Focusing your sales efforts by using a targeted approach to selling can help you become a more effective and prolific sales producer. Targeted sales efforts can help you find the right prospects at the right time, reducing objections and other hurdles to a sale. Here are three ways targeting your sales efforts can benefit you.

1. You Can Find the Audience Looking For Your Solutions

It is far easier to make your sales goals when your audience is receptive. Targeting your sales efforts can make sure that the majority of leads and prospects you meet are ready to hear and interested in your sales message, which in the long run has the effect of reducing your overall sales efforts. If your sales efforts are targeted to the right audience, you can find ready buyers by:

• Analyzing the types of accounts that buy from you most, and seeking out similar account types for better sales success.
• Looking at undeveloped niches that likely have a need for your products and services. Do research on the companies expanding in or moving into your area or territory to find these niches.
• Finding new applications for your offerings. Maybe a prospect or customer made an offhand remark about how your offering could be used that deserves following up, or a newly established industry could benefit from corollary uses for your primary products and services.

2. You Can Find the Influencers Who Make a Difference

Your sales efforts will go further if you target those efforts to find and position yourself with the decision makers who have the strongest influence on the buying decision. Sales influencers can take many forms, but the ones with which you most want to work and with whom your sales efforts will have the most impact are:

• Guides. These influencers are often found in decision making committees, and their primary purpose is to identify and analyze opportunities. If you can target your sales efforts to a guide with influence, he or she can be converted to a valuable supporter for your sales message.
• Devil’s Advocates. These influencers are highly analytical and need to have all the facts before beginning to commit to a deal. However, if you can direct your sales efforts and recruit a devil’s advocate to your side of the bargaining table, you have a strong opening to sell.
• Authorities. Authority influencers may be the most valuable direction for your sales efforts, because an authority has so much influence that if he or she believes in a deal chances are good that his or her opinion will carry the sale.

3. You Can Build Rapport More Quickly

After you identify a target for your sales efforts, the sales process must begin quickly in order to ensure that your sales message is heard and acted upon. If your sales efforts are targeted, it is easier to begin building rapport immediately because you have a better idea of who your prospect is and why you chose to call that particular person. Your initial research in your early sales efforts allows you to plan the best methods of establishing your credibility and building interest with a prospect even before he or she picks up the phone. Targeted sales efforts also allow you to build rapport by:

• Preparing a script that speaks to the prospect’s unique business needs and interests.
• Customizing the benefits of your offering to the prospect’s likely situation, which can be confirmed early in the initial sales call.
• Knowing enough about the prospect between pre-call research and the first thirty seconds of the initial sales call to clinch interest and close an appointment.

Targeting your sales efforts is a more effective way to reach out to leads and prospects and meet your sales goals. Analyze your current sales efforts and look for ways to begin incorporating a more targeted approach so that you can see better results from your outreach.