Prospects, or potential customers, are the fuel for the sales pipeline. Every prospect represents a possible sale, making it important to grow your base of prospects.

Prospecting is used to expand the size of the p...

The sales process moves from cold leads → to warm opportunities → to hot deals. Prospecting is what happens in-between.

• Sales and marketing source leads. Leads are unqualified prospects and come from marketing or sales.
• Sales qualify leads into pro...

1. Follow the prospect before you connect with them.
2. Find them in groups. Join and engage in groups where your prospect is active.
3. Hype them up. Follow the prospect's activity and help to up engagement.

We need to study prospects and be relevant when we reach out to them.

Steps to find an authentic common ground that gives traction to the relationship:

• Lean on customer relationship management (CRM). CRM technology helps to keep all your inter...

Questions to help you qualify a prospect:

Is this the right person?

• Does the prospect match your ideal customer profile?
• Are they interested in your product?
• Can they influence the deal or even decide to purchase?

You won't get far with prospects by repeating the same general information on your company's website.

To go deep with them, you'll need to learn their accent and become knowledgeable about their lives at work. Learn about specific industry trends, their companies and their lives.

It's not about closing the deal but about closing every step of the deal.

• Obsess over the next step. End the conversation with a question. "Can we connect for five minutes after you've taken a look?"
• Advance but qualify. Prospecting is about mo...