. Make yourself stand out.
“Outbound prospecting is all about quality, not quantity.”
– Aaron Ross
Appeal. Connect to their interests by highlighting their pain points.
Impetus. Create desire by telling them how your business offering will change their life. Focus on specific, positive, and meaningful change that addresses their needs or fears.
Facts. Statistics make the problem apparent and your solution necessary. For example, as someone who helps startups succeed, I’ll cite that 80% of all startups fail and two-thirds of VC-backed companies stop growing as facts to attract their attention.
Hooks. Social proof shows that others are already engaged; scarcity and exclusivity, on the other hand, make us feel nervous that the opportunity may be limited.
Call to action. Ask for clear behavior in your outreach, so if the person is interested, they know how to learn more and how to contact you.
Different Prompts for Connecting
After you identify your ideal audience and target persona, consider some different techniques for making a connection to their needs.
Create an Image. Describe your prospect's challenge, then show them the desirable future without this challenge. Explain how your service can help them reach that future through a testimonial, short story, or case study.
Identify Pain Points. Hammer home the severity of their problem by citing specifics and providing examples, personal experience, and sources that prove it. You have their solution.
Opening Question. Did you know that starting with a question attracts attention? Try that prompt followed by your value proposition and end with a call to action, encouraging movement in the sales funnel.
Start Nice, Then Push. Open up by genuinely praising your prospect. Build a cause-and-effect sequence to show how you can help specifically. Give a taste of your offer, but don’t go into too much detail.
Stir Their Feelings. Use a story to introduce the star (i.e., the prospect) by describing their circumstances and problems. Then show how the star moves past the obstacle and finds rewards. Keep your story coherent and captivating.
Key Takeaway: Embrace the challenge of getting people’s attention by constantly trying new approaches, content, images, and layout to see what works best for your sales process.
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Photo by Olof Nyman who can be found here.
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