Top 5 ways to get your prospect to notice you

I was chatting with a friend the other day, and she was telling me how difficult it is in the online dating world. She'd recently signed up for a popular dating app and was crying on my shoulder about how it wasn’t working out.

 

(Yes, this is still about your sales prospects.)

 

(No, we haven't branched out to Agony-Aunt services.)

 

(Just go with it – I promise it'll make sense.)

 

So, she faces 2 issues often:

 

1.  Not Getting Right-Swiped Enough
   
   You made the first move and put yourself out there, showing yourself off in the best possible light. You followed the rules – the right tone, the right images, and even found candidates that fit.
   
   But days go by, and the number of right-swipes you get dwindles to nothing. 
   
   What are you doing wrong? And more importantly, how do you fix it?
    
2. They Stopped Replying
   
   Hallelujah, one of your potential matches right-swiped you! You guys had a great first-date, maybe even a great second one. You texted after, and a dialogue opens up. You get a few light, fluffy replies, but it peters out.
   
   Suddenly, you find yourself texting more often, and (how embarrassing) checking and rechecking your phone multiple times a minute.
    

 

Now, what could you have done to deserve this sudden coldness?

 

Sounds kind of familiar, right? It’s easy to draw parallels between the dating world and the sales world, and it should be because they’re both about relationships. 

 

(See, I told you we'd get to the sales bit! Oh, ye of little faith!)

 

And in this context, it’s especially relevant, because, in both worlds, the problem stems from the same source – a lack of engagement. Now, here at Paperflite, we think of ourselves mostly as problem-solvers, but we are sales-people first. So believe me when I say that we face these issues ourselves, and often. While I may not have much useful advice for my friend with her dating, I do think that we’ve figured out some pretty interesting ways to get – and stay – noticed by our prospects. 

 

 

 

Here are the top 5 ways that worked for us:

 

1. Add value – even when you don’t have anything to gain

Remember the old sales-mantra of "always be closing"? Well, we’ve updated it for the Internet-era. Now, we’re "always add value" people. 

 

So, when you’re talking to new people anywhere, add value. 

 

Not "make a sale". 

 

Not "network for leads". 

 

Not "try to make an impression". 

 

Add value. 

 

Even if sometimes that value-addition means referring them to someone else, who might better address their pain points. And that’s okay. 

 

Because in today’s cutthroat digital world, being genuinely helpful is rare. And, if you remember your Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (hey, don’t judge me, it was a good book! "Remember Cedric Diggory" *sniff*), you’ll know that people who’ve been helped tend to repay the favor. 

 

We’ve had a number of these value-add interactions lead to new inbound-sales and a countless number of references that have gotten us through other doors.

2. Build up a content portfolio

To be clear: I mean, you need to build up your content portfolio. Not just leverage your company’s content database.

 

That means you need to get your name on e-books, infographics, reports, case studies, blog posts even, and push them out into the far corners of the internet. Because if your prospect is curious to know more about you and fill out the image he has of you (wait, could that be because you "added value"..?), he’s going to do that Google-search on you. 

 

Just take a minute now, shut your eyes, and imagine what that could look like.

 

As opposed to him seeing that embarrassing photo of drunk-you at that party in '07, he suddenly finds out that you have a reasonably-sized, suitably informative portfolio to your name. Hm. Maybe that makes you more credible. And maybe, he’s going to save that phone number you gave him, after all.

 

3. Call, even though "an email will do"

The B2B world has never been so hyper-personalized, and yet, so anti-social. With personalized email cadences, targeted advertising, retargeting, and more, prospects are now constantly bombarded with über-specific messaging. 

 

Which, as you can imagine, can get pretty stifling.

 

But you know what doesn’t happen so often? 

 

Phone calls.

 

Maybe that’s because we’ve been sales-raised on this idea of a Gatekeeper, and that company executives are too hard to reach through conventional methods, but for whatever reason, nobody calls each other anymore. As a result, if you’re able to actually call and discuss their pain-point, rather than hope that they see your automated "Hi {{FirstName}}" email, you automatically stand out in a crowded environment.

4. Retro can be cool

As I said above, it’s easy to use your modern email-powers for evil, and therefore, emails tend to be abused. So here’s a tip for those few extra-special prospects that you’d like to make a good impression.

 

Take a page out of your granddad's notebook (literally?), and send them a handwritten letter, thanking them or congratulating them for a recent achievement. It doesn’t necessarily have to be *your hand* that does the writing, but that wouldn’t hurt. 

 

 

Believe me, the effect that a well-presented handwritten piece of content has on somebody is astounding. If done right, there’s a good chance that the prospect will, in turn, display it proudly in his office, giving you exposure to more potential decision-makers.

 

(FYI – Mashable has a list of 4 great services that let you outsource the hand-writing. Take a look!)

5. Track all the things!

At the end of the day, though, these tips are only useful if you’re measuring your prospect engagement, as deeply and as thoroughly as possible. In fact, we found that knowing what content excites our prospects and who they talk to about it internally can help drive an engaging conversation. 

 

It made such a difference to our nurturing process that we ended up building it into our Paperflite platform, thereby giving us tremendous insight into their thought process, and allowing us to create a conversational entry-point that can then lead to furthering your deal.

 

And that’s it!

 

That’s our 5 top tips, the ones we felt were real winners and we're sure to make an impact on your business. Hopefully, you’ll use these new powers for good, and not go over to 'the dark side'.