How to Become the Most Sincere (and Efficient) Prospector in the World in 5 Steps

By Kyle Porter

Since the first merchants packed products on their wagons and traveled to faraway lands in search of buyers, sellers have always worked to find a balance between personalization and the number of people they can reach.

At extremes, you can robo-cold-call 1,000 people today or spend your afternoon in deep conversation with three to four prospects. Or you can operate somewhere in between.

A career of prospecting has taught me there are two fundamental facts about sales development:

1. The more people you reach, the higher your likelihood of success.

2. The more personal and targeted your engagement, the more successful you’ll be.

But you absolutely need both — sincerity and scale, personalization and reach, heart and muscle.

We’ve talked to the best in the sales development industry and can shed some light on how to find this important balance between achieving numbers and personalization. Follow these five steps to become a more sincere, efficient prospector.

1. Get the right info.

The right name, spelling, title, email, phone number. Use Google, LinkedIn, overseas labor, my company’s product, another company’s product… I don’t care where you get it. But the first thing you have to do is get good data.

This often means getting small amounts of data on an ongoing basis. If you ever find yourself acquiring a list so large that you or your team can’t reach them sincerely in the next week, then go back to the drawing board. Bonus points for viewing each prospect’s LinkedIn profile, company bio page, or Twitter account and mentioning something you learned — quickly.

2. Personalize emails while still sending several at once.

By several, I don’t mean 410,000 or some crazy marketing number. I’m talking about a manageable amount of prospects to whom you can give your personal attention — like 30 to 70. While blasting the list may be fast, it won’t be effective.

Your prospects open an email looking for a reason to delete it. If they see it was sent in mass by a robot marketing tool, it’s toast. Systems that recognize your need for personalization and scale are going to be more valuable than those that don’t.

3. Integrate phone calls.

Sincerity comes from first understanding your prospects and then reaching out in a way that is convenient... for them. Sometimes you’ll catch them on email and other times on the phone. Have a dialer that is integrated with your email tool so you can track where you are in your communication outreach process. Record calls for coaching, rotate area codes by where people live, and make sure you call the right times zones at the right time.

4. Add social touch integration.

If you sell to businesses, you’ll want to find your buyers on LinkedIn. Add a step to your prospecting cadence to send InMail or invites to the VIP prospects. Send them at the right times so you don’t forget (a system like SalesLoft can help). Automate the logging of these activities in CRM so you can track effectiveness.

5. Ramp up improvement with the right metrics.

To be sincere and effective, you’ll want to optimize your outreach steps. You’ll want to scientifically figure out which days and times are best to make calls, how many emails to send, and which ones are most effective, among other analytics. Test everything. When you do, you’ll wind up finding the most sincere and effective methods for approaching your prospects.

From salesmen peddling goods on their wagons to today’s sales development reps, balancing sincerity and scope has always been a challenge. The good news is that with the tools available today, the struggle is lessened. You can tailor messages to each contact without sacrificing your reach using tools to gather accurate info, collect metrics, and integrate phone calls.

Today, take a look at your calendar. Are you scheduled to meet with a few prospects face to face? Or have you scheduled hundreds of automated emails? I challenge you to find the middle ground. Starting today, become the salesperson who is both sincere and efficient.

Kyle Porter is the CEO of SalesLoft. Follow him on Twitter: @kyleporter.

Originally published at blogs.salesforce.com.