This isn’t Mad Men anymore; remote working and virtual selling have changed the game. Refer to this comprehensive prospection guide to get in the virtual door of your clients!
It’s no surprise that it is more and more common to prospect remotely. Think about it: organizations can save money on business travel, reach wider target audiences than ever, and hire from an exponentially larger talent pool. And this is only the tip of the iceberg of the changes that we’re seeing in our new remote sales world.
With the ideal tool at their disposal, the Weet Sales team has quickly blazed the trail to expertly prospect remotely. We are lucky enough to have had the chance to truly perfect the remote prospection process over the life of Weet so far. We’ve learned so much about what to -and not to- do. About what works and captures attention and what doesn’t.
We honestly want you to engage in meaningful client relationships and drive conversions when you prospect remotely. Not only is that why we built Weet in the first place, it’s also why we put all of our knowledge and experience here in one place – for you! Please reference and share this remote prospecting guide whenever and wherever you feel it may be helpful.
Different Ways to Prospect Remotely
1. Share
Siloing information helps no one and no organization. Luckily, sharing is easier than ever now thanks to the prolific rise of remote communication. We have more tools, experience, and resources to share both within our organizations and with clients.
a. Share a Personalized Message with Prospects
Send an email with a personalized video for your client. In the title, you can reference their name and even how short the video is. Example: “Hi, [name], check out this :37 video for you”
b. Share Ideas
When prospecting remotely, make sure your teams share what is -and isn’t- working for each individual team member.
Here at Weet, for example, when a salesperson has an especially effective idea with great reception, the team will work together to determine why it was so effective, so we can all recreate that magic!
c. Share Information
Any information that could make a colleague’s life easier – more productive, less redundant, even more enjoyable – should be shared. Chances are that each person in an organization possesses some sort of niche knowledge that could make things run smoothly for others and other teams. Create a repository for or a way to share that info!
d. Share Problems
When you run into a problem with your job – a process, a machine, a project – share it. You can brainstorm answers faster, and you prevent your colleagues from wasting time having to figure out the same problem you did. Just like in our point above, chances are that if you run into a specific, recurring issue, someone else is likely battling the same thing. We are all learning how to work remotely and improving at this as time goes on.
e. Share Solutions
If you notice that you found a particularly slick and effective way to get something done – share it! Again, everyone is learning on their own how to best work remotely and we have lots to learn from each other about what works.
f. Share Templates
Have you created a video or email template that converts like crazy? Share your inspiration with your colleagues. Of course they won’t copy you, but they should understand why your approach was successful.
You can even be so helpful as to provide your Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint slide deck, or a particularly convertible email template you whipped up. How grateful would you be to have these assets shared with you when you could have really used them?
g. Share Articles, Books, and other Inspiration
We all find inspiration in so many unique places. When you find that publication or podcast, let your manager and colleagues know. If it inspired you, it can inspire them too.
Get creative because we all get inspiration from such a wide variety of places. In brainstorming, no idea is insignificant. Maybe something you find and share will kick start a whole new campaign idea or prospection template!
h. Share Tips
Share tips with your prospects about how to get the most out of your product or service. What things might your prospects be unaware of about what you have to offer? Can you send out a weekly tip for a few weeks to spark interest? Try this for 3 to 6 weeks. Offer information that is short, to-the-point, and truly of value to your clients and potential clients.
2. Reimagine
Remote prospecting is a new frontier, a new Wild West. We’ve all had a few years to get accustomed and it likely hasn’t been easy 100% of the time for all of us. The key to prospecting after this is to reinvent the wheel this time. The rules are different and changing rapidly, so our thinking needs to be different and adaptable.
a. Reimagine Processes
It is not lost on any of us that processes had to change during the pandemic. Not being at the office – or even able to leave home at times – obviously threw a huge wrench in our plans. More specifically, our traditional plans. Are there any processes now that you find work better for you and your team since working remotely? Maybe working from home, or hybrid work, or increased flexibility has made you realize that the old way of doing things wasn’t necessarily the best.
b. Reimagine Timelines
Prospecting face-to-face takes a lot of time. Like, a lot a lot. A study conducted by Upaway found that the average person spends over four days a year solely commuting to and from work. Collectively, non-commuters save nearly 33 million hours and $411 million worth of car commutes daily.
This is not to mention the business class flights, hotel rooms, taxi rides, meals, and more required for each single business trip. Eliminating our commutes and business trips is changing timelines in ways we never imagined. Deals are moving faster, people are more and more comfortable making big decisions over the internet, and we are collectively widening our comfort zones.
c. Reimagine Necessary Tools
The tools you needed a decade ago to prospect aren’t what is needed today. As we discussed in the point above, expectations have changed. You need the ability to pinpoint potential prospects and sell remotely but with a personal touch. There are countless softwares for this. Whether it’s Hubspot, Weet, Salesforce, or any of the other countless tools, ID the ones that are necessary for your new and improved ways of work.
d. Reimagine Your Target Audience
Remote working has widened our selling scope. Since we aren’t required to meet face-to-face, board planes, and wine and dine, we can reach an exponentially bigger audience. Now you can prospect to just about anyone, anywhere. Consider widening your scope or trying new things that might have seemed unimaginable a few short years ago. Why not?
e. Reimagine a Referral Program
How many referral programs are you a part of? What about the one for the grocery store nearest your house, your favorite department store, gas station, or Amazon?
If you see the value in these, then why wouldn’t we deduce that others would as well? Get creative with what you can offer virtually to prospects as part of a referral program. Can you offer E-books? Podcasts? Webinars? Discounts? The possibilities are endless.
f. Reimagine your Elevator Pitch
Has the product or service you offer changed in any way since the pandemic? How about the way you deliver products, provide support, or handle returns? Think about how your organization has fundamentally pivoted. Work that into your new and improved elevator pitch.
g. Reimagine Networking
Networking can look a lot different now than it did just a few short years ago. You can actually have fun and get really creative, here! Consider sponsoring a virtual happy hour. Mail out a bottle of champagne or coffee beans to prospects. Then you can share them together during your remote sales pitch! Riff on this idea alone and there are countless ways to better capture your client’s attention when you prospect remotely.
3. Connect
It’s hard not to feel like we have all lost some sense of connection lately, but there are steps we can take to improve upon our given situation. We won’t connect with others while sitting on our couch at home if we don’t put any effort into it! The good news is we can cultivate more purposeful and meaningful connections now.
a. Connect with a Smile
Add a photo to your email signature, and make sure you’re smiling! There’s enough negativity in the world, a smiling face sure won’t make anything worse. It will make you more personable to sales prospects to see your smiling face as well!
When you leverage video to prospect remotely, don’t forget to smile either. Smile more than you think you need to – trust us. Smile until you feel ridiculous. Because when you watch that video back and you’re not smiling, you’ll be wishing you had been.
b. Connect with a larger talent pool
Working remotely has lowered barriers of entry for job seekers and job offerers all over the world. As I write this I work with a team spread across France, the US, South America, Asia, and more. We collaborate daily (asynchronously, of course) without a hitch!
In addition to a geographically larger talent pool, consider widening other scopes of your search as well. For example, companies are waiving the need for a Bachelor’s degree for many roles where that would have been unthinkable in the past. The craziest part? It’s all working out just fine!
c. Connect by Standing Out
When you prospect remotely we highly recommend using video. To make yourself stand out among the other videos your prospects are receiving, use filters and virtual backgrounds.
Put yourself in a cozy cafe, a glass-walled office building, a beach, or a bustling cityscape. If you don’t want to show your face, whether you’re tired or just plain not in the mood to put makeup on, try out filters. Weet offers several filters of all colors and transparencies to hide – or stand out – whenever you want.
d. Connect with a Genuine, Even Silly, Message
Connect with a Genuine, Even Silly, Message If you want to stand out when you prospect remotely, you will have to try things no one else is doing. Don’t be afraid to be silly. After all, we’ve had no choice but to blur the lines between our work lives and outside of work lives. Have some fun with your prospecting.
Tell people it’s your birthday. Share a photo of yourself fishing or hiking Mt. Fuji. You know what? It will come off as endearing, not crazy. It’s relatable. Simple as that.
e. Connect in New Ways
Identify super users and really big fans of your product or service. Ask these members of your network and partners who they believe you should be working with. They will likely have some valuable insights and connections that would never have been introduced to you otherwise.
It should be mentioned here that the people that really want to see you succeed are happy to help you. This simple request from them takes almost no time to fulfill and will not be a problem for most valued customers.
f. Connect with Volunteering
We’re going to preface this by saying you should volunteer for the sake of being a good person, not to benefit your business. Volunteering always opens up doors to new people, networks, industries, opportunities, and viewpoints. No harm can be done to your business from networking in unexpected places, and you’ll have plenty of chances to hand out your business card. And if you truly believe your organization has something to offer your volunteer organization, consider a partnership!
Prospect Remotely Conclusion
Remote prospecting is here to stay, and there will be countless iterations we have yet to see. If you can share information and experiences within your organization, reimagine processes and ways of thinking, and connect with others in this new remote world, then you can successfully prospect remotely.
Are you ready to kickstart your remote prospection today? Try Weet!