“I think people tend to over-index on sales tactics and strategies in tooling. And none of that stuff is bad, but where I would rather over-index is really understanding the people that I'm reaching out to.”

Jason Bay, the Chief Prospecting Officer at Blissful Prospecting, thinks of good prospecting as a combination of the volume of leads you get and the quality of leads you get. Salespeople have a tendency to focus more on the volume while Jason thinks the quality side of things should be paid more heed. 

But how exactly do you do that?!

According to Jason, there are three parts of the quality side of the equation that can make prospecting easier and better.

The science behind prospecting

1. Finding the right fit

“The question that I ask myself as I'm working through my account list is what accounts can I speak to that represent a pocket within my group of accounts? Which prospects have similarities so I can speak to them in a very similar way?”

Jason says that you have to ask yourself if you are finding the right fit as you prepare to speak to prospects, if you’re segmenting your account list properly. What this’ll do is give you the opportunity to prepare a pitch for prospects that are similar in any certain way. 

2. Crafting the right message

Once you’ve found the prospect or a group of prospects that are a good fit for your product, you need to know what to say to them. 

“You need to figure out how to talk about your solution from the context of the customer and not from the context of you, the salesperson. So your message needs to be more user centric.”

3. Delivering the message in a proper way

You have the fit and the message, which brings you to delivering the message. Jason believes that soft skills are a really key part of prospecting. 

“What does it mean to talk less about yourself and more about the other person? That's a shift versus support response. When a prospect is talking to me, what is my ability to really engage and be genuinely interested in them and what they care about versus my agenda? How do I pay more attention to people's buying behaviors and what they respond to and what they don't like?”

So as a sales person, you need to know how to speak to people. Or if you’re connecting with someone over email, you need to have good copywriting skills. 

How to master the science of prospecting

According to Jason, sales is a learnable skill, which means anybody can work hard and become a successful salesperson. Even though some innate qualities (like empathy) definitely helps, it’s not the be-all end-all.

“Sales is a skill. It's a learnable skill. That's the coolest part about it. But one thing that people have a tough time doing is committing to practicing and getting better at something every day. It's the 1% rule, getting 1% better every day.”

Listen to the full podcast here to get more insights about how you can get better at prospecting.