Commercial Prospecting Done Properly: Setting Goals

How to set the right goals for your sales prospecting strategy?

Before launching a sales prospecting campaign, lasts sales prospecting steps: objectives definition. To this end, it is necessary to take into account several parameters. This concerns in particular your company and your customers, but also your employees. Would you like to know how to set the right objectives in your prospecting strategy? Let us guide you through this article.

Here are the main questions to ask yourself in a commercial prospecting strategy.

• Commercial prospecting: quantitative or qualitative objectives?
• How much will prospecting cost?
• What are the capacities of the team assigned to the project?
• How long will the prospecting last?

Sales prospecting steps: objectives. Quantitative or qualitative?

In general, a company carries out prospecting with the aim of conquering new markets. However, you can set different objectives depending on the nature of the company’s activity. Just keep in mind that the objectives must be precise for your business prospecting to be effective.

Business objectives should, in principle, be composed of several sub-objectives. Therefore, you need to determine what type of goal you are aiming for. Here is what you need to know.

• Quantitative objectives are easy to determine. These are mainly sales, margin, lead time and quantity objectives.
• Qualitative goals are secondary. They are more difficult to determine because they are often based on non-quantified data. A qualitative objective can measure, for example, the brand image of a company or the quality of customer service.

In addition, you must take into account your targets in the qualitative objectives. This way, you can easily develop the actions to be carried out in prospecting. Remember that objectives (even qualitative ones) must always be measurable. This will allow you to easily monitor and evaluate the results of the project.

How much will prospecting cost?

As with any marketing strategy, you must make theoretical evaluations before proceeding with actions in the field. To this end, establishing a budget will allow you to know if your business prospecting strategy will be profitable or not.

In this case, you can evaluate the cost of the project itself, but also the possible benefits resulting from the project. Certainly, you will determine the budget for the prospecting campaign in the action plan for the campaign. Nevertheless, you should always make a rough estimate of the project costs before you start the actions.

The budget evaluation will also allow you to know what your prospecting strategy needs. You will be able to determine whether the company’s financial, human or material resources will be able to support the project.

Finally, you must do an audit of the digital prospecting tools available on the market. This way, you have a clear and broad vision of all the tools that can help you in your strategy. Criteria to look for are: customer support, monthly or annual subscription pricing, features, customer reviews, data quality and overall performance.

What are the capabilities of the team assigned to the project?

The company director and the sales manager are not the only actors in the determination of the objectives. Other employees such as sales managers and sales representatives also play an important role. The protagonists must determine the prospecting objectives together. This will make it easier to work as a team during the campaign.

In addition, to achieve satisfactory results, you need to evaluate the performance of your team. To this end, consider the number of collaborators and the time spent by each one.

Also note that you must set achievable goals. Avoid mobilizing resources in your campaign when it is not necessary. Listen to the opinions of your collaborators to get a better vision of the project. This will not only ensure the success of the prospecting, but also the ease of execution of the project tasks.

Sales prospecting steps: how long does it takes?

sales prospecting steps objectives

Obviously, your objectives should always be defined in time. The length of time may vary depending on the nature of your business and your employees. Targets also play an essential role in the duration of commercial prospecting.

In fact, to put all the means at your disposal, make sure to determine the moments of high activity in the company. Target the periods that are the most favorable for investment and plan your prospecting within this time frame.

A commercial prospection can last from one to several months. In fact, the development of prospecting strategies alone can take a long time. You must therefore consider the time you have to devote to a successful business prospecting.

In conclusion

Any well-defined marketing strategy must include the definition of objectives. To ensure the success of your business development, consider all factors, both internal and external to the company. Once you have defined your objectives, you can easily launch your prospecting campaign. Now that you have your objectives, what budget should you allocate for this strategy to work smoothly?