Next Up in Prospecting - How to Delegate

Looking for a way to lighten up your stress? The experts all suggest delegating more of your to do list. We all know it’s not quite that easy. But one task you can delegate to others is building your prospect database. Here are a few simple things to keep in mind when delegating prospecting to your team.
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Start with the goal. Business leaders uniformly say that the key to their success is building group momentum towards a goal. This is true for prospecting as well. If your team understands what role prospecting has on your overall business success, they will be more likely to be engaged and productive. If you have clear prospecting goals in your marketing or business plan, share the plan with the team members who will work on the prospecting list.
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The big picture for prospecting is to build a list of potential clients that can be added to (and segmented within) your database for communication. The goal is to move those prospects to leads. Some commentators differentiate between possibilities (or suspects) and prospects. The difference is that possibilities are those with whom you have had no contact and you suspect may be interested in your services whereas prospects are those with whom you’ve had some contact. Make sure you are adding both, with details, to your database.
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Differentiate Lead Generation from Prospecting. Your team members may also benefit from understanding the difference between prospects and lead generation. Contrary to some commentators and marketing experts, they aren’t the same. Lead generation is more direct and frequently builds interest over time. The best method is to work lead generation from a pool of prospects, using the right data. To move a prospect into a lead generation funnel, it’s essential that you have complete and accurate data on them. As one commentator put it “prospecting is the first step in a sales process, while lead generation is related to marketing.”^[1]
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Data Hygiene is King. Just as it is important to note prospects with whom you’ve had some interaction from those that you haven’t (those “suspects”), it is also important to capture as much information into your database as possible. Some team members may raise privacy questions about information capture. This is an important distinction. More information ensures that you do not have duplicate entries in your system for the same potential prospect. Nothing kills a potential client relationship faster than getting the same emailed invitation multiple times. Additionally, ensuring that data is accurately entered the first time ensures that potential clients understand the accuracy and care they will receive as your client. The utmost and crucial of all data hygiene is names and spellings. Beginning a client relationship with important details and data helps you build stronger relationships with your clients. That helps you improve your client’s overall experience, which in turn helps with client retention.
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Where to Start. Once you’ve identified the team member to whom you can delegate prospecting tasks, you may need to point them in the right direction. You may want to include not only what to search for, but also where. For example, you might identify prospects by looking for life events that could drive individuals or couples to realize a need for a financial advisor, such as starting a professional career, buying a house, or having a baby. Your team member can then search social media for groups involving those events. Websites LinkedIn or Facebook and MeetUp could be a great place to start.

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^[1] https://www.cognism.com/blog/prospecting-vs-lead-generation#

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‍These articles are prepared for general purposes and are not intended to provide advice or encourage specific behavior. Before taking any action, Advisors and Plan Sponsors should consult with their compliance, finance and legal teams.