When we talk about the sales process in this segment, it is possible to point out some very specific challenges such as:
longer sales cycle and relationships,
generally high average tickets,
well-niche demand generation and
more consultative, rational sales pitch based on technical details of the product offered.
Given these challenges, we have prepared this article to email lists australia help professionals like you structure an effective and productive B2B prospecting process, using the best sales intelligence tools. Are you ready?
What is prospecting?
Before we talk specifically about prospecting in the industrial segment, it is important to understand the meaning of prospecting.
According to Daniela Rocha, Demand Generation Manager at Meta , the words prospecting and prospecting are derived from the Latin prospectio , which means to search.
“The term prospecting is widely used in geology to locate valuable mineral reserves. Geologists identify the best location, explore the map, the terrain… It is very similar to our objective in commercial prospecting, which is to identify potential business opportunities ,” he says.
How to do sales prospecting in the industry
Creating, developing and managing a sales prospecting process in the industrial segment will require well-structured planning that contains, at least, the four steps below:
1. Discover the best markets
By starting your process by doing this calculation, you will discover the real number of existing prospects that can be effectively reached through active prospecting. Do this calculation with Econodata's Free Market Calculator .
2. Defining the Ideal Customer Profile – ICP
You can start this step by using your current customer base to identify the most common types of companies and segments that tend to bring in the most revenue and buy your product in the shortest amount of time. TIP: Learn how to define ICP in 3 steps .
3. Mapping of Decision Makers and Stakeholders
As we said, the sales cycle in the industrial segment is often very long and purchasing decisions, in general, involve several stakeholders and decision makers.
Therefore, try to map out all of these profiles before you start prospecting. The goal here is to understand who really influences and makes decisions in the purchasing process to ensure that your team takes an accurate and more assertive approach.
Econodata has launched the free Partner and Decision Maker Query tool , which serves as a preview of what you can find in the premium version of the platform. There are already 1.9 million decision makers mapped by name, position and company they work for.
4. Lead generation and qualification
Say goodbye to manual list building. Once you’ve found the right target market to prospect and defined your ideal customer profile, make sure your team has the best prospecting tools at their disposal to quickly prospect active companies. Learn more about lead generation .
5. Accurate segmentation of business lists
By accurately and deeply segmenting your leads, you will ensure that your pre-sales team is more productive . Start by segmenting by:
Sector: here the most used criterion is the National Classification of Economic Activities – CNAE. Use the free CNAE Query tool .
Region: here you will choose criteria such as state, city, neighborhood, street and country zip code.
Size: try to segment small, medium and large companies by share capital, number of employees, estimated revenue, number of branches and type of company.
Advanced filters: when choosing a platform like Econodata , you have more than 50 advanced filters to perform super-segmented searches by: companies in growth or decline, tax regime and registration status, micro and mesoregions, CNAE and friendly economic sector, among many others.
Ideal tool for prospecting customers in the industry
Speaking of Econodata, did you know that it was recently voted the platform for B2B prospecting ? This recognition came from the more than 400 reviews sent to B2B Stack, the largest software search and evaluation portal in Latin America, throughout 2023.
In fact, the Econodata platform has been widely used by different companies in the industrial sector. See the success story of Polipack Embalagens , which increased its revenue by 20% using Econodata.