Map Your Next Dial: Target Account Mapping

Taking the extra time to research a target prospect — and their business — will go a long way when engaging and developing a rapport with prospective clients. Here at demandDrive, we train our SDR’s in Target Account Mapping.

The rate at which your prospects are cold-called…

Is excessive. It’s important to understand that Bob in HR or Janet in Marketing probably get cold-called multiple times per day. If you’re lucky enough to get them on the phone, you’re going to be in a much better position for success with some background information on hand.

That can be as simple as going to the corporate website and poking around or as in-depth as doing some research on company funding, awards, and recently published articles. Find something that stirs your curiosity and generate some questions around it.

Approaching each call with a genuine interest will take you further than simply “pitching” a product, and will instead paint you as a consultant and someone committed to helping vs. selling.

Can’t find a single thing of interest on the company website?

Try using LinkedIn. Search the company and study its profile. Do the same for your prospect. Learning a bit about your prospect is important and could prove to be the spark of life you need to save a fizzling conversation. Pick anything from their LinkedIn page: prior jobs or experience, where they live, what college they went to, etc.

Our friends at HubSpot further explain the importance of finding a common interest. There is no harm in expressing an interest in something you found on their public profile. If anything, this information can be the pick that breaks the ice.

The power of the Google…

Is well known, yet still underutilized by many. With the most powerful search engine on the planet at your fingertips, why wouldn’t you take the minute to do research? Think about the life of an SDR 15 years ago — talk about cold calling!

Use Google to discover the company history and look for news articles where they are mentioned. Educate yourself on their products, annual revenue, and press release information (don’t sleep on earnings calls if you’re prospecting into publicly traded companies). You can consider all this information as powerful ammunition on your quest for quality conversations.

And if you can’t find quality information before the call?

Just ask. Demonstrating a genuine curiosity about the prospect’s day-to-day responsibilities will allow you to engage with them and get to the real reason as to why you’re calling. This will also help develop a sense of trust with your prospect, which will help you be remembered and, hopefully, liked.

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