5 Things Every Salesperson Must Know About Their Prospects to Crush Their Quota
As a sales professional, you‘ve likely heard the old adage "knowledge is power." And when it comes to crushing your quota, knowledge about your prospects is the ultimate power-up. In fact, a study by CSO Insights found that salespeople who exceed their quota conduct at least 25% more prospect research than their peers who miss their number.
But we‘re not just talking about basic facts and figures here. Surface-level details like company size, industry and location are mere table stakes. To truly differentiate yourself and deliver maximum value to prospects, you need to dig much deeper.
According to Robert Brodo, CEO of sales training firm Advantexe Learning Solutions, there are five critical areas that elite salespeople obsess over when it comes to understanding their prospects:
- Business strategy and goals
- Industry and competitive landscape
- Organizational structure and decision-making process
- Customers and value proposition
- Key challenges and pain points
"If you don‘t know these five things about your prospects, you‘re not having worthwhile conversations," says Brodo. "You‘re just pitching blind and hoping something sticks. But when you thoroughly understand what makes your prospects tick, you can craft a tailored approach that sets you apart from the competition."
Let‘s unpack each of these areas and explore why they‘re so essential for sales success.
1. Business strategy and goals
First and foremost, you need to get inside your prospect‘s head and understand their overarching business strategy. What are they ultimately trying to achieve? What‘s their vision for the future and how are they planning to get there?
Look for clues in their mission statement, values, executive communications and public filings. Try to piece together the story of where they‘ve been, where they are now, and where they‘re heading.
Most importantly, zero in on their specific goals and priorities. According to a report by Salesforce, 84% of business buyers say that a sales rep‘s ability to align their solution to the buyer‘s goals is a major influence on their purchasing decision.
Are they aiming to hit a certain revenue target? Expand into new markets? Launch a new product line? Improve customer retention? Identify the metrics and milestones they‘re working towards so you can position your offering as an accelerator.
For example, imagine you sell marketing automation software and your prospect is a B2B SaaS startup. By digging into their business strategy, you might learn that they‘re gearing up for an IPO in the next 12-18 months. They need to hit aggressive growth targets to boost their valuation and attract investors.
Aha! Now you have a clear hook for how your solution can help them scale their lead generation efforts, convert more free trial users, and ultimately achieve the growth velocity they need for a successful IPO. By framing your software as a critical tool for executing their strategy, you immediately make your pitch more relevant and compelling than a generic list of features and benefits.
2. Industry and competitive landscape
Next, you need to develop a keen understanding of the prospect‘s industry and how they fit into the competitive ecosystem. No company operates in a vacuum, so it‘s crucial to get a handle on the broader context and external forces shaping their world.
What are the major trends and disruptions impacting their industry? Is their market growing or contracting? Are customer preferences and expectations evolving? What regulatory changes or technological advancements are on the horizon?
You should also scope out their competitive landscape and get to know the other players vying for their customers‘ dollars and mindshare. Who are their biggest rivals and how do they stack up? What are the relative strengths and weaknesses of each competitor‘s offering? How are they positioning themselves and going to market?
Having a firm grasp on the industry dynamics and competitive pressures your prospects are facing will help you empathize with their situation and tailor your approach. You can speak their language, demonstrate your industry acumen, and address their specific concerns and objectives.
For instance, let‘s say you sell supply chain management software and your prospect is a global automotive manufacturer. Your research reveals that the rise of electric and autonomous vehicles is massively disrupting their industry. Incumbent players are under intense pressure to innovate while also grappling with trade tensions, tariffs and Brexit uncertainty. Meanwhile, new entrants like Tesla are grabbing market share and shaking up the competitive landscape.
Armed with this knowledge, you can come to the table prepared to discuss how your software can help them navigate these challenges. Perhaps your AI-powered demand forecasting capabilities can help them better anticipate shifts in consumer preferences for electric vehicles. Or your blockchain-enabled smart contracts can help them manage supplier relationships across borders in the face of geopolitical uncertainty.
By framing your solution as a way to not just optimize their supply chain, but adapt to the transformational changes upending their industry, you‘ll grab their attention and earn their trust as a knowledgeable partner.
3. Organizational structure and decision-making process
Chances are, your prospect isn‘t making a buying decision in isolation. More often than not, there are multiple stakeholders and decision-makers involved, each with their own perspective, priorities and power base. According to the Harvard Business Review, the average B2B purchasing decision now involves 6.8 stakeholders.
That‘s why it‘s so important to understand your prospect‘s organizational structure and hierarchy. Who are the key players you need to influence and what are their individual roles, goals and pain points? How does the decision-making process typically work and how can you navigate it effectively?
Try to map out the org chart and the various departments, teams and titles that may be involved in the purchase. Identify your primary contact‘s boss, their boss‘s boss, and any executives who hold the purse strings. Figure out who the end users, gatekeepers, champions, detractors and final decision-maker are.
Then for each stakeholder, determine what matters most to them and how your solution can make them successful in their role. The IT director may care about security and integration, while the CFO may focus on ROI and cost savings. Tailor your messaging and value proposition accordingly.
For example, imagine you sell customer support software and your initial contact is the customer service manager. As you learn more about their organizational dynamics, you realize that the real decision-maker is the VP of Operations. And the VP has a very different set of priorities and success metrics than the manager.
While the customer service manager cares about things like first contact resolution rates and CSAT scores, the VP is more concerned with operational efficiency, cost per contact and agent turnover. To get the VP‘s buy-in, you‘ll need to build a business case focused on how your software can help them hit their targets around cost reduction and agent productivity, in addition to improving the customer experience.
By understanding each stakeholder‘s unique needs and connecting the dots across the organization, you can build consensus and grease the wheels for a faster purchasing decision.
4. Customers and value proposition
At the end of the day, your prospect is in business to serve their customers. So if you want to truly understand what makes your prospect tick, you need to walk a mile in their customers‘ shoes as well.
Who are the end users or buyers they‘re trying to reach and what are their needs, preferences and pain points? How does your prospect‘s offering solve their customers‘ problems and make their lives better? What sets them apart from other options on the market?
Take a deep dive into your prospect‘s value proposition, messaging and positioning. Analyze how they describe their products or services and the key benefits they highlight. Look for patterns and themes in their customer case studies, testimonials and reviews.
The better you understand your prospect‘s customers and how they create value for them, the more effectively you can align your own solution to their goals. You can show how your offering complements and enhances what they‘re already doing to serve their customers.
Imagine you sell payment processing software and your prospect is an e-commerce retailer. As you study their ideal customer profile and buyer personas, you learn that they primarily target millennials who value convenience, mobile-friendliness and flexible payment options. Their unique value prop is offering a wide selection of on-trend products with free and fast shipping.
With this insight, you can position your software not just as a way to securely process payments, but as a way to further optimize their mobile checkout flow, offer popular payment methods like PayPal and Apple Pay, and ultimately reduce cart abandonment. By tying your solution to the prospect‘s core value prop and target audience needs, you can demonstrate that you "get it" and are invested in their success.
5. Key challenges and pain points
Last but certainly not least, you need to zero in on your prospect‘s most pressing problems, challenges, and headaches. After all, people don‘t buy products or services – they buy solutions to their problems. And according to HubSpot, 69% of buyers say that a sales rep‘s ability to listen to their needs is the most influential factor in their purchasing decision.
What are the biggest obstacles and bottlenecks holding them back from achieving their goals? Where are they experiencing inefficiency, frustration or loss? What keeps them up at night?
Some challenges may be obvious and explicitly stated, like a prospect who tells you point-blank that they‘re struggling to generate enough qualified leads. Others may be more subtle or even hidden from view, like an unspoken tension between the sales and marketing teams that‘s hindering their ability to close deals.
It‘s your job as a salesperson to play the role of detective and uncover those underlying pain points that your prospects may not even fully recognize themselves. Ask probing questions, listen attentively, and read between the lines. The deeper you dig, the more valuable insights you‘ll reveal.
Once you‘ve identified their key challenges, you can shape your entire sales approach around addressing those specific pain points. Lead with empathy, validate their struggles, and offer your solution as the best way to alleviate their headaches and achieve their goals.
Imagine you sell project management software and your prospect is a fast-growing tech startup. On the surface, they tell you they‘re evaluating new tools to help them juggle multiple projects and meet aggressive deadlines. But as you dig deeper in your discovery conversations, you learn that the real underlying issue is a lack of visibility and alignment between teams. The product team is pushing for new features while the customer success team is bombarded with support tickets and the leadership team is in the dark on progress.
Aha! Now you have a much clearer picture of the true pain points and the domino effect they‘re having across the organization. Instead of giving a generic pitch about your software‘s scheduling and task management capabilities, you can hone in on how it enables real-time visibility, cross-functional collaboration and executive-level reporting.
You can paint a vision of a world where product and CS are on the same page, leadership has a dashboard view of key metrics, and everyone is rowing in the same direction. By getting to the heart of their deepest challenges, you can craft a message that truly resonates and makes the status quo seem intolerable.
Gathering prospect insights through research and discovery
These insights about your prospects don‘t just magically appear out of thin air. It takes a mix of in-depth research, active listening and a healthy dose of curiosity to uncover them.
Start by scouring your prospect‘s website with a fine-toothed comb. Read their "About Us" page, blog posts, product descriptions, press releases and customer stories. Follow them on social media and subscribe to their newsletter to get a feel for their voice and positioning.
Next, tap into third party sources like industry publications, analyst reports, competitor websites and review sites. Set up Google alerts for your prospect‘s name and relevant keywords. Use tools like Crunchbase, Owler and LinkedIn to learn about their funding, growth trajectory, leadership team and hiring patterns.
But some of the most valuable insights will come straight from the horse‘s mouth in your one-on-one conversations with stakeholders. Ask open-ended questions that invite them to share their perspective and elaborate on their answers:
- What‘s the biggest challenge you‘re facing right now?
- How does this problem impact your team/customers/bottom line?
- What have you already tried to address it and what were the results?
- If you could wave a magic wand and change anything, what would it be?
Listen more than you talk and give them the space to paint a vivid picture of their current reality. Take diligent notes and probe deeper to uncover the root cause behind each challenge. The better you understand their world, the more value you can ultimately deliver.
Of course, gathering these prospect insights takes time and effort. It‘s not a one-and-done activity but an ongoing process that should infuse every stage of the sales cycle. But the payoff is well worth it.
According to Forrester, companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at a 33% lower cost. And organizations that place a priority on sales enablement, including in-depth customer research, achieve a 49% win rate on their forecasted deals compared to 42.5% for those that don‘t.
Putting prospect insights into practice
Once you‘ve done the hard work of gathering insights, it‘s time to put them into action. The key is to weave them into every touchpoint and tailor your sales approach accordingly.
- Personalize your outreach: Reference specific details about their business, role or recent news to show you‘ve done your homework and grab their attention.
- Nail the discovery call: Come prepared with a list of thoughtful, relevant questions that demonstrate your understanding of their world and uncover their most pressing needs.
- Customize your demo: Skip the generic product walkthrough and zero in on the features and use cases that align with their specific goals and challenges.
- Craft a tailored proposal: Connect the dots between their pain points and your solution, using their own language and metrics to make a compelling case.
- Add value at every turn: Share relevant content, insights and advice to help them solve problems and achieve their objectives, even if it‘s not directly related to your offering.
Above all, make your prospect feel seen, heard and understood. Demonstrate that you‘re not just a salesperson pitching a product, but a trusted advisor who is deeply invested in their success.
When you lead with empathy and insight, you‘ll quickly differentiate yourself from the dozens of other reps clogging their inbox and earn the right to keep the conversation going. You‘ll position yourself as a strategic partner who brings new ideas to the table and challenges their thinking – not just an order-taker.
Bringing it all together
In the words of author and sales strategist Leeatt Rothschild, "Understand your customer better than they understand themselves." By doing the hard work to get inside your prospect‘s head and uncover what truly matters to them, you‘ll unlock a powerful advantage in every sales conversation.
But building this in-depth understanding requires more than just a quick peek at a company‘s website or a glance at their LinkedIn page. It requires a relentless commitment to research, active listening and a genuine curiosity about your prospects‘ world.
As you go deeper in your pre-call preparation and customer interviews, keep these five critical areas in mind:
- Business strategy and goals
- Industry and competitive landscape
- Organizational structure and decision-making process
- Customers and value proposition
- Key challenges and pain points
By developing a comprehensive picture of your prospect across these dimensions, you‘ll be able to craft highly relevant, insight-driven conversations that set you apart from the pack. You‘ll demonstrate that you "get it" and are uniquely positioned to help them achieve their objectives.
Of course, this level of research and preparation takes time and focus. It may mean pursuing fewer opportunities more deeply rather than spreading yourself thin across a massive pipeline.
But when you make insight gathering a priority and a habit, the impact on your sales results can be transformational. You‘ll connect with prospects on a deeper level, uncover hidden needs, and build the trust and credibility needed to win more deals.
So the next time you‘re getting ready for a sales call, ask yourself: Do I really know what makes this prospect tick? And commit to showing up as the most knowledgeable, prepared and customer-centric salesperson they‘ll ever meet.
