Why your prospecting won’t work

February is full of excitement for Fireside - and for me personally. We’re working on an incredible range of clients from Scottish Opera, Women for Women International and Avon Wildlife Trust… and my little bear of a nephew just turned one! I’ve been in workshops and petting zoos alike this week.

A lot of our conversations recently have been focussed on how to build a pipeline, and I wanted to give our two cents on why some prospects just won’t work:

1. You only think they’re a good fit because they have lots of money.

It can be tempting to look at a prospect and see pound signs… But just because a company has lots of money doesn’t mean they’re going to give you any. You need to have a reason that the partnership makes sense. An explanation that means shareholders, colleagues and customers will look at the partnership and think ‘oh, yeah, that makes sense’. This fit can be a shared audience like Cadburys and Age UK (where Cadburys is mostly purchased by older audiences) or a shared problem like Ring Doorbells and Dogs Trust (where you want to monitor pet behaviour when there’s a knock at the door) but there needs to be something shared.

2. The company doesn’t have an obvious need.

If you can’t see something in it for the company, there’s no reason for them to take your meeting. One of the main quotes that sticks with me from our ‘Why Companies Give’ research is ‘we owe our shareholders more than we owe you.’ Corporate workers are being bombarded by requests on a daily basis - from sales people, from their managers, from their partners back at home… they simply can’t keep up.

If they don’t have an obvious reason to prioritise your request, they simply won’t. It could be that you make their brand stand out from a particular competitor, it could be that you give them a reason to bring colleagues back to the office… but you need to be offering something.

3. The timing isn’t right.

This is probably the biggest killer of good prospect approaches.

If they’ve just announced a new charity partnership, or they’ve just announced a major restructure… it might not be the moment. You might burn the lead just by showing you haven’t paid any attention. In these cases, it’s worth coming back in six months rather than getting frustrated that they’re not prioritising you - even though they literally can’t.

It’s worth looking back through your pipeline and asking yourself: is there an obvious fit? Is there something in it for them? Is now the right time?

If you’re struggling to say ‘yes’ and you need to top up your pipeline with better leads, get in touch. Whether you want a ‘here’s how to do it’ training or a ‘we’ll do it for you’ service… we can give your pipeline the glow-up it needs.

We can also run you through how to create a corporate strategy from scratch in our upcoming Ignite training or save you a seat at the upcoming corporate conference.

Will we see you by the Fireside soon?

Andy

PS: There’s only a couple of spaces left on Ignite. If you’ve been thinking about booking in, get in touch!