Successful Sales Prospecting

Sales prospecting is often considered to be among the most challenging aspects of sales. Identifying and contacting potential prospects with a view to converting them into customers can be difficult. It requires a specific skillset, exceptional knowledge and an empathetic approach.

Generating interest, qualifying prospects and nurturing them through the funnel has always been tricky. However, since the introduction of the GDPR, many forms of sales prospecting have become significantly harder. This is particularly the case within the B2C space, as GDPR only permits contact with customers who have given informed consent. All prospecting activity must be GDPR compliant, and this often means partnering with a specialist sales call centre who has the required expertise and experience to deliver sales prospecting campaigns.

The restrictions placed by the GDPR often means that these campaigns involve re-engaging dormant customers. While re-engaging lapsed customers is a very specific process, it often delivers exceptional sales results. Furthermore, customer re-engagement usually lowers customer acquisition costs, has higher conversion rates and increases customer lifetime value.

At Impact, we routinely deliver successful sales prospecting campaigns that re-engage lapsed customers. Our specialist sales call centre has the perfect combination of trained & skilled sales agents and AI technology, which helps us deliver exceptional sales results to clients across a range of sectors. In this article, we explore the key benefits of sales prospecting and share our tips for completing this successfully.

Key Benefits Of Sales Prospecting To Re-Engage Dormant Customers

Sales prospecting brings many benefits to businesses that are looking to increase their sales. However, targeted prospecting towards re-engaging dormant customers can be especially worthwhile. The benefits range from lower customer acquisition costs and higher conversion rates through to improving customer loyalty and increased sales. Here, we have outlined the key benefits of this practice.

Lower Customer Acquisition Costs

The costs associated with customer acquisition are significantly higher than the costs of customer retention. It can be 5 to 25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one, due to the significant costs of marketing, sales and trust building for customer acquisition. By prospecting dormant customers who have purchased from your business in the past, you can secure additional sales without incurring customer acquisition costs.

Dormant customers are already familiar with your brand and its products or services. Furthermore, they already trust your brand and know how it meets their problem or desire. This results in a condensed and more productive interaction, which further reduces costs.

At Impact, sales prospecting to re-engage lapsed or dormant customers is one of our specialities. Our sales agents are experienced and skilled at re-engaging lapsed customers for both B2C and B2B clients. We have seen great success with our sales prospecting win-back campaigns, and they have delivered exceptional results for clients. Get in touch with us by calling 01794 230 230 or complete our contact form to discuss sales prospecting campaigns.

Higher Conversion Rates

Many sales campaigns require a high conversion rate to deliver profitable sales results. When you prospect dormant customers, you target a relatively warm audience. They are much further along the typical buyer journey than a new customer would be. This allows you to focus your sales interaction on finding out why they have lapsed as a customer and how you might be able to find products or services that can help them.

During one of these interactions, there is an excellent opportunity to re-engage with a valued customer and outline how your products or services can help them. Skilled sales agents are trained on how to re-engage customers using a structured sales approach, needs-based selling and empathy with the customer. When this is combined with industry-leading technology and our customer service focused approach, it is possible to exceed sales targets.

Increased Customer Lifetime Value

When a customer stays dormant for a period of time, there is a risk that they may seek out a competitor. Re-engaging them before they do so is an effective way to regain their custom and increase customer lifetime value. This is particularly the case for subscription-based products or services where customers make purchases at regular intervals. If your business delivers a subscription-based product or service, sales prospecting a lapsed customer can deliver excellent results and be a very worthwhile exercise. When the prospecting is completed using a customer service approach, it can remind them of what they are missing out on by not using your products or services.

Our trained and skilled sales agents have succeeded in increasing customer lifetime value for our clients with well-executed win-back campaigns. We have delivered successful win-back campaigns for businesses across many sectors, including beauty and leisure. The sales team are able to reactivate dormant customers and help win their loyalty for the longer term. During sales interactions, we also intelligently present cross-selling and up-selling opportunities to customers, which can help them find additional products or services that may be suitable.

Useful Customer Insights

The re-engagement process can provide a wealth of insight that can be used to improve your business and its product or service offerings. While customers can stop buying from your business for a range of different reasons, key themes often emerge during these interactions. Sometimes, relatively insignificant changes such as changing your delivery company or re-working a company process/procedure can be enough to stop customers from buying from you. By sales prospecting your dormant customers, you can uncover these trends and make changes to win back customers at scale. Re-engaging with lapsed customers at set intervals can be particularly effective, as it may uncover emerging issues early.

At Impact, we take a consultative and customer service led approach to sales, which lends itself particularly well to uncovering customer insights during the prospecting process. Our professional sales team are skilled at identifying customer issues that may be affecting sales, and are proactive about finding solutions to win them back.

Improved Loyalty

Customer loyalty is challenging to win but easy to lose. When a customer stops using your products or services, their loyalty is on the line and there is a limited window to regain it. Securing their trust and loyalty for the long-term requires a careful and empathetic approach to sales that takes account of their specific needs.

Re-engaging with them in an empathetic and thoughtful way that focuses on their needs can go a long way toward regaining their trust. During a prospecting interaction, after some initial fact-finding and consultative selling, the presentation of tailored offers based on their buying history can help to secure valuable sales.

Improving loyalty by successfully re-engaging dormant customers requires sales skill and experience. Our trained sales agents are adept at striking the right balance using our proven sales processes and our consultative approach. We never resort to a hard sell and always focus on doing the very best for each customer in every interaction. This approach is an effective way to win customer loyalty for the long term.

Increased Sales

Every outbound sales campaign is focused on increasing sales, and sales prospecting campaigns are no different. As they target existing customers who are already familiar with your business, they give you certain advantages. It also presents challenges as your prospecting interaction is often not just about securing a sale. It may be about addressing a customer issue. This requires skilled and well-trained sales agents to deliver the results. However, with the higher conversion rates and lower acquisition costs typically associated with sales prospecting of dormant customers, great results are within reach.

By partnering with a specialist organisation like Impact, your business can be in a great position to increase its sales by encouraging recently lapsed customers to return to your business. The combination of our great people, proven processes and intelligent systems delivers exceptional results for growing businesses and some of the UK’s leading brands. Why not get in touch and find out how we can help your business successfully prospect dormant customers?

Key Tips For Successful Sales Prospecting

Sales prospecting campaigns come in many forms, but there are several tips that can help you deliver exceptional sales results. From having the right data at the right time and intelligent promotion through to remaining in tune with the customer and building rapport, we explore some of the key tips that can improve sales prospecting results.

Drawing On The Right Data At The Right Time

Being able to draw on the right data at the right time when sales prospecting can make all the difference to your sales results. When you have the right data to hand, you can have an informed and productive sales interaction with a customer, while delivering a great experience for the customer and the sales agent. For example, being aware of their purchase history, preferences and dislikes can give the interaction a much higher chance of success. If you know that they like purchasing your products at regular intervals, prefer being contacted late in the afternoon and do not like subscribing to products for more than three months at a time, you can build your conversation around this and cater to these requirements.

Meanwhile, the sales agent will feel well-informed and be best placed to help the customer find the right solution for their specific needs. The additional information that the agent has to hand can also make the process feel so much more personal and natural for the customer, often leading to excellent sales results.

Using Intelligent Promotion

When you prospect an existing customer, it is important to use intelligent promotion rather than just general promotion of products or services that they may already have or not want. For example, you might promote a different product that they do not currently have, or something that has just been launched, or a product that they have previously expressed interest in. For example, if they have already purchased a smoothie maker from you, there is little point promoting another smoothie maker. However, there could be an opportunity to sell a complimentary accessory kit that is compatible with their smoothie maker, or perhaps a new toaster that you have launched.

Combining intelligent promotion with quality customer data, including their purchase history and personal preferences is a very powerful combination, which can further improve the effectiveness of a prospecting campaign. It can make a prospecting interaction super-relevant to the customer and much more productive for a sales agent, as they can promote products and make suggestions that are tailored to the individual customer.

Be In Tune With The Customer

Being in tune with the customer is critical to the success of every sales prospecting interaction. During many calls, you often have little time to understand the customer’s needs. Many customers can be initially very guarded, even with businesses they have previously purchased from.

In a world where people are naturally cautious and suspicious, being in tune with the customer means understanding their reservations and taking steps to earn their trust. For example, they may have doubts as to whether the agent calling them is a real person, and that they are genuine. In this case, there is a clear need to establish trust and reassure the customer that you are there to help them.

Trust is crucial when the prospecting call progresses to the sale stage and the customer is making a payment over the phone. If you have not interacted with that customer for some time, they may be cautious about making payments. Taking the time to earn their trust and reassure them is part of any successful sales prospecting campaign.

Build Confidence, Trust & Rapport

Building confidence, trust and rapport with customers cannot be skipped or overlooked. It is an investment in their relationship with your business and a prerequisite to a successful sale. Trying to make a sale without establishing this is unlikely to deliver results and could even damage the business relationship. This is especially the case for dormant customers, who may already be reluctant to purchase. In each interaction, you need to build confidence, trust, and rapport.

This occurs during the initial stage of an interaction by a professional introduction that shows understanding and courtesy to the customer. It can be as simple as checking that they have time to talk and providing an option for a call back where appropriate. This demonstrates understanding and professionalism that can go a long way to fostering trust between the customer and sales agent, and between the customer and the brand.