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Unconventional Prospect Research: Go Beyond the Basics
Effective sales require understanding a prospect’s needs. Traditional methods like LinkedIn are useful, but exploring less conventional approaches can offer deeper insights.
We gathered insights from sales leaders on their unique prospect research techniques.
1. Listen to Online Complaints
Marcin Pienkowski suggests monitoring online complaints to uncover prospects’ pain points. Look beyond press releases and LinkedIn. Decision-makers often reveal problems in competitor threads, industry discussions, Glassdoor reviews, and even quick comments on Twitter or Reddit.
Identify patterns in their complaints to understand their challenges. When approaching them, frame the issue in an open-ended way. For example: “Many teams in your space tell me [specific problem] keeps coming up. Does that ring true for you?”
This allows prospects to share their experiences, making sales conversations more effective. Grasping their pain points beforehand puts you in a better position.
2. Monitor Social Media and Digital Communities
Ryan T. Murphy uses social media to understand B2B technology trends. Monitoring platforms helps him curate product offerings that match current market needs.
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