Takeaways From Following Up With Inbound Prospects Podcast

The premier episode of the Talk of the Trade Podcast—Marketing and Sales Success Stories, hosted by Mimeo, the better way to print, features an exclusive interview with Matt Heinz, President and Founder of Heinz Marketing, and Host of the award-winning Sales Pipeline Radio. Mike McNary, VP of Acquisition at Mimeo, sat down with Matt virtually to discuss 5 Tips for Following Up With Inbound Prospects. 

The conversation focused on breaking through the noise – providing you with winning strategies to stand out from your competitors when contacting warm leads – all via real-life, proven tips and tricks. Here are key takeaways that will help you and your team successfully follow up with inbound prospects and close more sales.

Listen Now

1. Keep in mind that not every lead is a good lead

Just because someone attended your last few webinars, doesn’t mean that he or she is a qualified lead. If you look objectively at your inbound prospects, you’ll find the quantity may be growing, but the quality is inconsistent. Recognize which of your leads are worth following up with, then map that back to the pipeline expectations you have in your business. 

I’ve seen a lot of companies get really excited about a high volume of leads. I once told a client ‘these are a waste of your time.’ We literally did the math and found out that their cold calling efforts were more productive than following up with leads coming from this channel.

Matt Heinz

2. Research your inbound prospects

You likely know what your ideal customer profile looks like based on who your best customers are or on your target audience for your product. But do you research your prospects? Matt recommends using the 3 by 3 method, which entails taking 3 minutes of your time to find out 3 things of interest to your prospect. Take a look at their LinkedIn and social media profiles. You’ll learn what matters to them, who they follow (from organizations to football teams), and how they engage – all prime conversation openers. 

If it’s in their LinkedIn profile, they’re proud of it, they want people to know about it. They want to talk about it. So, if they’re mentioning those things that prominently, it’s a great opportunity to get your prospect to open up. I once sent a prospect a note, just saying good luck to [his alma mater] on the big game this weekend. He wrote back within 3 minutes.

matt heinz

3. Research the entire company

Doing research at the organization level is important. In addition to the inbound prospect, who else at the company has a vested interest in the problem that you solve? Have you engaged with or tried to sell to other teams or departments in the past? Having that backstory can be very effective when you’re initially reaching out. But, remember that, just because you’ve gotten business from one department, doesn’t necessarily mean that you will in another, depending on the size and matrix nature of the company.

It goes back to that ideal customer profile, like what are the conditions that need to be in place for you to be able to sell, and the larger the organization, the more you need to make sure that those conditions exist locally, within those different departments or business units, versus just the organization as a whole.

Matt Heinz

4. Implement a multi-channel outreach strategy

Through research and testing, Matt and his colleagues found that it takes approximately 13 touches across multiple channels over 11 business days to get a prospect on the phone or otherwise live. So, he recommends “making the call, leaving a voicemail, sending an email, some social touches, some social likes and favorites and retweets along the way, as well. You’re trying to surround your prospects from multiple channels. So they see you in a few different places.” And, he stresses that you should not be afraid to pick up the phone and call. This is something that few people are doing, yet the phone calls are a stronger source of business and connections than they were just 12 months ago.

For your best prospects, try something unique to catch attention and get a response, like sending them SWAG as a gift. Also consider using direct mail to land in prospects’ hands, breaking through the digital noise and overflowing email in boxes. Mimeo specializes in SWAG and direct mail, and can help you select the right option for your prospect follow ups.  

5. Put a sales call process in place

Make sure to put a physical sales process in place for your team to regularly and consistently perform the strategies recommended in this episode. You have to constantly be building your pipeline, even when it’s full, to be successful. Identify a system, whether that’s a checklist or other tool, as a way to consistently follow up with and engage leads that are in your network. If this becomes a daily or weekly routine, you are more likely to have the results out of that pipeline you want.

I know some of the best sales reps that have been doing this for years. They still have physical checklists in front of them and systems in place, like taping the checklist to their desk, that make it difficult to ignore the steps they need to take every day, every week to be successful.

matt heinz

Mimeo has been providing reliable, on-demand printing services to marketing and sales enablement professionals for over 20 years. We specialize in printing and distributing high-quality materials that create value for our clients and generate sales. Learn more.