Skip to content

Sales

How to build an effective sales prospect list and crush your sales in 2024

Building an effective sales prospect list and achieving exceptional sales results is a goal shared by businesses across industries. Around 40% of businesses believe that prospecting is one of the hardest parts of sales. Thus, a well-curated prospect list is a foundation for successful sales strategies, enabling businesses to identify and target potential customers who are most likely to convert. However, creating such a list requires careful planning and the implementation of proven techniques.

In this article, we will discuss the strategies you need to include in your sales approach to unlock the full potential of your sales efforts and surpass your sales targets with confidence. Let’s get started: 

Benefits of having an effective sales prospect list

Around 72% of businesses with less than 50 new sales opportunities monthly could not achieve their business goals. Most of these businesses fail because they can’t get the appropriate information. 

Here are some of the major benefits of opting for an effective sales prospect list:

  • More sales: When you have a prominent sales prospect list, you can generate extra sales every month. Since you’d be aware of the opportunities available, the team can work towards it. 
  • Increase revenue: More sales eventually translate to more revenue. You can reinvest, expand your team, and get more insights through better campaigns. 
  • Gain insights: You will gradually notice a pattern of behavior in your customers. Once you know your ideal customer, you can target them for better product development and marketing. 

10 tips for building an effective sales prospect list and boosting sales in 2024

A prominent sales approach will play an essential role in closing the deals. They will further help in building longer-lasting relationships with clients. If you’re not maintaining the sales prospect list thoroughly, around 50% of your overall sales will go into unproductive prospecting. 

Here are some of the major tips for how to build an effective sales prospect list and crush your sales in 2024:

Research your prospects

One of the main parts of sales prospecting is researching who your prospects are. This will play an essential role in improving the value you provide. 

You need to know what types of prospects you can work with and how to prioritize them. The prospects you choose must be in your industry. Once you know them, the path becomes clearer.

Stay true to what you promise

If you do not have a strong connection with your prospects, the entire relationship might be ruined. If you are promising them anything, you must stick to it. If you have poor follow-through, it can harm your business’s credibility. 

When interacting with your prospects, you must promise them what you can deliver. During this stage, your research and development team can help you understand what your prospects are most interested in. 

sales prospect list - Oneflow

Source: Quora

Being true to your words can have a more positive impact than you imagine. For example, an OTT platform like Amazon Prime constantly offers value to its customers by adding what they are looking for. 

sales prospect list - Oneflow

Source: Hunter.io

Value data over opinions

It is anticipated that by 2025, around 60% of B2B sales organizations will move from intuition-based selling to data-driven. If you rely on opinions over data, you cannot figure out what your business deals with the most. 

Whereas if you are making business decisions based on data, you will be able to avoid a lot of unnecessary debate. As a result, it can also help you make better decisions and bring better changes to your business. For instance, social listening tools can gather the necessary data and inform your decision making.

When you follow a data-driven sales approach for your business, you can get engagement leads and create prospects. 

sales prospect list - Oneflow

Source: Techradar

Let’s take Netflix, for example. As one of the largest OTT or streaming platforms in today’s time, they are very data-oriented. They use the data they gather not only for content creation but also to create recommendation algorithms. Netflix brought back the series “Arrested Development”, which was going to be no longer available, solely relying on the data that it was quite popular. 

Have personalized outreach sequences

Personalized outreach sequences can bring a lot of positive change to your business. When you balance personalization in your sales prospect list, you can grow exponentially. 

One of the key ways to personalize email marketing outreach is to create different segments from your prospect list. To create these sequences, you must divide the entire list into high-priority and low-priority. 

Always make sure to verify the emails so that you can prioritize the prospects before you send an email to them. 

sales prospect list - Oneflow

Source: Hubspot Knowledge Base

One big brand nailing the personalized outreach sequence is Hubspot. Their outreach messages are completely based on what the users prefer. They use all necessary data about their customers in the CRM platform and eventually provide personalised emails. 

Know how to connect

To increase your sales prospect list, you should know how to connect with them. Rather than just sticking to the analysis process, businesses, in the initial stages, must make appropriate decisions regarding how to connect. 

Knowing the best outreach method will help you access appropriate information. There are various lead research services that you can use to connect with your audience. It is advisable to create a database to access all the information about your customers. 

While creating the database, it is essential to categorize the information concerning email, phone, or social media. You can utilize LinkedIn email finder to easily automate the process of collecting email addresses associated with potential leads or contacts and then categorize them accordingly. This will play an important role in getting your sales up and determining success for your business. 

Warm up your prospects 

Getting bombarded with proposals and sales pitches can be quite frustrating. It can lead to your customers canceling you, and eventually, it will end the conversation. 

Following an approach to warm your customers will help you connect with the audience. Although it will take multiple conversations, it will eventually be worth it. They will take the time to hear your pitch if you’re warm and connecting with them. 

When you warm up your prospects, it increases the chance of success in business. 

Automate follow-ups

Automating follow-ups is essential to maintaining consistent and timely communication with your sales prospects. By utilizing customer relationship management (CRM) software or sales automation tools, you can schedule automated emails or reminders, ensuring that no prospect falls through the cracks. 

sales prospect list - Oneflow

Source: Intellipat

This approach saves time, eliminates manual errors, and increases efficiency in managing your sales pipeline. For example, Salesforce automates all their emails and even follow-ups. This has been helping them streamline their business processes and customer acquisition. 

sales prospect list - Oneflow

Source: Upscale

Have an omnichannel follow-up

Engaging prospects through multiple channels is crucial for effective sales prospecting with best sales prospecting tools available instead of relying solely on one communication channel, such as email, leverage a combination of channels like phone calls, social media, and even in-person meetings when possible. 

An omnichannel approach allows you to reach prospects where they are most active, increasing the likelihood of catching their attention and driving meaningful conversations.

Collaborate with departments

Collaboration with different departments within your organization, such as marketing and customer service, can provide valuable insights and support for your sales prospecting efforts. 

Work closely with the marketing team to align messaging and ensure a consistent brand experience across different touchpoints. Engaging in customer service can provide valuable feedback and help address any customer concerns that may arise during the sales process, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction and boosting sales conversions.

Ask for feedback

Feedback from prospects and customers is invaluable for refining your sales process and improving customer satisfaction. Actively seek feedback by sending post-sales surveys, conducting follow-up calls, utilizing customer feedback platforms, or leveraging gamification software to incentivize and engage customers in providing feedback. 

Analyze the feedback received to identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments to your sales approach. By listening to your prospects and customers, you can better understand their needs and expectations, ultimately increasing your chances of converting them into loyal customers.

sales prospect list - Oneflow

Source: eComEngine

Amazon follows a very customer-centric approach. They request customer feedback to ensure they provide a good experience. This helps them get an insight into what the customers are seeking and how they can experience it better. 

The main points

Building an effective sales prospect list and successfully crushing your sales requires a strategic and systematic approach. By automating follow-ups, you can ensure consistent communication and prevent leads from slipping through the cracks. 

Implementing an omnichannel follow-up strategy allows you to reach prospects through multiple channels, maximizing your chances of engagement and conversion. Collaborating with different departments provides valuable insights and support to optimize your sales efforts. 

Furthermore, actively seeking feedback from prospects and customers helps refine your sales process and enhance customer satisfaction. So, by implementing these strategies, you can build a robust sales prospect list and achieve remarkable success in driving sales growth.

Explore contract magic!

Prev:

Candidate experience: A complete guide

Next:

What is a digital handshake? A simple guide

Related articles

The 20 best Docusign alternatives in 2024 - Oneflow
Contracts

The 20 best DocuSign alternatives you need to know about

Insights from real users -  The secrets to better contract negotiations - Oneflow
Contracts

Insights from real users: The secrets to better contract negotiations

Why ISO 9001 should be a decisive factor in choosing a vendor? - Oneflow
Work & Culture

Why ISO 9001 should be a decisive factor in choosing a vendor?

How to effectively apply data analysis to sales operations? - Oneflow
Sales

How lessons from data analysis apply to sales operations according to Mentimeter’s Francisca Alliende

Why-email-is-no-longer-enough-for-contract-communication? - Oneflow
Contracts

It’s soon 2025: Why email is no longer enough for contract communication

Så bygger du en karriär inom B2B-sälj: Från säljpraktikant till säljinfluencer - Jan Mundorf
Sales

How to build a B2B sales career by Pleo’s sales intern turned sales influencer Jan Mundorf

The role of AI in contract negotiation - Oneflow
Sales

Understanding sales data: What it is and how it works

Leadership and ISO certification - Oneflow
Work & Culture

Leadership and ISO certification: Why it’s more than just a checkbox

Why using free digital signature tools could be a risky move? - Oneflow
Electronic Signature

Why using free digital signature tools could be a risky move for your startup?