Prospecting in personal selling tips & best practices

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Prospecting in Personal Selling

If you had to make a list of some of the most critical areas of any business, their sales process would undoubtedly be right at the top. There are approximately 7 steps of the selling process for most businesses, ranging from prospecting all the way up through closing a deal. Different techniques obviously work well for each person, which is why it’s always recommended to come up with a personal selling process of your own. Sure, you can get advice from people who have been around longer than you but at the end of the day, you need to put your time in to find what works for YOU and stick with it.

As stated, one of the most common sales processes is known as personal selling. As opposed to a more general type of selling where you’re trying to attract the widest possible audience, the approach in personal selling is all about building relationships with your target audience and making that personal connection a core part of the sales experience. One of the major advantages of personal selling is that it’s a far more emotional way to market products or services. Rather than just getting someone to buy into what you’re producing, they buy into your entire brand – creating a large amount of loyalty at the same time.

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One of the most important personal selling strategies out there right now takes the form of video messaging, something that can help you get your foot in the door faster, built stronger relationships, empathize with others and more. Any personal selling process PDF will tell you that video allows you to create a far more engaging experience than ever, all while adding that touch of personalization and authenticity to your message that you would never get from text alone. Your personal selling process PPT proves that using video in sales emails is by far the best way to connect with prospects and convert audiences. No matter what type of business you’re running or even the industry that you’re operating in, you should always consider it one of the most important personal selling techniques available to you.

The Methods of Personal Selling

Any seasoned marketing professional can tell you that success is all about getting the right message in front of the right person at exactly the right time. The fastest way to screw that up is to send someone a cold and impersonal piece of marketing collateral – something that begins with “Dear Sir or Madame” and gets more and more generic from there.

Personal selling approaches are essentially the opposite of this, and they bring with them a number of unique advantages that can’t be ignored. Overall, there are usually about five stages of personal selling process – although obviously this can vary depending on your specific approach. Companies that use personal selling tend to put their own spin on things, which allows them to better play to the strengths of your target audience.

Let’s say that you know it takes an average of five steps from the time someone becomes a prospect to the time they close a sale. In that case, personal selling examples might include sending someone a message to ask if they have any questions about your product or if they want to learn more information. If they continue to express interest through certain actions, you can take things a step further by offering them a free educational resource like an eBook or white paper or even a Start a free trial. Types of personal selling will also vary depending on exactly what it is you’re selling, obviously – but any personal selling PDF will usually have a structure like this one.

Using Video For Selling

But no example of personal selling process would be complete without a mention of video – a powerful resource that allows you to level up your game and increase conversion rates exponentially. Cold calling videos are a great way to start the prospecting process because they put a face to a name and personalize your message. Think about it like this: most personal selling examples PPT are all about playing to that emotional connection between you and a member of your target audience. What is more emotional than video? It’s one of the most important types of personal selling out there because people can hear the tone in your voice when you address them and they can see the look on your face as you talk about what you do and why that’s important. It’s something you can’t really match exclusively in text and it’s an opportunity you can’t afford to pass up.

Also, it’s important to note that people have been overwhelmingly clear that they want more personalized experiences than ever these days. People don’t have the patience to be “sold to” any longer. They don’t want to be bombarded with ads all day everyday on the Internet and more people than ever are streaming content in large part so that they don’t have to deal with commercials. Why, then, do you think they’d be willing to give your business a pass? Of course they wouldn’t. They want more personalized experiences than ever and that starts with the FIRST interaction with your brand, which is usually going to be some type of encounter with one or more of your sales people.

This, again, is why sales videos are a critical part of most personal selling approaches. Video adds a personal touch to your outreach and communication in a way that offers so much more to the experience than text alone ever could.

The First Step of Personal Selling – Prospecting in Sales

In terms of the personal selling process steps, the first always involves prospecting – although you can definitely say that the same is true of any sales role, really. If marketing is all about getting the right message in front of the right person at exactly the right moment in their relationship and interactions with your business, it stands to reason that you need to know as much as you can about WHO those people are. Prospecting is all about exactly that, which is why sales prospecting techniques and prospecting tactics are always so important to learn about.

Think about it like this: why waste a lot of money marketing to someone who isn’t actually all that interested in a product or service like yours to begin with? Every dollar that you spend to get someone’s attention who doesn’t need what you’re offering is only harming your return on investment, not helping it. Prospecting, on the other hand, helps you identify as many people who are most likely to become your ideal customer as possible. Sales prospecting tools help you go after only these people, thus dramatically increasing conversions and return on investment in one fell swoop.

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Prospecting Techniques

Sales prospecting techniques PDF examples also show that this is one of the most difficult parts of a sales job, due in large part to the fact that it’s so hard to get people’s attention. Our inboxes are flooded with emails that are destined for the recycle bin and our schedules are busier than ever. How, then, is a business like yours supposed to compete with that? Because of these challenges in particular, most B2B prospecting methods (along with B2C ones) include some type of video component.

Video doesn’t just increase open rates by providing potential customers with a breath of fresh air. It helps increase click through rates, response rates and more. Sending a video email is untraditional at this point, so it’s a really great way to cut through the noise of a busy inbox and get your message to the point where it can be seen AND heard. Better yet, including videos in your sales follow up emails are the best way to stand out in the inbox and get responses from your prospects.

Use A Tool For Prospecting for Personal Selling

Using a sales video prospecting tool like Covideo makes this type of prospecting easy, efficient and effective. Rather than typing a plain text email, you can use the best sales tool, Covideo, to record your message and send it via email or text – right from the smartphone, mobile device or computer that you’re already using. When the recipient opens your email, your video will be the first thing that they see – thus guaranteeing that your message is experienced on your own terms.

Plus, these are all one-off videos – creating a great opportunity for highly personalized content that is literally specific to one person. All told, personalized videos and personal selling are truly the ultimate sales strategy for a business like yours – and that is one trend that shows absolutely no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

If you’d like to find out more information about prospecting in personal selling and adding video email to your sales toolkit, contact Covideo today. Note that if you want, you can also start using our industry leading solution immediately via a totally free, 7 day, no risk and no obligation trial. That’s right – you don’t even have to put in a credit card to sign up and see how Covideo fits into your business. Just contact one of our sales professionals and they’ll take it from there.

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