Your prospect list should be the foundation of your sales strategy. It should be the very first thing your sales team does to prepare for any type of sales or marketing activity – be it cold calling or a full-on target account program. A strategically developed and validated prospect list is the most important element to any successful sales program. Yet it is often the most neglected part of the sales process. 

The best prospect lists are made, not bought.
By this I don’t mean you cannot start with a purchased list. Hoovers, Dun & Bradstreet or even appropriate publications and associations are great channels to gather potential sales targets. But you cannot stop there. These lists are fantastic until about 60 seconds after you purchase them. Without a good degree of validation from sales teams – meaning actively reaching out to each contact and verifying that they are still at the company and their contact information is still correct, they get stale very quickly. Once you have the right information in your system, you can use it as part of a Keep-in-Touch (KIT) Program or Target Account Program (TAP).  

Know your target.
The best way to identify the right target for your company is to know what you are looking for. Take a look at your current clients. Who are your best clients right now? Who are your ideal clients, those you wish you were doing business with? Are your best clients also your ideal clients? If not, why not? Questions like these will help you narrow down the type of prospects you would like to go after. It will also help you segment prospects into categories – “A list” are those prospects who fit your “ideal” criteria, “B list” may be prospects who would be good to have in your client base, but not as ideal as the “A list”, and so on. Moving clients from the “B list” to the “A list” are important too. Once you know who you want and their priority for your firm, your sales team has a much clearer plan of attack and can more productively spend their time getting the right business. 

Know your list.
Once you have a base list of prospects, your team should make sure that list is up-to-date and accurate. Nothing says “uninterested in my business” like a campaign targeted to the CIO who left 10 months prior. I remember a firm who developed a high-end, multi-week direct mail campaign to CIOs. The campaign theme was on target, the message compelling and the giveaways were interesting. Management asked the sales team for its “top tier” prospects to be included in the program. All was set and the campaign launched. Then, nothing. What happened? Come to find out when management “took a closer look” at the prospect lists their sales team swore by, they realized over 50% of the e-mails were incorrect, resulting in only half of the campaign reaching targeted prospects. Not to mention that many of the targets were no longer with those organizations. It’s no wonder the campaign ROI was low. It starts with knowing your list, knowing your targets.  

Grow and nurture your list.
Your prospect list should be a growing part of your business. As you interact with targets on your list, they will move up and down in priority as their needs and interests change. Some “B list” folks may move up to the “A list” and conversely some “A list” targets may be demoted to a “B list” prospect. But, regardless of where on the list your targets fall, they should never be ignored. The point of prioritizing your prospect list is to identify who gets your most immediate and fervent attention – not who gets attention, period. Keeping constant communication with your list is the only way to keep it current. Communication vehicles such as Keep-In-Touch (KIT) Programs or Target Account Programs (TAP) are great ways to do just that. 

Adding to your list.
The best way to grow your prospect list is what we call the “homegrown” approach. This isn’t an earth-shattering revelation. Basically, you add people with whom you’ve come in contact and had a chance to interact and evaluate. It may be someone from a conference, networking lunch or little league. It could be online leads, such as those from LinkedIn or Facebook.  

Don’t forget your current accounts.
If you haven’t captured 100% of your current clients’ business then they should be on your prospect list. Different departments, sister divisions, the list goes on. Use your loyal clients within these businesses to help you spread the word. Penetration programs targeting specific companies are a great way to give you an edge over outside competition. In any sales program, never forget to include your current clients and penetration leads. 

Quality over quantity.
Wouldn’t you rather invest time and resources into 100 solid prospects who will get you the type of business that will move your company forward than in 1,000 prospects who may end up wasting your time and resources?  

A little due diligence, some solid prioritizing and a program of constant communication can help you develop relationships with leads that will pay off well into the future.   

Document list activity.
One last step, crucial to the success of your prospect list, is documenting your activity in a Contact Management System (CMS). While it can be a hassle to keep up, the CMS helps you manage your prospects and keep track of who you called or reached out to, and when. Depending on the CMS your company uses, you can even track the success of your marketing campaigns. It also helps with metrics, so you know personally how much activity you require to meet your goals. When your prospect list is managed properly, at campaign time you can more easily pull your list of contacts and know you’ll see a greater return. And isn’t that the reason for your list in the first place?

Jessica Castaneda
Marketing Director
ClearEdge Marketing

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 7:09 pm and is filed under Business & Marketing Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.