Finding Your Prospects Isn’t Really That Hard

If you’re struggling with where to find your next customer, you’re not alone. All it takes is a quick search for “What worries sales people” and you’ll unearth countless articles explaining that meeting sales quotas and managing unqualified prospects are high on their list of shared anxieties. As a former small business owner, I’ve been there. Managing the stress of locating your pool of ‘hungry customers’ can keep you up at night. It’s no fun. 

I’ll help you get some sleep before the end of this paragraph. The not-so-secretive way to find your prospects is to look exactly where you’d expect to see them: In the most competitive spaces. 

There’s a myth persisting in conversations around macro and micro business tasks. Strangely, people think there’s a rich cache of ready and able buyers in neglected corners no one visits. 

This cache may be in paid search, using secretive language with high intent your competitors somehow missed. Or this pool of BANT-qualified leads hangs out at community meetups that your competitors ignore. If you try, you can easily find an example of this thinking. 

“The not-so-secretive way to find your prospects is to look exactly where you’d expect to see them: In the most competitive spaces.”

Let me be clear, that thinking is bullshit. 

There may have been brief moments when this rationale paid off. But you can’t wait for enlightenment and circumstance to align so you suddenly become the lone fisherman in a river filled with hungry salmon. 

It won’t work. You’ll find yourself without a job. 

To survive, you must think like the most successful players in your industry. For our purposes, let’s assume your prospects aren’t that complicated. Assume they have a similar triggering moment that you can anticipate, prompting them to seek your solution. 

Once that moment occurs, they’ll follow a predictable pattern. 

And at the end of that pattern, your competition is waiting with a contract because they’ve earned the trust necessary to close the deal. They’ve also earned the name recognition to close the deal. And their salespeople established the expertise and care needed to close the deal. Your best competitors were doing this while you were praying for a cheaper and quicker path to close that same deal. 

You need to understand the triggering moments that make a prospect look for you and the predictable journey that follows once that moment has occurred. Your job is to be as visible as possible during that journey–starting before the prospect embarks on it.

Analyze past customers. Develop a list of your top five best customers, and write down what makes working with them successful. Consider why you value them and what makes them value you back. Think about their industry, who they serve, location, budget, goals, etc.. What you’re looking for (and almost certainly will find) are traits shared among your best customers.

Conduct the same exercise with your least successful customer engagements.

What made them a bad fit? What are this group’s shared traits, and how do they differ from your great customers? This exercise will help shape your next successful customer profile and define who you shouldn’t work with.

Why do they need you?

With a vision of your ideal customer emerging, it’s time to consider two things:

1. What solution do you offer that the ICP is hungry for?
2. What is the triggering event that creates that hunger?

People don’t often make purchasing decisions without a need. Although they may want your solution, they will consider a purchase only when necessary.
Focus on what your ideal customers genuinely need, not just what they might want. Try to see your solution from their perspective as buyers, rather than focusing solely on why you think they should buy it.

Write these thoughts down. You’re in an incredible position to sell when you can define the who, why, and when of your hungriest prospects. Considering these questions and creating a plan is more advantageous than worrying about how you’ll put food on the table.

“You need to understand the triggering moments that make a prospect look for you and the predictable journey that follows once that moment has occurred.”

1. Define what you want from your social media strategy. Ask, “What do I want from this?”. I’d suggest focusing on thought leadership. Seth Godin says, “Share your gift.” This is the perfect place to do it. Think about common questions from your favorite customers and the advice you’ve given in response. Write posts around that. Show that you are a font of knowledge in your space. You don’t need to appeal to everyone–you just need to appeal to your ICP by speaking their language and addressing their lived experience.
2. Create and share lead magnets. Develop (or have your team develop) eBooks, PDFs, videos, and webinars with actionable information to help your ICPs overcome their challenges (particularly, if those challenges make them hungry for your solutions). Add these pieces of content to your website which can only be accessed once a site visitor (pulled in by a social media post or ad) enters their information. You want these people to be in your CRM, associated with at least a name and an email address, so that you can build an “owned audience” of prospects.
3. Engage in relevant groups and be visible. Ask questions, reply, add value to these spaces. With consistency, you’ll develop a reputation as someone who knows a lot and solves problems.

Contact people individually and ask for a bit of their time. Let them know you’re trying to build relationships with notable names in their industry. 

In these meetings, get to know them, learn how they got into the industry, ask who they work with, and find out what makes them great partners. It’s also essential to offer your network contacts in return if it’s helpful, and to stay in touch. Any client worth having has sales people in their ear long before they need a solution. The best time to start fostering these relationships was yesterday. The second best time is today.

If you have the budget, consider sending a gift.

It’s harder to say no to a meeting if the prospect feels they owe you something (though it may require focused follow-up to get that meeting). The gift could be as simple as a gift card for coffee, or as big as an all-expense paid trip to meet you at a desirable destination. Whatever it is, have an engagement plan that starts the moment the delivered package that contains your gift is signed for.

Finally, look into associations your target audience is likely a member of and see if you can attend a meetup, be a guest speaker or host a co-branded webinar. Being in the room consistently with these potential customers allows you to start building relationships. If you can do some official activity with that association, you’ll benefit from the halo effect, where the trust they have in their association immediately translates into inherent trust in you.

What I’m offering in this article isn’t an endpoint—in sales, there is no end—but if you’re struggling to find new customers, I hope I’ve turned your gears and permitted you to take calculated and warranted action. Being competitive isn’t an inexpensive investment, but it is fruitful.

Once you’ve started taking these actions, track your KPIs. How many new leads are you generating? Is your close rate improving? Is one tactic a goldmine, while another is a waste of time? 

Track these metrics. Start today, even if you haven’t begun these activities yet, so you can quantify the difference the efforts make. If you measure a thing, you can manage a thing. Try to put some math behind your actions.

Also, your ICP isn’t sacred. It’s meant to evolve. As you optimize for success, intentionally revisit it every six months to evaluate whether it still resonates or needs a slight shift.