Technology is meant to improve our experiences, and some pieces can do it so well that we actually forget that they’re there. A perfect example is the remote key fob. As long as you have it in your pocket or your purse, your car will start. It’s effortless to the point that if you ever choose to valet, you might forget to hand that fob to the driver. One thing’s for sure: if you didn’t have it, your car wouldn’t be going anywhere.
Prospecting is essentially your key fob for new business. When it works well, you don’t notice it. You simply add more potential leads to your sales pipeline. When it doesn’t work—or you choose not to prospect—you’ll see the difference. Your B2B conversations are limited. Your pipeline dries up. Then you start to panic.
But, you might ask, how is prospecting—often a very time-consuming task—in any way considered “effortless”? The truth is, it may never be as easy as a push-start car, but it can be easier when you start to automate your email outreach instead of relying on cold-calling.
Find and verify the right people at the companies you want to talk with, and send them relevant material that shows them you’re a reliable potential business partner. If this is automated, or provided by a team of prospecting experts, you’ll spend less time focusing on the nitty gritty of warming people up to having conversations, and only have to take the wheel when they are ready.
