---

Guest post by: Kendra Lee Become an Author

Tweet

---

---

Prospecting has never been harder – or easier. Yes, it’s hard to get responses, but you have all the tools at your finger tips to increase your odds of grabbing the attention of your top contacts and getting a reply.

Gone is the dialing for dollars mentality. You can do better than that.

You can use these tools to do everything from identifying who your best-odds prospects are to deducing why they’d want to speak with you, writing a powerful email, and ultimately attracting them to you. Here are some of my favorites.

1. Identify the who. Once you know the profile of the types of contacts and companies you want to approach, use Zoominfo.com, NetProspex.com, Insideview.com or Hoovers.com to search and get the names of the best contacts to talk to.



2. Delve in. Go a step further and do some research for the contacts you’ve uncovered on those same sites. What have they written? Where have they been quoted? You can quickly get a feel for what’s top of mind with them and where their passions lie. Use this information to craft your grabber value proposition for phone calls and emails. Use it to write blogs or articles that’ll attract their attention and peak their interest. Comment about your ideas on social networks.



3. Secure contact info. Start with these same sites to find the most current contact information for your target prospects. Jigsaw and NetProspex are maintained by people like you and me, so they’ve often got very current information. While you’re there, add a few contacts of your own and earn points for free contact information downloads. You can also use LinkedIn, Facebook and other social networks as a tool.



4. Find elusive email addresses. If you still can’t find an email address here’s a trick to try. From your search engine type "@their website domain” and it’ll pull up anywhere on the web where email addresses for that domain appear. Now you’ll have the email protocol for that company and can more effectively guess your contact’s email address.



5. Watch your prospects. No, we aren’t talking stalking. Watch what your top prospects are doing using alert services like Google Alerts for free. Set up a daily alert and see all the tweets and comments they’ve made and where they’re mentioned. You’ll know what to talk about when you call and more importantly, when they need you to call.



6. Make your emails stand out. Use Gobbledygook.grader.com to pick out trite or hype-filled words and phrases you don’t even know you’re using. It’s a great tool to increase the impact of your brochures and online copy, too.



7. Know if they’re listening. One of the biggest challenges with email prospecting is knowing if anyone has read what you sent. Use ReadNotify.com to trace email opens and forwards, numbers of times read, and URL clicks. Use Bit.ly to shorten long links for social network comments and emails. You can track how many times the links are opened, forwarded and by whom.



8. Increase your own productivity. If you’re a Microsoft Outlook user Xobni.com is a plugin that makes searching your inbox and finding information about your contacts fast and easy. You can even search social networks for information about your contacts.

Getting people to reply is the most difficult aspect of prospecting. These tools give you new levels of information and insight to increase your odds of success.

Related Articles

  Sales Prospecting Techniques
  Sales Prospecting for Sales Results
  Sales Management, Prospecting, and a Sense of Urgency©
  Winning in Prospecting to Increase Sales
  Prospecting it is simple only DOING counts
  Sales Prospecting is the most important skill©
  Prospecting - Time really is money©
  Prospecting's 8 Simple Steps©
  Sales Prospecting Is a Dirty Business (or Why a Clean Desk Is Not a Good Sign)
  Sales Prospecting
  Keep Prospecting Simple©
  Get In a Rut
  Maximize Revenues©
  Two spectacular sales ideas©
  The Paradox of Sales Training
  How to Prospect - Common Sense Isn\'t so Common©
  It is Easier to Increase Sales than to Cut Costs©
  Field Sales Prospecting, just do it!©
  Prospecting For New Business - Cold Calling
  Remember, it is only the Behaviors that count!©

Related Forum Posts

Prime Means of Selling
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
Most Useful SEO Tools For Webmasters
Re: Quote of the Day - "When you find the niche you love, that b

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Ready for a Fresh Image?

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail

Why Small Businesses Don't Survive

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.