The Prospect List

Even the idea of creating a solid prospect list can be daunting. Your prospecting activity in your list reflects your entire sales pipeline. The more activity against your target market (e.g., phone outreach, email, LinkedIn or direct mail), the better the likelihood of building trust and sales activity that leads to closed deals and more referrals.

To create a steady pipeline, you must rely on the paramount foundation of sales activity, which is best kept as a running log of emails, phone calls and other marketing techniques to get attention, and then acquire sales. Here are some small steps to make the process less overwhelming.

Identify Your Sales Targets

To identify your sales targets properly, start by mapping out your core niche industries and geographic radius. Commission opportunities based on staff size and industry will dictate how best to spend your marketing dollars. If you’re going after property/casualty insurance or workers’ compensation—those groups in which staff size is more important than class of business—determine the staff size minimums that still can justify a marketing-spend in targeting them.

For example, at an average commission of $5,000 (from a $40,000 premium), you may be able to spend more in marketing dollars (e.g., cold calling / appointment setting or LinkedIn program) to acquire those groups, compared to small-childcare facilities that may only net $1,500 per win. The latter target could be better reached through a direct mail or email marketing campaign rather than a phone outreach program, which is more costly.
Now that you have identified your targets, let’s consider the differences in building a list in-house versus third-party acquisition.

Methods to Create A Solid List

Here are some methods that you can use to develop a solid list.

No. 1: Develop it in-house. Have you attended trade shows recently and acquired business cards that are collecting dust in your desk? Do you belong to associations that allow the usage of an Excel spreadsheet of members? Turning a cold call warm can be done through such lists, based on an introduction that takes the prospect’s guard down through a common reference point. Even if your compiled list lacks size or expiration dates of coverages, you still have an advantage because they are warm calls and you can capitalize on the “right place, right time” in the buyer’s mind.

To get a comprehensive list of prospects with a dialed-in industry target, you also can source through a list broker (e.g., Hoovers or InfoUSA). These lists are mediocre in their raw form, but offer you a more comprehensive view of a given industry in a specific region, with staff size minimums, regardless of renewal date.

No. 2: Third-party list acquisition. Subscriptions would provide suspected expiration dates and many afford the advantage of industry-specific searches. Some lists also provide modification experience rates, which may allow for comments like, “Since you fall well below 1.0 MOD you may be eligible for alter-native insurance programs to get you dividends on the back end for good claims history.”

When you can tell prospects their own experience rate, they may be more open to hearing what else you know. Being prepared with data to support claims on how you could improve their rates and put more money in their pockets may just get you those coveted meetings and additional sales.

Next Steps

The warmest list yielding the greatest number of conversations that turn into meetings—and hopefully sales—is one you develop yourself through networking events, trade shows, or other personal contacts. Then, the list needs to be worked through with the tactics described in this article. These lists offer an affinity and an opportunity for a compelling introduction. However, there are only so many hours in the day for networking and warm contact conversations. Perhaps a hybrid of the two—adding in a subscription of companies in your local area with “right place, right time” by renewal date will provide a wider net.

Evaluating your company’s staffing and time commitment will help determine whether in-house or outsourcing list development and corresponding prospecting techniques, is better for your business needs. It is important to validate decision-maker contact information, update key insights about the business and qualify the opportunity to create a solid working list.

To avoid cyclical peaks and valleys in your sales activity, consistently add and update your list to develop a steady sales pipeline.

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