As we have seen in previous articles, any business that does not act proactively to generate more growth is bound to decline from year to year. Building a development strategy is therefore essential to maintain a stable business. 

Sales prospecting helps to feed the pipeline of a company and thus to maintain its growth. It must therefore be an integral part of the daily routine of any company wishing to achieve strong growth. Although it has been pushed aside for inbound techniques by companies in the past few years, sales prospecting is still a sure way of obtaining contracts! 

In this article, we will therefore discuss all the elements that make business development an inevitable part of a development strategy.

Attract more customers

Prospects coming directly to you through traditional marketing actions represent only 5% of your total market. And yes, the majority of this market does not even know that your solution exists!

In SaaS B2B, prospects need to be educated. It is essential for the growth of your company to make them understand the interest of your solution, and the only effective way to do this is to proactively go and meet them! Every prospect you meet and convince gains you market share: this is the promise of sales prospecting.

In order to combat the ever-increasing and ever-more aggressive competition, it is essential to continually seek out new deals where they are, through business development.

In addition, a typical company loses about 15-20% of its customers per year, due to progressive attrition. Without sales prospecting, the entire customer portfolio would eventually erode! Proactively seeking out customers reduces the risk of losing sales: when you lose a customer, he is replaced by another!

A customer is never eternal: they may get tired of your service, change direction, develop new needs that you cannot meet… This is why it is essential to always find new customers through sales prospecting to maintain a satisfactory level of activity.

Capitalise on initial interest

Prospects are most receptive to salespeople in the early stages of the sales process. Making contact with them early and capitalising on initial interest is therefore a real advantage of sales prospecting in order to close as many deals as possible.

Capitalising on this initial interest is made easier through the business development process! We always recommend in video that Business Developers approach their prospecting calls from a problem-solution angle. Rather than a sales pitch, they offer prospects a solution to their problems.

Thanks to commercial prospecting, it is even possible to attract the most reluctant prospects by offering them a personalised solution tailored to their problems. This strategy demonstrates a deep understanding of prospects’ concerns, which encourages them to look to your company for solutions. 

Increase revenues

Every new prospect you meet is a potential customer! These meetings can increase the company’s sales, meeting after meeting. It is this constant growth that allows companies to expand their operations and offset production costs.

Although prospecting for new customers is more expensive than retaining existing ones, identifying potential customers who are ready to sign a deal quickly ensures a better return on investment and improves the longevity of the business. Customers who pay quickly and regularly increase the company’s sales volume and therefore revenue. 

The biggest mistake managers make is to believe that their customers will never leave! Every year, all companies lose a large number of contracts, which can lead to a drop in revenues. Sales prospecting helps to compensate for this loss of customers by seeking out more and more new deals.

Reduce costs

Sales prospecting allows you to target precisely those prospects who are most receptive to your solution. This allows you to make the most of your sales budget and avoid wasting money. 

Moreover, by choosing to outsource your sales prospecting, you also eliminate the significant hiring and training costs caused by BDR turnover. You ensure a fixed cost no matter what, and reduce your commercial costs even more.

Face competition

As we have seen in previous articles, business development allows you to proactively reach a wider range of customers. This gives your company a real competitive advantage, allowing you to increase your turnover as needed. By allowing you to select your customers, prospecting allows you to reduce the number of low-profit or non-paying customers. 

Moreover, by initiating contact with prospects, you identify a need for them and offer them a relevant solution. In this case, you are “the doctor who diagnoses the disease”, the link of commitment is already created with your company and your product, and the risk that the prospect will compare your solution with those of your competitors is reduced. 

As you will have understood, choosing business development means ensuring more interested and selected customers, at a lower cost, giving you better results and a greater durability of the company! 

Visit our blog to learn more on topics such as business development, sales and cold calling, and find out how to help your business grow! Make sure to check out our use cases to see what B2B technology companies have achieved through business development with Suxeed. 

Any questions on the topic? Need to know more? Write to our CEO Ephraïm Bismuth to find out how to adapt the business development model to your company!