Don’t Smother Your B2B Prospects

Well it’s all about Mother’s Day now and business publications are all too happy to chime in with their own take. Whether it’s the role of having mothers in the work place or how motherhood can be applied to running your own business, there’s plenty of good business role models out there based on mothers of the year.

However, is it just the perfect moms that can teach a good lesson? Some of the best lessons can be better learned from the worst examples.

Now think about some of the qualities of a good mother than can make for a good appointment setter or lead generator. You have the tendency to nurture. There’s a sincerity towards caring for a prospect’s problems.

Is that all though? What about the need to respect a prospect’s autonomy? How about encouraging a prospect to help themselves to your products? You’d think that the best moms would do these too but it’s actually the worst that serve to remind their importance.

After all, there’s nothing quite like helicopter parenting to stunt development. The same goes with similar behavior towards your B2B prospects. You don’t just have to give them space to make the buying decision. You have to give them time to think about what you’ve shared so far. Good B2B prospecting and sales lead generation isn’t about how much you can stuff information to control a prospect’s decision.

It’s about timing and patience. It’s about knowing how to properly invest your time and marketing efforts into every prospect you meet without exhausting both sides of the conversation.

Here are a few easy techniques that can get you out of helicopter mode:

• Prospects can take care of themselves – You have all the good reasons to worry about rejection. However, it’s not good to imply that a prospect is somehow incapable of making any decision at all. They can see their way to meet with your salespeople so don’t worry about. Worry more about how to put your knowledge of their pain points to deliver a satisfactory value proposition.

• Know that you’re always being watched – Never assume a prospect doesn’t know enough about your business (even if it turns out that they really don’t). You don’t have the grounds to say such. It’s more likely that these prospects are already researching your company even as you’re sending them emails and making phone calls.

• You don’t know everything yet – Don’t always assume you’ve learned everything to close the deal. Assuming that the pain points you know are enough to drive a prospect to give you the sale is not going to work if one iota of that information is still not known to you. Sometimes it’s better to earn their trust first before trying to learn more.

B2B prospects aren’t like children and even children themselves can lose more than they gain because of helicopter parents smothering them. By all means, do your best to appeal but that’s not the same as forcibly spoon-feeding potential customers.