Why Prospecting Is Broken and How We Can Fix It

Lesley Young, Global Vice President Sales, Box

New approaches to prospecting hold great promise, even with some challenges along the way. Here we’ll take a look at how to harness the discovery process and connect with new customers in an increasingly digital and fragmented buyer’s world.

Too Much Information?

Today, there is a flood of information for reps to use for prospecting — from marketing to social media. But that same number of digital interactions before a sales conversation has led to even more confusion and time spent to get connected.

At Box, we found that about 30% of prospectors’ time was spent pulling all of the data together and writing a dissertation of sorts on the conversation they were going to have with potential customers. We needed to figure out how to make this whole process faster, so we compressed the time needed to make that conversation happen. At the core, it’s all about the operations.

Build Your Network and Your Persona

As much as we may know about a potential customer, the flip side is also true: Customers may know as much about an individual sales rep as they do about a company or product. One simple Google or social media search gives the buyer all sorts of insights about you, the sales rep.

I always encourage our sales reps to build a network as well as their own persona. The need to take advantage of networking extends throughout the organization. Often our marketing department asks us to reach out or publicize content to expand the network. And we ask new hires to connect with all of the company’s executives. It’s everyone’s job to build this intricate network because the social side of prospecting and selling is a bigger part of the selling cycle than ever before.

To read the complete article, Why Prospecting Is Broken and How We Can Fix It, visit Quotable.com.