Sell More Effectively by Getting to Know Your Prospects, Leads, and Customers

John Barrows is a sales trainer and regularly publishes awesome, digestible sales tips. In his video below, he outlines really smart ways to stay in-the-know with respect to your prospects, leads, and existing accounts. Knowing what’s happening in the world of your prospects will help you stay relevant, start conversations more easily, and build rapport much quicker.

It’s much easier to connect with someone when you understand what’s happening in their company and industry. Here’s what you should do for your top account targets and contacts:

• If they have a blog, subscribe to it

• Find their LinkedIn company page and follow it

• If they have a Facebook page, like it

• Follow their company account on Twitter

• Set up a Google Alert with their company name

The above strategies will also “push” information to you, so there’s no extra work aside from a bit of reading. It’ll help you stay on top of their latest product releases, services, key hires, noteworthy partnerships, and other company announcements. You can use all that info to make new – or strengthen existing – connections. As John mentions, “It’s all about being relevant."

Be careful doing this for too many companies, because even if you're innately curious, you’ll end up with a full inbox that you never read through. The key is separating the signal from the noise.

As you close new business, move one company/person off your list and add another. As a strategy, it’s only as effective as the discipline you dedicate to pruning your list. When done well, technology does the research for you and sends it directly to your inbox. InsideView also has paid solutions that are fantastic as well.

The best tip in John's video is: if you’re targeting public companies, buy a couple shares of their stock. That way you’ll have access to even more information, even sooner – and info that most other folks may never have any access to.