Which Daily Prospecting Action Would You Prefer To Do?
Option A: Cold call a list of 150 businesses, talk to one or two people, and book an appointment. (if you’re lucky)
Option B: Reach out to three carefully selected and researched potential clients with a personalized message-email, short 2-3 minute video, even a phone call- and build a pipeline of 50 pre-sold prospects over 7 weeks?
Both these prospecting approaches will work if you do them every day…
You will land new clients.
But one of them is a much better option to help you retain and service your existing clients.
Maybe your competition is outspending you with Google, YouTube and LinkedIn ads to drive leads…
Maybe they’re investing big bucks on SEO, Content Creation, and Social Media.
But you have an advantage over the big spending competitors who seem to be everywhere and are going after those same high-quality clients.
You can do something they can’t.
You can focus on building authentic relationships and connect with potential clients in a deeper way.
It’s an intentional focus on quality. It’s an almost under the radar focus on building relationships and deep connections with a carefully selected, researched, and vetted Prospect Pipeline.
It’s your Target 150 Prospect Pipeline.
Let’s look at how and why Target 150works.
And the steps to take to make it work for you.
The idea behind Target 150 is to build a prospect list on carefully selected, researched, and vetted potential clients.
(And also over time, build a Target 150list of Strategic Partners. We’ll talk about this in a future newsletter)
The list is limited to 150 businesses or organizations.
Why?
In most Middle Market commercial insurance accounts, you’ll have at least three decision makers or influencers within the account. Typically it’s the CEO, CFO, (or outside Accountant) and HR Director.
You’ll want to connect and build relationships with multiple people within the account to increase your chances of landing them as a client.
So why limit your prospect list to Target 150 Prospects?
It keeps you focused and protects your time.
You’re not wasting time on building relationships who aren’t a fit.
It protects your time so you can retain and effectively service your existing clients because you’re not chasing after everyone and anyone.
Steps to Finding Your Target 150
It starts with taking a close look at your current Best Clients.
Who are the clients you’d like to duplicate?
What are the demographics of these clients- The Organization: type of business/industry, number of employees, location; The Decision Makers- Age, Income, Education, Title, etc.
What are the Problems, Pains, and Desires of the Business and the individual decision makers?
How do you help solve their problems and the results you delivered?
Then analyze and discover the common characteristics among your best clients.
Are they in the same industry? Do they have the same challenges?
Do you seem to connect best with CFO’s who are new to the business? Or maybe you hit it off with hard-charging CEO who want to grow their company and looking for someone they can trust to handle their insurance and keep them out of trouble?
This Google Doc Worksheet will help you identify and analyze your best clients.
Bonus Tip: Interview Your Top 5 Similar Best Clients.
Drill down and dig deep.
What are their biggest frustrations about insurance, the insurance bidding process, finding an advisor they can trust?
What are they worried about? Worries about their business? About insurance?
What are they excited about?
What outcome or results do they want to achieve?
What did they like/not like about how you approached them, how you handled the process of obtaining insurance quotes and coverage, your insurance recommendations, how effectively you delivered on your promises and the ongoing service?
Doing this exercise will reveal the words and language your clients use to describe their problems and challenges. Use this to craft your Irresstible Offer.
You’ll also likely get feedback you can use as testimonials.
And maybe you’ll get an Introduction to a new potential client or two. (if you ask)
Build Your Target 150 List
Now you know exactly the kind of clients you want to attract, connect and build relationships with, and add to your Book of Business.
Start with doing a LinkedIn Search.
Sales Navigator works best because you can search by employee size and more refined industry breakdowns.
LinkedIn search is part art, part science, and lots of trial and error and patience.
Check out this LinkedIn Target Market Search Cheat Sheet
Check other Online Data Bases such as LeadFuze, LeadIQ, ZoomInfo, Slintel.
Check Trade Association Membership and Chamber of Commerce, or other Business Lists
Add Potential Clients from your Daily Observations
Ask your Clients and Strategic Partners about businesses they know that potentially fit your Target 150.
Next, you’ll want to capture the key contact information on your Target 150 list:
Key Decision Makers Names, Direct Business Email, Direct Dial Phone or Mobile Number.
You can use some of the online data base providers above to find this info.
It’s tedious work so you might want to consider outsourcing this task.
After you gather the key contact information, you’ll want to transfer it to your CRM to manage your activity.
This “Build Your Target 150” Google Doc outlines these steps.
In addition to gathering the contact information, it’s a smart move to dig deeper and gather information about the business and the key decision makers.
Back in 1988, Harvey Mackay’s Swim With The Sharks was one of the top business books. Inside Swim with the Sharks, Harvey introduced the Mackay 66 Customer Profile.
Fortunately, today with the Internet, we can find lots of this information… but it does take work.
And keep in mind, it takes listening to your prospects as your relationship develops.
Congratulations, you’ve built your Target 150 list.
You have all the key Contact information in your CRM.
Now it’s time to take Consistent Daily Action to Contact Your Target 150
Reach out to 3 New Prospects on your Target 150 List per day, Monday-Friday.
In 10 weeks, you’ll have contacted your entire Target 150 List.
What’s the best way to reach out to them?
Record a short 2-3 minute video- Record it on Loom.
The send the video- Email or LinkedIn message it to them.
On the video talk about:
- Why you were attracted to them?
- What excites you about what they’re doing?
- How you might be able to help
Take consistent daily prospecting action.
Focus on prompting engagement that leads to a relationship. Personalize it.
Do NOT Automate your outreach to your Target 150 List- Be real and authentic.
You’ll not looking for an immediate sale. Your intention is to spark engagement and build a relationship of trust over time.
You’ll want to have an educational/relationship building follow up process in place such as an email series, weekly email newsletter, or a podcast.
What should you expect from your Target 150?
A lot of this depends on you:
- The quality of your list and contact information.
- The quality of your message in your initial video.
- Your follow up process.
- How consistent you are in taking Daily Action.
But a rule of thumb to guide you…
Typically after 7 weeks contacting your Target 150:
50 are not a fit, happy with their current advisor, not responsive- replace them with 33 new prospects.
50 have engaged and expressed a clear interest. You’ll want to continue building these relationships and follow up. At some point, timing will be right to work on landing them as a client.
50 have somewhat engaged, but you’re unsure of the level of engagement and interest. Continue to follow up. Either move them to the “Interested” list, or replace them with a new prospect.
So what will YOU choose to do?
Keep plugging away with cold calls, cold emails, hoping for referrals…
Or Intentionally and Consistently reaching out to 150 carefully selected Targeted Potential Clients?