What is sales outreach?
In short, prospecting means reaching out to potential new customers in the hope of landing a sale. In some cases, these can also be former customers who have gone "cold", i.e. you haven't done business with for a while and you want to re-establish contact. The first engagement is usually done via email, phone, social media or in person.
When you talk about what is sales outreach, you often also talk about outreach B2B sales. It's essentially the same thing, just one company reaching out to another company with the desire to sell. Although the process behind B2B sales is slightly different to B2C sales, B2B outreach is done in much the same way, so we won't differentiate between the two in the following.
3 tips for sales outreach
The first contact can be crucial in an outreach sale. That's why it's important to have some basic principles in place and to follow a sensible strategy before you start making sales leads. Here we give you 3 tips on how to do this.
1. Start with the right leads
A distinction is usually made between cold and warm leads (also called Sales Qualified Leads). A cold lead is a potential customer or buyer who has not expressed interest in your product or service. A warm lead is a potential customer or buyer who has expressed interest in your product or service in some way. It doesn't have to be in a direct or literal sense, but can also be indirect. Warm leads can be people who have signed up for your newsletter, visited your website, added a product to their basket on your webshop and sent an email to ask a question. A single interaction is typically not enough to qualify a lead as a warm lead.
Warm leads come in many forms and interest can be shown in a myriad of ways, whether digitally, in person, directly or indirectly. Regardless of how you acquire your warm leads, your sales outreach will have a far greater success rate - that is, better conversion - than if you try to sell to cold leads.
However, there is no reason to completely exclude cold leads. As long as you make sure they have some kind of relevance. For example, it would make sense to try to make a sales call to a company that is very similar to another company you've sold to before. It will technically be a cold lead as the company hasn't shown any interest, but you still have an educated guess that they could be an upsell.
2. Be active in your sales outreach
Persistence is often key. Set aside time specifically dedicated to sales outreach. Follow up with your contacts and make sure you keep the most potential ones on the fire. Your warm leads shouldn't forget about you, even if they might not be able to make the decision to make the purchase right now. This can be especially true with B2B outreach, as the decision-making process is often much longer than with B2C.
3. Use the right tools for sales outreach
Much of the process behind sales outreach can be automated. That is, you set up systems that keep in touch with your leads without your active involvement. The classic example is a newsletter.
For example, if your leads have downloaded a free lead magnet (e-book or similar) that you offer in exchange for their email address, it is important that you follow up on this lead immediately and don't let too much time pass and the lead goes cold. Therefore, set up an automatic welcome email that is sent immediately after signing up. The right tools will also help you to comply with the rules for outreach sales, also known as best practice, so that you don't violate user privacy, for example.
