Finding good sales leads is hands-down the biggest priority for firms and managers in sales. If you can flood your sales team with promising leads, your bottom line and team morale will improve almost immediately.

If you can learn how to fast-track your sales prospecting, everything else will seem easier, and your team will be more successful. Try some of the following ideas to improve your team’s sales prospecting:

Make a Video

Email newsletters are not as effective as they used to be. Changes in the way Gmail categorizes email along with the sheer volume of emails flooding inboxes today has led to a steep decrease in email open rates.

Instead of using traditional email newsletters for prospecting, make videos. You can send videos in emails (with a subject line that starts with the intriguing word, “VIDEO”, you can post videos on your website or blog, and you can even use videos with social media, which we’ll explore in more depth later in this post.

Videos allow prospects to really get to know you. Even if all you’re doing in the video is introducing yourself and your services and products, viewers will feel they have a connection with you. Have you ever wished you could be in multiple places at the same time? With video, you can.

Gather Customer Referrals

When you’re in need of prospects, contact each of your customers that you’ve sold to in the past and ask them how they like your services and products. After they finish telling you what they like, ask them for referrals of people who might benefit from what you sell. 

This sales prospecting technique has several benefits. First, you can gather testimonials from your current customers, which you can then use on your website and social media. Second, your existing customers might give you names of people they know who could be your next customers. Third, if your existing customers are having any problems with your services and products, this is a great time to find out about the problems and fix them.

Try Social Media

Sales prospecting doesn’t have to be limited to phone calls and in-person sales meetings. Today, social media is a wonderful way to conduct sales prospecting campaigns. It’s inexpensive, easy to manage from anywhere, and full of possibilities.

The first thing you need to do is decide which social media platforms fit your business. If you sell primarily in B-to-B environments, LinkedIn is probably the best fit for you. If you’re selling directly to consumers, Facebook and Instagram are better. Twitter often works well for both demographics, although some industries are better suited to Twitter than others.

Use social media to share insightful articles and posts on your business web site or blog. Ask good questions to get discussions started. Always be professional, polite, and responsive on social media. You’re representing not only yourself but also the company you sell for.

When you incorporate sales prospecting into your daily routine, you fast-track your results. Keep sales prospecting in the forefront of your mind and agenda, and you and your sales team will always have plenty of opportunity.