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Amol Ghemud Published: August 14, 2018
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First of all let us understand what is Prospecting? Prospecting – Involves locating and qualifying the individuals or businesses that have a potential to buy a product.- A person or business that might be a prospect is a lead. The search for potential customers or buyers
What is Smart prospecting ?
Smart prospecting is the way toward calling possibly qualified leads, empowering your chances of getting more conversions. The simplest approach to be fruitful at prospecting is to consider what you are doing and why you are doing it.
To figure out how to smart prospect for your organization you should ask yourself a couple of questions:
What is an ideal lead and fit for what we sell?
Why is that an ideal lead?
How do we help them?
What do we help them with?
Why would they need our help?
Would they maybe want our help right now? Would our services or products actually be something that is timely to their business goals and needs?
Inbound Methodology :
Inbound is a fundamental shift for business owners to gain more business. Instead of that traditional, intrusion-based marketing where the marketer or salesperson had all the control, Inbound is about EMPOWERING potential customers.
A typical business marketing strategy is usually popping up ads. Instead of interrupting people with ads, business owners might create videos that their potential customers want to see.
Instead of display ads, business owner could create a business blog that people would look forward to reading.
WANT TO USE INBOUND MARKETING TO GENERATE LEADS FOR YOUR BUSINESS ?
Example : Business – Payroll & Accounting Business Create blog : 5 common myths about payroll & Accounting process And instead of cold calling, above payroll business can create useful content so that prospects can contact them when they want more information.
Being a part of a conversation with a reader, after he goes through this blog, means initial chase is cut off. It’s about drawing people in – that’s why it’s called Inbound.
And most of all, it’s about creating marketing that people love – Hubspot So how do you actually get benefited from Inbound Marketing? Well, the best way to start is by understanding the Inbound Methodology.
These stages are :
Attract
Convert
Close
Delight
In the beginning, on the left, you’ll need to attract strangers to your site, turning them into visitors. Some of the most important tools to attract new users :
Blogging
Optimizing your website
Social media.
Once you’ve attracted new visitors, the next step is to convert some of them into leads by gathering their contact information. At the very least, you’ll need their email addresses. Contact information is the world of inbound’s currency. In order for your visitors to offer up that currency, willingly, you’ll need to offer them something in return.
That ‘payment’ comes in the form of offers, like eBooks, whitepapers, or tip sheets – whatever information would be interesting and valuable to your prospects. You can convert visitors into leads by using what’s called, as you might have guessed, the conversion process. Website components like calls-to-action and landing pages can entice these visitors and help you get information about them.
Moving along, now that you’ve attracted the right visitors and converted the right leads, it’s time to transform those leads into customers. In the Close stage, tools like email and a CRM can be used to help sell to the right leads at the right time.
Because analysis is part of every single thing you do with your inbound strategy. Anything you do — any piece of content you create, any campaign you launch, or any marketing action you undertake — should be analyzed.
Inbound marketing is an effective means of marketing which can be implied by agencies, SMEs, and startups for the promotion of any brand, product or an individual. In any startup, it is essential to reach out to your potential users; you want people to know about you and your products/services.
To be a true inbound marketer (and a truly successful one) you need to know what’s working, what isn’t, and how to implement new solutions and improve your efforts as efficiently as possible. And again, the only way to do this is by taking the time to analyze your work.
There is a magical “secret” at the heart of inbound marketing.
Get Free Consultation from an Expert Inbound marketer:
Before you spend time and money on research, go deep with these questions to help you develop your personas.
Personal Background
Describe your personal demographics.
Your educational background.
Describe your career path.
Company
In which industry or industries does your company work?
What is the size of your company (revenue, employees)?
Role
What is your job role? Your title?
Whom do you report to? Who reports to you?
How is your job measured?
What does a typical day look like?
Which skills are required to do your job?
What knowledge and which tools do you use in your job?
Challenges
What are your biggest challenges?
Goals
What are you responsible for?
What does it mean to be successful in your role?
Watering Holes
How do you learn about new information for your job?
Which publications or blogs do you read?
Which associations and social networks do you participate in?
Shopping Preferences
How do you prefer to interact with vendors?
Do you use the internet to research vendors or products? If yes, how do you search for information?
Describe a recent purchase.
The buyer’s journey is the active research process someone goes through leading up to a purchase. Knowing the buyer’s journey for your persona will be key to creating the best content possible.
Instead of talking about top, middle, or bottom of the funnel, the buyer’s journey is made up of 3 stages: the awareness stage, the consideration stage, and the decision stage that portray the experiences your potential customers go through.
The awareness stage is when your prospect is experiencing and expressing symptoms of a problem or opportunity. They’re doing education research to more clearly understand, frame, and give a name to their problem.
The consideration stage is when a prospect has now clearly defined and given a name to their problem or opportunity. They are committed to researching and understanding all of the available approaches and/or methods to solving the defined problem or opportunity.
The decision stage is when a prospect has now decided on their solution strategy, method, or approach. They are compiling a long list of all available vendors and products in their given solution strategy. They could also be researching to whittle the long list down to a short list and ultimately making a final purchase decision.
Rather than creating content that covers your buyer persona’s problems and potential solutions, we jump to explaining our products or our services and why they’re the best option.
Website visitors might come to your website for the first time in any of the different buyer’s journey stages, but you need to have content prepared for each and every stage.
Feel good about the buyer’s journey? Let’s test your knowledge because the buyer’s journey comes up a lot when it comes to inbound.
If you were to create a blog post about your product or service, where would it fall into the buyer’s journey?
A. Awareness stage
B. Consideration stage
C. Decision stage
Your product or service will most likely help solve your persona’s problems, but that doesn’t make this blog post awareness stage.
Your product and service will be some form of solution, but in this case, your blog post is talking all about you. So this would be a decision stage piece of content.
But here’s the thing – blog posts aren’t really for the decision stage. A bit of a trick question! When you’re creating content, specifically blog posts, keep it educational. Not educating them on who you are and what you do, but educating them on their problems and solutions. It’s the inbound way. A way to build trust.
Once you understand your buyer personas and their buying journey, it’s time to start doing inbound marketing. Inbound marketing can’t exist without content, and that’s why the third best practice is to create remarkable, tailored content.
Your content is your marketing toolkit. Things like blogs, interactive tools, photos/infographics, videos, and eBooks/presentations work to attract, convert, close, and delight.
Context is who you’re creating it for: you can’t just write any blog posts, you have to write the right ones, tailored to who you’re trying to reach and what they’re interested in.
The best content – the stuff that’s really going to fuel your entire inbound strategy – has to be grounded in the correct context.
For Curious Minds
Smart prospecting shifts the focus from quantity to quality, ensuring your sales efforts are concentrated on leads with the highest conversion potential. This approach is not about finding just anyone, but about locating and qualifying individuals or businesses that genuinely need what you offer. Establishing an ideal lead profile is the foundational element because it prevents you from wasting valuable resources on prospects who will never become customers.
Building this profile requires a deep, analytical look at your target audience. You should be able to answer several key questions to ensure a perfect fit:
What defines an ideal fit? Identify the specific characteristics, such as industry, company size, or job role, that make a business a prime candidate for your solution.
What problems do you solve for them? Pinpoint the exact pain points and business goals that your product or service directly addresses.
Why would they need your help now? Determine the triggers or timely needs that make your offering relevant to their current objectives, a core principle of the Hubspot methodology.
By answering these questions, you create a focused strategy where every piece of content and outreach is tailored for maximum impact. This strategic qualification is the difference between chasing leads and attracting future customers, a concept explained further in the full text.
This fundamental shift means moving from a model of pushing your message onto people to one of pulling them in with value. For a small business, it's about ceasing to be an interruption (like pop-up ads or cold calls) and becoming a trusted resource that empowers potential customers with helpful information. This transforms the dynamic from a one-way sales pitch to a two-way conversation, building trust and credibility long before a purchase is ever considered.
The inbound methodology, championed by companies like Hubspot, is built on providing value at every stage. Instead of buying attention, you earn it by creating content that addresses your audience's questions and problems. A payroll business, for instance, writes a blog on accounting myths not to sell directly, but to help. This establishes authority and makes them the natural choice when a prospect is ready to buy. This approach respects the buyer's journey and positions your brand as a helpful guide rather than an aggressive seller. To see how this applies to your own business, exploring the four stages of the methodology is the next step.
An inbound approach centered on a valuable blog offers a more sustainable and scalable path to client acquisition compared to the direct, often intrusive nature of cold calling. A blog post on '5 Common Payroll Myths' attracts prospects who are actively seeking information, qualifying them from the outset. This method builds your firm's credibility as an expert and fosters a relationship based on trust, not pressure.
Deciding which strategy is more effective depends on weighing several factors:
Long-Term vs. Short-Term: Cold calling can yield immediate, though often low-quality, results. Content creation is an asset that generates leads consistently over time as its search engine authority grows.
Scalability: A single salesperson can only make a limited number of calls per day. A well-written blog post can attract thousands of visitors and convert leads 24/7 without additional manual effort.
Cost of Acquisition: According to Hubspot data, inbound leads typically cost significantly less than outbound leads.
The inbound method of drawing people in is designed for building a durable brand reputation and a pipeline of educated, engaged prospects. You can learn more about crafting such content by examining the 'Attract' and 'Convert' stages of the methodology.
This example perfectly illustrates the first two phases of the inbound methodology in action. The blog post serves as a magnet, attracting the right audience by addressing their specific questions and concerns, which is the core goal of the Attract stage. Instead of a generic ad, the business creates a valuable resource that people actively search for, turning strangers into engaged website visitors.
Once a visitor is on the site reading the blog, the business can then implement the Convert stage. This is achieved by offering further value in exchange for their contact information. For instance, at the end of the blog post, a call-to-action could invite the reader to download a more detailed eBook or a checklist. This 'payment' of an email address transforms an anonymous visitor into a qualified lead. This two-step process, praised by marketing leaders like Hubspot, is effective because it is not a direct sales pitch; it is a value-based exchange that builds a foundation for a future customer relationship. To fully grasp this flow, consider the tools used to make this conversion happen.
Creating 'marketing that people love' means going beyond text to provide engaging, genuinely helpful resources. For a B2B startup, this is about demonstrating expertise and solving problems before asking for a sale. Instead of just interrupting, you become a destination for valuable industry insights.
To move prospects from the Attract to the Convert stage, you can develop a variety of powerful content assets:
Interactive Tools: A free calculator, a diagnostic tool, or a project template that solves a small but irritating problem for your target audience.
In-depth Whitepapers: A research-backed paper on an industry trend that establishes your company as a thought leader.
Webinar Series: Live or on-demand video sessions that teach a skill or explain a complex topic, with a Q&A to build direct engagement.
Comprehensive eBooks: A detailed guide that expands on a topic your audience cares about, offered in exchange for an email address.
Each of these offers a higher perceived value than a simple blog post, making visitors more willing to provide their contact information. This content-driven conversion is a core tenet of the inbound philosophy popularized by Hubspot. Deeper exploration of these tools can reveal which is best for your specific business goals.
Implementing the inbound methodology requires a systematic process to turn strangers into qualified leads. This involves creating a clear path for visitors that provides increasing value at each step. By focusing on helping rather than selling, you build a foundation of trust that makes conversion feel like a natural next step for the prospect.
A practical plan to move from the Attract to the Convert stage involves three key actions:
Attract with Targeted Content: First, identify a core problem your ideal customer faces. Create a high-quality blog post or video that provides a clear solution, optimized for search engines so people can find it easily. This is your initial magnet.
Offer a High-Value Resource: Within that content, place a compelling call-to-action (CTA) that offers a deeper dive, such as a downloadable eBook or whitepaper. This is the 'payment' for their contact information.
Capture Information with a Landing Page: The CTA should link to a dedicated landing page with a simple form. This page should clearly state the benefit of the resource and make it easy for the visitor to provide their name and email.
This process, central to the Hubspot framework, ensures a smooth journey where each step provides value and logically leads to the next. The full article offers more detail on optimizing each of these components for success.
Using a CRM and email effectively in the Close stage is about nurturing, not chasing. The goal is to provide timely, relevant information that helps leads make an informed decision, positioning your business as a helpful advisor. This approach respects the prospect's timeline and builds on the trust established in the earlier stages of the inbound methodology.
Instead of generic sales blasts, you can use these tools for a more personalized and helpful approach:
Segment Your Leads: Use your CRM to segment leads based on their interests and behaviors (e.g., which eBook they downloaded).
Automated Nurturing Sequences: Create a series of automated emails that offer additional helpful content, case studies, or testimonials related to their specific interests.
Personalized Outreach: When a lead shows high engagement (e.g., visits the pricing page), the CRM can notify a salesperson to reach out with a personalized, non-aggressive email offering to answer questions.
This data-informed nurturing ensures you are selling to the right leads at the right time, a core principle of the Hubspot platform. This method transforms the sales process into a helpful consultation. The full content provides more context on integrating these tools into your strategy.
Businesses that cling to interruption-based marketing face a future of diminishing returns and escalating costs. As consumers gain more control over the information they see, traditional methods like pop-up ads and cold calls become less effective and more likely to damage brand perception. The long-term implication is not just a lack of leads, but a failure to build a sustainable relationship with the market.
Failing to adopt an empowerment-focused strategy, as defined by the inbound methodology, will lead to several critical disadvantages. These businesses will struggle to build trust, as their marketing will be perceived as self-serving rather than helpful. They will also miss out on the compounding benefits of content, where assets like blogs and videos continue to generate leads for years. Ultimately, companies like Hubspot have shown that the market rewards brands that educate and empower, leaving behind those who only seek to interrupt. The risk is becoming irrelevant to a new generation of buyers who expect value before they even consider a purchase. Understanding this shift is critical for future-proofing your business.
The most common mistake is asking for contact information without offering anything of tangible value in return. Startups often place a generic 'Contact Us' form and expect visitors to fill it out, but this approach fails because it serves the company's needs, not the visitor's. A visitor in the early stages of research is not ready for a sales conversation; they are looking for answers and information.
This is where the principle of reciprocal value comes into play. By offering valuable content like an eBook, a whitepaper, or a tip sheet, you solve this problem by turning the interaction into a fair exchange. You provide a solution to their problem or an answer to their question, and in return, they provide their 'currency': an email address. This approach, central to the Convert stage of the Hubspot methodology, respects the buyer's journey and builds goodwill. It fundamentally changes the dynamic from a premature sales pitch to a helpful and welcome interaction. Discovering what content your audience finds most valuable is the key to unlocking this process.
This failure often happens because there is no structured process to guide leads from interest to decision. A startup might generate a list of email addresses from a content download but then either immediately bombard them with hard sales pitches or, just as commonly, do nothing at all. This lack of a thoughtful follow-up, known as lead nurturing, creates a massive gap between the Convert and Close stages.
A systematic approach using a CRM and email automation prevents this drop-off by building a bridge between initial interest and sales-readiness. It allows you to:
Maintain Engagement: Send a series of automated, helpful emails that continue to educate the lead and build trust over time.
Track Interest Levels: A CRM monitors how leads interact with your emails and website, allowing you to identify who is most engaged and ready for a sales conversation.
Ensure Timely Follow-up: The system can alert a salesperson at the perfect moment, ensuring that warm leads are never forgotten or ignored.
This structured nurturing process, a cornerstone of the Hubspot philosophy, ensures that the effort spent attracting and converting leads is not wasted. Learning to build these nurturing sequences is a critical next step.
For a prospect to willingly trade their contact information, the offered content must provide a clear and immediate solution to a problem or question they have. An eBook is perceived as a fair exchange when it promises and delivers actionable, high-quality information that is not easily found elsewhere. The value is not in the format itself, but in the knowledge it contains and its direct relevance to the prospect's needs.
To maximize the perceived value of these offers and boost conversions, a business should focus on several design principles:
Specificity: Instead of a general guide, create content that targets a niche problem, like 'A Startup's Guide to Payroll Compliance'.
Actionability: Ensure the content provides clear steps, checklists, or templates that the reader can apply immediately.
Professional Presentation: A well-designed cover, clean layout, and professional writing signal that the content is high-quality and trustworthy.
This approach aligns with the Hubspot model of creating marketing people love by ensuring every interaction provides genuine utility. The key is to think like your customer and create a resource you know they would be excited to access. The full article offers more insight into ideating such resources.
The Delight stage extends the inbound philosophy beyond the point of sale, focusing on turning customers into enthusiastic promoters of your brand. It functions by continuing to provide value, support, and engagement after they have made a purchase. This can include exceptional customer service, helpful educational content for existing users, and building a community around your product or service.
This final stage is critical for sustainable growth because it creates a powerful, self-reinforcing loop. Delighted customers are not just a source of recurring revenue; they become your most effective marketing channel. They do this by:
Providing Social Proof: Writing positive reviews and testimonials that build trust with new prospects.
Generating Referrals: Actively recommending your business to their peers, creating a stream of high-quality, low-cost leads.
Increasing Lifetime Value: Being more likely to purchase again, upgrade, or adopt new products from your company.
As championed by thought leaders like Hubspot, focusing on the full customer experience is how you build a business people love, not just a product they buy. Exploring strategies for this final stage can transform your growth trajectory.
Amol has helped catalyse business growth with his strategic & data-driven methodologies. With a decade of experience in the field of marketing, he has donned multiple hats, from channel optimization, data analytics and creative brand positioning to growth engineering and sales.
Growth Strategy and Planning
