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Improve Performance, Provoke Thought, Think Critically.

You are constantly striving to improve.  You are looking for practical tips you can apply to your daily work that will impact your performance.  You are looking for advice from professionals who do the work. You want to engage with professionals who have been in your shoes.

Be the Founder that can clearly articulate the problem your company solves.

Be the Sales Professional that your customers want to work with.

Be the Learning Professional who can deliver your solution in the context of the business.

The Catalyst Sale Podcast is published weekly.  We take listener questions at @catalystsale on twitter or hello@catalystsale.com via email.

Topics discussed - B2B Sales, Sales Training, Product Market Fit, Growth, Hiring, Recruitment, Sales Process, Business Acumen, Startups, Leadership.

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  2. #97 - Prospecting - Building Pipeline

#97 - Prospecting - Building Pipeline

Jul 3, 2018

Prospecting - building your well before you need a drink.

We have recently passed the mid-point of the year for most sales organizations. How does your pipeline look for the remainder of this year?  What about next year?

Q2 has wrapped up, we are moving into what many see as the most financially active period of their sales year. 

This week on the Catalyst Sale Podcast we discuss the importance of prospecting and building pipeline.  We discuss a couple of best practices, tools, and tactics.  We also discuss how you may want to approach hunting within the base using methods similar to new customer acquisition.

Questions Addressed

  • Where do you start with prospecting?
  • What are some best practices in building pipeline?
  • How do you identify the appropriate vocabulary for a given vertical?
  • What about prospecting within your existing client base?

Key Takeaways

  • Pipeline saves lives
  • Start first by defining your "Ideal customer"
  • Identify where the people who will use the product, purchase the product, or influence those who may purchase, hang out.
  • Hunting requires that you go where the customer is.
  • Best Practices
    • Stay engaged with the community that you serve
    • Read analyst reports & research relevant to the given market
    • What are some common problems that your ideal customer profile experience?
    • Use the vocabulary that the community uses
  • Tools
    • Google
    • LinkedIn/Sales Navigator
    • Questions
  • Deliver value to the audiences and communities with whom you engage.  Share experience, be genuine about your interest in solving problems within their market.
  • Ask questions with a genuine intention to learn.
  • Think about growing business within your account base as hunting within the base.
  • Use the same process, when hunting within the base.  Identify ways to expand your network within your account base.
  • Ask these questions
    • Who else cares about the problems we solve?
    • How are they addressing those problems today?
    • Who is experiencing those problems?
  • Act as an extension of your client/customer's team
  • Take a humble approach, be genuinely interested in solving problems. When you do the right things, good things tend to follow.
  • Focus on the customer
  • Prospecting is hard, but you have to keep doing it, put in the reps, do the work.
  • Set aside specific time to focus on prospecting.

Show Links

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Catalyst Sale

In every business, in every opportunity, there is someone who can help you navigate the internal challenges and close the deal.  There is a Catalyst.  We integrate process (Catalyst Sale Process), technology and people, with the purpose of accelerating revenue. Our thoughtful approach minimizes false starts that are common in emerging markets and high-growth environments. We continue to evolve our practice based on customer needs and emerging technology. We care about a thinking process that enables results versus a process that tells people what to do. 

Sales is a Thinking Process.