Here I give you the average figures of several prospecting projects that we touch in the company.
- Number of companies prospected/month per prospect: 400 (133 prospects/project)
- Number of projects per prospector: 3
- Contact points per prospected company: 12 (average)
- Days needed to finalise the list for each project: 105
- Average number of connections per prospector/day: 63 (21 per project)
- Number of significant calls/day: 28 (9.3/project)
- Appointments/week: 8 (2.66/project) - Minimum: 1, Maximum: 13
What is required for you to monitor these numbers:
PLANNING
Start with your planning, i.e. entry product and the niche. The more specific the better. The more generic the worse. Generic propositions don't stand a chance in cold markets. Be specific, choose specific segments and offer specific solutions for your niche.
FOCUS ON MARKET COVERAGE VOLUME
Keep 100% of your focus on that number. The important thing in your prospecting process is not to dilute your effort with side activities that keep you away from your market.
What to avoid: Too much note-taking in systems, funnel management, too much research beforehand, distractions and anything other than connecting and calmly laying out your market offer.
In the first few weeks, don't expect much in the way of results. If you schedule one meeting, that's great. Then work on scheduling 2 to 3 good meetings a month. Don't think that quantity is quality. If you schedule 20 meetings, you won't be able to handle them and you certainly won't know which ones to prioritize. The ideal is 5 meetings a week, one a day. This you will achieve after 1 year of consistent work, having accumulated hundreds of companies in your funnel.
Meeting can be face-to-face, a scheduled call or even a video conference.
FOCUS ON QUALITY
Quality is measured by the meeting you had: who sat at the table or who did the call/videoconference and how much penetration you had into your prospect's problem. Rather one good meeting a week than 10 bad meetings, obviously.
LISTS AND MORE LISTS
Generate at least 100 new names a month to prospect. Do not neglect this point. If you don't equip your prospecting station with new names, it will be revolving in calls and emails to "dead people", in other words, unresponsive prospects. Then the expected results will obviously not happen.
TEST NEW TRIPODS
Product+Niche+Methodology of approach (scripts, cadences, channels etc): This is the tripod of prospecting. Test new niches. I usually recommend going down a notch or two in the size of the companies you prospect. Example: you initially planned to approach companies with 100-300 employees. You prospected and generated an average of 1.5 leads per week. If you use the same product and scripts for companies between 50-100 employees, you tend to generate more leads. That is if the ticket of your product is compatible with this segment (size) of companies.
MONITORING
Record all prospecting calls (use VOIP/SIP technology). Listen to 2 or 3 calls a day and see if quality principles such as clarity, rhythm, tone and expansion are being applied in the dialogue. Correct the weak points. Even SDRs with 10 years of experience make mistakes and know that monitoring is fundamental to "calibrate the weapons".
In short, track your numbers and ensure that the mechanisms of consistency and quality are embedded in all the cogs of the process. You will get the good market share you have earned.
IMPORTANT
Don't expect short-term results. You will get frustrated.
Remember: The companies you want as customers have come this far without your product. Therefore, no solution can consider itself indispensable. But those same customers only buy from purposeful suppliers.
Prospect.
