7 Ways To Capture and Hold Your Prospect's Attention
Your employer has invested in a cannabis business intelligence tool to help you reach prospects faster. You have verified email addresses and phone numbers so now you just need to get a few people to respond to your emails and bam—you have a pipeline!
If only it were that easy…
According to Brevet Group, it takes an average of eight cold call attempts to reach a prospect, with 92% of all customer interactions happening over the phone. And at a company with 100-500 employees, an average of seven people are involved in most buying decisions. Long story short, sending an email and calling once or twice isn’t going to get the job done.
Having access to quality data is just one part of the equation—how you put that data to work is what ultimately drives success. Read on for seven ways to leverage business intelligence effectively to gain the attention of your cannabis prospects.
- Strategic, multi-touch outreach – It’s hard to ignore the stats. To get noticed in today’s business arena where everyone is vying for attention, persistence is a necessary trait. Most sales enablement tools allow users to build a multi-step, multi-channel communication plan that keeps you on task with consistent outreach, saving you time and eliminating the admin work of setting your own calendar reminders. Use this feature to your advantage and create a sequence of touch points with phone calls, emails, LinkedIn connections, gifting and other strategies. By targeting your prospects across multiple communication channels, you have a much better chance of getting their attention.
- Give something to get something – For most decision makers, unless they are actively on the hunt for the solution or service you provide, asking for 15 to 30 minutes of their time in the first email isn’t going to get you anywhere. In most cases, you need to give something to get something. And it doesn’t need to be free coffee or an Amazon gift card. Today’s buyers are well educated. They do a significant amount of research on their own before they engage with a salesperson. With that in mind, give them something that can help them in their day to day. Maybe it’s a blog or e-book, or an invite to an upcoming webinar or networking event. Demonstrate your understanding of their business challenges and how your resources extend beyond paid solutions to support them effectively.
- Team up with marketing – Capturing the attention of your cannabis prospects is in the messaging, and that’s an area where marketing shines! Team up with marketing on the same set of prospects and create a campaign around a specific challenge, region, topic, etc. Leverage specifics found in a cannabis business intelligence tool like Emerald Intel, to personalize outreach. Maybe marketing sends an email offering a free download or upcoming webinar. Sales can then follow up with that same prospect and provide further details. For highly desirable prospects, work with marketing to create a targeted, personalized landing page with hand-selected resources you know will grab your prospect’s attention. How will you know what will resonate? By researching each prospect and leveraging the company and people profiles found in Emerald Intel – your cannabis business intelligence tool.
- Personalize, personalize, personalize – No one is going to respond to a generic email or voicemail. Today’s buyer expects to be more than just a number; they expect a service or solution that meets THEIR needs to solve THEIR problems. First, take the time to learn about the persona you’re targeting. People that fall within a specific persona will likely have similar challenges and goals. Now take that information and apply it to an individual and the company they work for. With the vast amount of business intelligence a tool like Emerald Intel provides—including news articles and social feeds about each company—personalization can be streamlined and meaningful without eating up too much of your time.
- Snail mail isn’t dead – Tools like Emerald Intel provide a significant amount of information on today’s cannabis industry, and that includes location and address information. What’s another way to stand out? Gifting! With reliable mailing addresses, physical mail is another channel you can leverage. Gifting can be used in a variety of ways throughout the sales cycle: at the beginning to capture attention, after a first conversation or demo to show your appreciation, or near the end to thank them for their business. Use Emerald Intel to inform your gifting strategy and learn a bit more about the individual before pulling the trigger. Don’t have access to a gifting SaaS tool? Find a bakery and send cookies from a local staple.
- Expand your reach – A big mistake most salespeople make is focusing too much of their time on one person per prospect company. At the beginning of this blog, we noted that purchasing decisions at a company with 100-500 employees involves seven people, on average. Well researched companies like those in Emerald Intel contain profiles for multiple decision makers at each organization—which means you have many more chances to grab the company’s attention. Don’t settle for just calling and emailing one person. Instead, look to engage with every person that is likely a decision maker or influencer and work them all. Remember, persistence is key.
- Upset competitor business – Technographic data, which Emerald Intel provides, can be a powerful datapoint for generating pipeline and upsetting the competition. With an accurate list of your competition’s clients, craft messaging that exploits their biggest weaknesses. You don’t need to mention the competitor by name. Highlighting the pain points you know others have dealt with will be enough to get your prospect thinking twice about their current solution or service.
The cannabis industry is growing and changing at a rapid pace, and reliable data is a key ingredient for success. However, quality email addresses, phone numbers, and other valuable information isn’t going to serve you up a silver platter of pipeline on their own. Strategic data application, persistence, and creativity is what will ultimately pay off. So, if you’re not seeing results from the quality data currently available to you, it may be time to evaluate how it’s being used and what you can do differently to make it work for you.
Do you have all the persistence in the world, but lack quality, actionable data? Emerald Intel can help! Schedule time with us here.