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Business prospecting may seem like a daunting task. It’s an essential part of the sales process, but some business owners might not know where to start, especially if they haven’t acted as a sales professional before. Thankfully, prospecting small business owners who are selling business-to-business (B2B for short) can succeed with the right tips and sales strategies.
Small business prospecting can be quite manageable. All a business owner needs is the right tools, including both online and offline prospecting tools. This guide walks through the basic steps of prospecting, some of the best tools to use (both online and offline), and more.
How to Begin Prospecting Small Business Owners
Prospecting is part art and part science. There isn’t a script that a business owner can read off and immediately succeed at winning new clients. But by following a few basic steps, business owners can get started with their prospecting efforts.
Identify the target audience
All businesses face problems that need solving. And odds are, another business might be able to solve that problem. So what problems can the company solve for other businesses?
Once a business owner figures out which problems their own company can solve, they can build a more detailed demographic profile for their target market, including age, gender, and location. All of those factors are extremely important to the prospecting process when an entrepreneur is looking for new business. With the target audience defined, a business owner can tailor their messages to market to the exact businesses that will be helped by their product or service.
Identify online prospecting strategies
Today, a face-to-face meeting isn’t the only way to make a sales presentation. There are lots of ways that business owners can make outreach efforts online, too. Social media is a prime example of this. But just posting willy-nilly on a few different platforms isn’t a good approach, either. Business owners should carefully research which social media platforms will be most valuable to help them reach their target companies.
Identify offline sales prospecting strategies
Offline means of prospecting have been around since the beginning of time, it seems. Offline prospecting is getting out and hitting the pavement to generate leads for a business. Going out and mingling with other business owners at a networking event would be just one example of offline prospecting, especially if an owner shares their contact details or business card. Cold calling is another example, but it can have mixed success.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though. The rest of this guide will dig into some specific tools and strategies to prospect for new business.
Here’s a quick glance at the different tools this guide will cover.
Online Business Tools for Prospecting Clients
- Social Media
- E-newsletter
- Website
- Forums
Offline Prospecting Tools
- Telephone
- Direct Mail
- Trade Shows
- Door To Door
- Television
- Radio
Online Prospecting Tools to Find New Business
Now it’s time to cover online prospecting tools in greater detail. Online prospecting tools can have a lot of advantages, including convenience, affordability, and more.
Using email for business prospects is an excellent tool because it’s fast, reliable, free, and accessible almost anywhere in the world. Any owner can send emails about what their company offers, helping a prospect get a glance at how excellent the product or service is.
To be successful, it’s essential to use attractive, compelling email titles. Bland titles run the risk of never getting opened, losing a potential client before the conversation even starts.
Some pros find it helpful to create a video email for a more visual contact. These videos don’t even have to be very long; they just give prospective clients a face to match the name of the business that’s reaching out. Sometimes, a little personability can go a long way.
Social Media
Social media actually gives a business multiple communication channels to take advantage of. What’s essential is choosing the best platform for the target market. Here’s specific information about prospecting on LinkedIn, FaceBook, X, and Instagram.
Every business owner should know what LinkedIn is; it’s a monster platform for business professionals and owners. The platform is a great resource for finding new hires and making valuable business connections. In terms of prospecting, LinkedIn can make an owner’s efforts smoother and quicker.
Here are some great tips for using LinkedIn to prospect small business owners.
1. Connect and attract
What some business owners don’t realize is that some of their existing contacts on LinkedIn could be their most valuable. After all, those contacts don’t require a completely cold outreach; there’s already a connection.
But if a business owner doesn’t have work-related connections (or they aren’t on LinkedIn yet), they’ll need to get connecting. The advantage of LinkedIn lies in the fact that connections can have an exponential reach; making a connection with one owner potentially allows a professional to connect with some of that person’s connections as well. Contact potential on LinkedIn is almost endless.
Here’s a good rule of thumb: when an entrepreneur meets someone at a seminar or trade show for their specific industry, they should follow up and connect with that person on LinkedIn as soon as possible. That helps prompt the other person to look at their profile, and hopefully, the entrepreneur can make other meaningful connections through them as well.
2. Know the target inside and out
B2B marketing can be challenging, but a nice thing about LinkedIn is that companies tend to put a lot of work into their LinkedIn pages. And that information can be a competitive advantage for a business owner who’s building their sales pitch for that prospect.
For example, many LinkedIn pages talk about the company location, how many employees it has, who its employees are, projects the business is currently working on, its goals, and the products and services it offers. For a prospecting business owner, that’s a gold mine of information. It’s all most owners need to know if their product or service would be valuable to that potential client. If it’s a good fit, they can make initial contact; if not, they can move on to other prospects.
3. Take advantage of groups for lead generation
LinkedIn groups can be an excellent source for leads because they bring together people with the same interests, skills, and needs. These groups can give business owners a way to learn about the types of businesses they’re targeting and make new connections as well.
Groups can provide an entrepreneur with:
- Information about happenings with a prospects’ businesses, any plans they’re working on, if they’re in the market to hire, and more
- Increased connections, especially with people they might not meet in person easily
- More intel on the business owner on a personal level
4. Transform personal LinkedIn profiles
If an owner of a small business wants to connect with leads on LinkedIn, they need to turn their profile into a lead generation profile. After all, they’ve already reached out through connections and groups, so others are hopefully coming to their profile to check them out.
So the owner’s profile needs to be a selling machine — the more information they put about their business, the better chance that they’ll get sales. Many owners find it helpful to ask existing clients (and past ones) to add recommendations to their profile to showcase how great their business is. Great reviews can be a great way to assure a prospective client that the company is worth hiring.
A professional photo can’t be overlooked, either. Business owners should make a great first impression with a current, professional headshot on their LinkedIn profile.
5. Publish, publish, publish
Publishing daily on a LinkedIn page is essential for getting the business out there and gaining authority within the industry. Other small business owners will want to know they’re dealing with a company that knows what they’re doing.
By publishing new content daily (or at least a few times a week), an entrepreneur can show prospects that they’re a real go-getter who’s passionate about their business. For example, a business owner could publish articles that explain what problems the target market is facing and provide some solutions to those problems. Content creation is an excellent form of digital marketing that helps a business create trust and build credibility with their target audience.
Facebook is another social media giant. With over three billion monthly users, almost 40% of the world’s population uses the platform. That means Facebook can be a valuable asset for reaching other small business owners.
Even if a small business owner hasn’t created a company website yet, there’s a good chance they’ve set up a Facebook account. Here are some tips for using Facebook as a prospecting tool:
1. Update the business profile
Always keep a Facebook business profile current. Make sure to include the business contact info, along with the services and products on offer.
2. Use the CTA button
Make use of the CTA (call-to-action button) located under the cover photo on the business profile. Some essential CTA buttons for a business page include:
- Call Now
- Contact Us
- Call Now
- Message Us
3. High-quality content is a must
Frequent and high-quality content is a must when using Facebook for small business prospects. For example, a business owner might share their latest blog post, provide an industry tip, or highlight customer testimonials.
The more that a company posts top-quality content on Facebook, the more potential traffic they’ll see on their site, which can lead to more sales and prospects. If a business owner has employees, they can ask their staff to share the business page (if they’re willing) to reach more people.
4. Engage with the audience
Try to engage as much as possible on Facebook. One advantage of Facebook is that it allows users to send message requests to people who aren’t “friends,” so it’s possible to make a “cold call” on the site. This means any business owner can (politely) reach out to a lot of prospects, even if they haven’t made contact yet.
If a business has a sales team, they can be a big help with these efforts.
X (Formerly Twitter)
X, formerly known as Twitter, is an excellent tool for getting information out fast and to the point. Lots of businesses have an account on X, so if an entrepreneur doesn’t have one yet, they may want to consider getting one.
If a business owner uses X for prospecting, they can expect to find new ways to connect with other businesses and potentially grow their business.
See below for prospecting tips using Twitter:
1. #Hashtags are golden
When using Twitter, hashtags and keywords are extremely important, so it’s prudent for a business owner to identify what those words are for the target market and use them A LOT. It’s a quick way to get word out to prospects about what the business stands for and what it does.
Keywords need to be monitored, though; they can change fast. X Pro provides tools for watching these keywords (through a paid tool formerly known as TweetDeck).
Hashtags must be employed frequently, and it’s helpful to post often so prospects see new content often.
2. Follow competitors and their followers
One perk of social media is that it allows a business owner to follow their competitors and the people who hire that competitor. Knowing what the competition is doing (and what their customers are doing) can be invaluable for a new business. Plus, many people will follow back the businesses that follow them, building brand awareness.
This social media platform is on fire right now; everyone with a business wants a piece of Instagram. While the other social media platforms are more focused on written content, Instagram is mainly visual. People love pictures and videos, and Instagram provides that content in spades.
To succeed on this platform, a business owner needs to establish the right connections. It’s prudent to know exactly who to target. Here are some tips for Instagram success.
1. Create ads targeting the appropriate people
When setting up ads on Instagram, it’s crucial to reach the target audience. To reach their target audience, a business owner can set up their ads based on interests, demographics, and age, along with anything else they think will attract the target audience.
2. #Hashtags
Like X, Instagram is big on hashtags. Use hashtags as much as possible, and look out for ones that could potentially bring in sales.
Searching for hashtags can open the door for business, as they will show numerous potential customers right on the screen.
3. Engage, engage, engage
Instagram is not only about visuals, but it’s massive on engagement, as well. The most successful businesses engage with their followers daily.
Here are the basics of engagement: once a business finds its target audience, it can follow them and like and comment on their content, too. It’s also prudent for the business to reply to comments on its own posts, reels, and stories. Every interaction with a post tells Instagram’s algorithm that the content under discussion is valuable, increasing the odds it’ll get presented to other users on the app.
Instagram also has a DM tool (direct message) that lets a business send more in-depth information to a single user.
Consistency goes a long way when it comes to engagement. Even a few small interactions every day can help build an audience (and eventually, a customer base).
E-Newsletter
Sending out e-newsletters to small business owners can be significant. E-newsletters are usually sent out monthly or weekly, depending on what a business owner decides is best for them.
They might not be fancy, but they’re a valuable type of marketing email. Just be sure to write them well, and don’t send them too often (or else recipients will hit that “unsubscribe” button in a hurry).
Forums
Using a forum for prospecting business can be a useful tool because people who use forums often have a problem they need solved or a question they need answered. That means a business owner has potential customers right at their fingertips; they can provide the help that the user needs right away, maybe even turning them into potential buyers.
Many forums are free to use. That said, it’s important for a business owner to prioritize the sites where their ideal customers are.
Websites
In this digital-centric age, it’s essential to have a website. Even a simple one gives website visitors a chance to see what a business offers in a convenient location. Whether they want to learn about pricing, location, opening hours, or the company history, the website lets them learn what they need quickly.
It’s also possible to add a marketplace to a company website, driving sales for product-based businesses. Some customers even prefer online shopping.
Here are some tips business owners can use to prospect through their website:
- Place call-to-actions throughout the site
- Write audience-targeted content, and lots of it
- Keep the blog current and engaging
- Highlight problems the company can solve within blog posts
- Create a page for testimonials and recommendations
- Personalize all blog posts. Let prospects know that the people running the company care about them and can solve their problems.
Offline Prospecting Tools
Sometimes, good old-fashioned methods are really valuable for prospecting, too. Here are some essential prospecting methods that don’t require an internet connection.
Telephone
The good old telephone is one of the simplest offline prospecting tools. It’s been used for a long time and is a great way to have a one-on-one conversation with another business owner.
Here are some tips for using a telephone to prospect a small business owner:
- Research the business(es) to contact
- Create a “script/template” for what the conversation will cover
- Practice (have a mock version of the conversation before calling)
- When phoning, make the call informative and personal
- Let the prospect know how they will be able to reach the business.
- Set up a date for a follow-up, if needed
Direct Mail
Sending out mass mailers to prospects is another offline prospecting tool. Small business owners are more likely to open mail addressed to them personally than the average consumer.
Tips for using direct mail for prospecting small business owners:
- Define the target audience.
- Research the target audience.
- Write a compelling letter to make the reader want more.
- End the letter with how the prospect can reach out for more information.
- Let them know when a follow-up will happen.
Trade Shows
A great way to meet new prospects face-to-face is at a trade show. Trades shows give potential new customers a great deal of information about a company and the people they’d be partnering with in a business relationship.
Here are some tips for using trade shows to prospect:
- Find out who’s going to be at the trade show.
- Create a brochure about the business and what it has to offer.
- Provide “swag” (promotional products) with the company logo to give away.
- Provide a sample bag if the business sells products.
- Create flyers with discounts (for service-only businesses).
- Offer a prize if potential clients leave their business cards.
- Be friendly, professional, and personal.
- Keep a box of business cards to hand out to everyone who stops by the booth.
Door to Door
This form of offline prospecting has been around for ages. Here are some tips to help prospecting small business owners using the door-to-door method.
- Decide who to visit by researching potential customers.
- Have brochures ready to go.
- Have samples ready to go if the business sells a product.
- Be confident.
- Dress professionally.
- Bring swag.
- Set up a follow-up meeting or phone call.
Radio and Television
It’s also possible to use radio and television to reach countless potential customers. Radio and video have been used for decades by businesses trying to reach out to their prospects.
This method can work well due to the repetitiveness and catchy jingles. Most people have a jingle or two that they could hum or sing perfectly from memory.
Here are some tips for using radio and television for prospecting.
- Have the marketing team create a catchy ad for the target audience.
- Find a reputable marketing firm that can help broadcast the ads.
And there they are: lots of easy steps for working with online and offline prospecting tools to reach small business owners. Now it doesn’t seem so big and scary, does it? Business owners can just pick the method they think will work best for them and their company.
For many businesses, online prospecting is a very viable option. Many business owners won’t get a sale on their first try (no matter what method they choose), but with persistence, they can achieve success and grow their companies.
Good luck!
Sources:
- https://www.peoplekeep.com/blog/10-sales-tips-for-prospecting-small-and-medium-businesses-smbs
- https://www.nfib.com/content/resources/marketing/small-business-sales-6-strategies-for-prospecting-56561/
