Learn some best practices for connecting with prospects. Use every channel in your toolkit, develop strong relationships, and watch your startup grow!
Here’s a question that frequently puzzles sales professionals: What’s the most effective channel to reach out to sales prospects: phone, email, or LinkedIn?
Each channel can be effective, although different audiences tend to prefer one channel over another. Old-school industries like insurance and retail favor email, for example, while innovators and thought leaders typically spend more time on LinkedIn.
Ultimately, the best way to reach sales prospects is to rely on a combination of phone, email, and LinkedIn outreach.
Key Takeaways
- Email, LinkedIn, and phone calls all have a place in outbound sales prospecting.
- Effectively connecting with prospects is a key part of the sales process. Adopt best practices to boost conversions.
- As you interact with more prospects and customers, you’ll learn more about their preferences and habits.
The Best Way to Connect
The primary goal when approaching prospects is to engage them in a conversation. This means using several communication channels, like emails, phone calls, and social media messages. Why? Because many prospects use all three.
1. Start with LinkedIn
As a B2B sales professional, you should never dismiss the power of LinkedIn: It boasts more than 1 billion members around the world.
Zooming in on its value, LinkedIn gives your prospects the chance to learn more about you and your business since they can review your profile and activity. This often creates an initial sense of trust.
Send a request to connect on LinkedIn, along with a message. You don’t have a lot of space — just 300 characters — to craft a message. Nonetheless, this should offer enough room to deliver your elevator pitch. Most importantly, including a message provides an even better reason for them to accept your invitation to connect.
Whatever you do, resist the urge to send generic outbound pitches via LinkedIn. When you do this, you’re “just throwing stuff at the wall, hoping one of [your] messages will stick,” says Steli Efti, co-founder and CEO of Close, which sells CRM software.
“Change it up and personalize your prospecting,” Efti adds. “It takes more time but it's worth it in the long run.”
2. Follow Up by Email
Nearly everyone uses email — almost 45 billion users worldwide as of 2024. It’s by far the most popular form of business communication.
After reaching out on LinkedIn, send an email to the prospect. If you need help tracking down their email address, try tools such as Finder.io, Hunter.io, RocketReach, and ZoomInfo.
In your email, let the prospect know which problems you can solve for them and why your company is ideally positioned to solve them.
The email may prompt the prospect to sign up for a demo or consultation. Even if they don’t, you’ve already told them why your product or service is worth their time. This will make it easier to convert them later during a phone call.
When’s the right time to send an email to a potential customer? HubSpot suggests the best time to maximize engagement with B2B emails is between 9 a.m. and noon. This is when many people check their inboxes. If your message is sitting at or near the top of their inbox, a prospect is more likely to open it.
3. Finish with a Call
Initiating sales connections via LinkedIn and email set the stage for a follow-up call.
Phone calls are a key part of effective outreach. Talking on the phone may be the first way to form a firm bond with a prospect, building rapport and trust in ways that email and social media might not achieve. If they don’t answer their phone, leaving a voicemail might be worthwhile.
Keep in mind that over-the-phone prospect outreach takes persistence. According to Invesp, 48% of sales pros “never even attempt a follow-up after an initial interaction, leaving valuable opportunities on the table.” And 44% give up after just one follow-up.
Once you’ve spoken on the phone with a prospect, it’s easier to continue the relationship. When you send a follow-up email or they read content you’ve posted on LinkedIn, your prospects will know who you are, and your digital communications will resonate with them even more.
Best Practices for Contacting Sales Prospects
Spend time researching each prospect before you contact them by conducting Google searches and LinkedIn searches. Then prioritize your prospects:
- How closely do they fit your target market?
- How much decision-making authority or influence do they have?
- How responsive are they to your communications?
Finally, focus on the relationship rather than the transaction. Making a sale is the end goal, but behind that goal is the intent to solve a problem.
If you get to know your prospect, you’ll create an enduring customer relationship that should last much longer than the first transaction. And a long-lasting relationship could lead to more sales — and more revenue — for years to come.
Ready to supercharge your sales prospecting strategies? Let’s talk!