Sales Targeting: Prospecting with a Customer-First Mindset

Guest Post by Jimmy Comodeca

Sales targeting is a critical aspect of any successful outbound strategy that involves identifying prospects who are most likely to purchase your product or service and then pursuing them in a strategic and relevant way. 

Many companies prospect in a way that involves building large lists of prospects that match a few characteristics of their ideal customer profile. Once the list is created, sales reps have to research and personalize their outreach to each individual prospect, which can be a time-consuming and tedious process. 

Unfortunately, this often results in low response rates and low meeting rates, as the messaging can come across as generic and lacking in relevance to the individual prospect. Additionally, this approach can often overlook trigger points that may be more relevant to the prospect, resulting in missed opportunities for meaningful conversations.

Changing Your Approach to Outreach 

A better approach to sales targeting is to prospect with a customer-first mindset. Reverse the process. Instead of downloading a large list from a database and then finding a reason to reach out, instead, find a reason to reach out to somebody and build the list from there.

This means focusing on the prospect’s activities and pain points and tailoring your approach to their specific situation. By doing this, you can increase your chances of booking more meetings and closing more deals.

Here are some tips for prospecting with a customer-first mindset:

1. Identify trigger points: The first step in prospecting with a customer-first mindset is to identify trigger points that are relevant to your product or service. These trigger points could be prospect activity on social media, changes in industry regulations, upcoming events, or new technology trends. By identifying these trigger points, you can find potential customers who may be interested in your offering.

   Scenario 1: You're selling a solution that creates interactive PDFs instead of traditional PDFs and you want to target companies that recently published new whitepapers or ebooks in a PDF format. These trigger points can help you narrow down your list of prospects and increase your chances of success.

2. Bucket your prospects: Once you have identified potential customers, it's essential to bucket them into different sequences based on their trigger points. This will allow you to have more targeted conversations and increase the likelihood of booking a meeting.

   Scenario 2: You create a sequence for companies that have recently published content using PDFs, and another sequence for companies that are using a competitor product. By doing this, you can tailor your messaging and approach to each group of prospects, increasing the likelihood of success.

3. Find a reason to reach out: Before reaching out to a potential customer, find a reason to do so. This could be as simple as congratulating them on a recent award or asking for their opinion on a relevant topic. By finding a reason to reach out, you will come across as more genuine and less salesy.

   Scenario 3: You're targeting a company that has recently published a new ebook, so you reach out to share what caught your eye about it and offer to share how your solution can help enhance their content creation. This approach shows that you are genuinely interested in helping the customer and not just trying to sell them something.

4. Personalize your message: When reaching out to a potential customer, it's crucial to personalize your message based on their trigger point and the reason for reaching out. This will make the conversation more relevant and increase the likelihood of booking a meeting.

   Scenario 4: You're reaching out to a company that is continuing to put out content, so you start the conversation by discussing recent content creation trends and asking for their opinion on how their organization is addressing these trends. This approach shows that you are genuinely interested in the customer's perspective and can help establish a rapport that can lead to a sale.

Targeted Conversations and Outcomes

Prospecting with a customer-first mindset is critical for any successful sales strategy. By identifying trigger points, bucketing your prospects, finding a reason to reach out, and personalizing your message, you can increase your chances of booking more meetings and closing more deals.

The customer-first approach to sales targeting focuses on the needs and interests of the customer, which lead to more targeted conversations and more successful outcomes. So, when prospecting for potential customers, always put the customer first, and you'll be on your way to building strong relationships and closing more sales.

Jimmy Comodeca

Jimmy Comodeca is the founder and main author of The SDR Newsletter, a weekly email newsletter that provides actionable tactics, tips, tools, and information related to being a successful SDR. Jimmy has a record of building and leading multiple successful SDR teams, driving revenue growth as an accomplished Account Executive, and contributing as a content creator to multiple sales communities.