3 Proven Tips To Improve Your B2B Prospecting Strategy

In the digital age, with boundless information at your fingertips and endless online connection points, b2b prospecting is only becoming more complex.

And sales reps are feeling the heat.

40% of sales reps cite prospecting as the most difficult part of the sales process. 

Let’s make it easier with three of our favorite b2b prospecting methods to help sales teams connect with better-fit clients and build stronger, more profitable relationships.

Prefer to listen? Check out our podcast episode on prospecting tips.

What Is B2B Prospecting?

B2B prospecting is the process of identifying and engaging potential business customers to generate new sales opportunities. 

But finding the right customers is becoming increasingly difficult, directly attributable to the shifting b2b sales landscape. 

The truth is that b2b sales isn’t what it used to be, thanks to significant changes in buyer behavior and technological advancements. Today, 68% of b2b buyers prefer to conduct their own online research, while 60% actively avoid sales representatives as their primary information source. 

This shift has created a challenging environment for sales professionals, who must now navigate a more complex and digitally driven sales process.

As buyers become increasingly self-reliant and overwhelmed by the abundance of information available, sales representatives must adapt their prospecting strategies to remain effective and create a strong sales pipeline. The traditional approach of generic outreach is no longer sufficient in a world where buyers seek trusted partners who understand their business and can cut through the noise.

Enter social selling—a modern approach to b2b prospecting that leverages social media platforms and digital networks to build relationships, establish credibility, and engage with potential customers. This method aligns well with the evolving preferences of b2b buyers and offers a more personalized and value-driven approach to prospecting.

How Social Selling Can Amplify Your B2B Prospecting Strategy

Social selling is the process of developing relationships as part of the sales process. This type of selling is facilitated primarily through social networks like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and Pinterest, but it also occurs online and offline in one-to-one conversations. 

It embodies the heart of what we know to be true: people buy from people. And developing strong relationships with people—caring about their needs, uniquely solving their problems, and being a trusted partner—is the cornerstone of successful prospecting efforts in b2b sales today. 

Social selling involves interacting directly with potential buyers, and sales reps can do this in many ways, including personal branding, social listening, and sharing relevant content. 

The importance of social selling in b2b prospecting cannot be overstated. According to HubSpot's 2024 State of Sales report, 72% of sales representatives use social media to find new prospects. This statistic underscores the shift in buyer behavior and the need for sales professionals to adapt their strategies accordingly.

Remember, social selling is not about quick wins but about cultivating long-term relationships that lead to sustainable business growth. By leveraging social selling techniques, b2b sales teams can significantly enhance their prospecting efforts.

Let’s look at how the concept of social selling informs our top b2b prospecting tips for high-performing sales teams. 

3 B2B Prospecting Methods That Just Work

Modern b2b prospecting techniques leverage the right tools to build a healthy pipeline of ideal-fit customers, and social selling is the foundation for doing this well.

Here are three ways to implement social selling into your sales process. 

1. Extensively Research Potential Clients

When it comes to finding ideal prospects, sales reps tend to focus on the wrong things. 

While they may know which companies they want to work with or which industries are a good fit for their solutions, they rarely know (or have access to) who to call—the real decision-makers. 

By building relationships with the wrong people in the right company, sales reps spin their wheels and are often left in objection purgatory: delays, indecision, and confusion. 

No one wins in this scenario. But that doesn’t have to be your story. 

One of the best things about the changing b2b prospecting landscape is the ocean of information available at our fingertips. With robust search engines, artificial intelligence (AI) tools, and social media, we can research people, companies, and topics with more sophistication than ever before. 

Our advice?

Use these technologies to your advantage. 

Researching Prospects on Google

While not cutting-edge, start with a simple Google search. To make your search more effective, lean on Boolean search logic. 

Boolean search logic is a method of organizing and refining search queries using specific operators and syntax. It is based on the work of mathematician George Boole and employs the operators AND, OR, and NOT, along with parentheses and quotation marks, to create more precise and targeted search results. 

This b2b prospecting approach allows users to combine keywords and phrases in ways that narrow or expand search parameters, resulting in more relevant and accurate search outcomes.

Here’s an example of how you can use this sales prospecting method: 

Identify your prospect’s role and search for it using quotation marks followed by the company’s name. 

For example, if you sell IT services, type in the search bar: “Director of IT” Company XYZ. You will likely find traces of that person's information, at least a name, on the web. 

Once you have their name, type it in again with quotes: “Jane Smith” Company XYZ. You might come across their contact info, LinkedIn profile, or other information you can use to connect with them.

If you can't find an email address, don’t despair. Once you have their name, you just need to determine the naming convention for the company's email addresses. On an organization's website, there will always be at least one person who wants to be contacted—usually, the PR or media outreach team. 

Start by finding the company’s press page, and most of the time, there will be an actual person's name and email address. You now have the email naming convention, i.e., firstinitiallastname@companyxyz.com or firstname.lastname@companyxyz.com. 

You can then apply this method to reach your ideal prospect. 

Google isn’t the only way to research prospects—social media is also incredibly useful. 

Researching Prospects on LinkedIn

Sales professionals are quite fluent in the language of LinkedIn as it's a well-known tool for researching and connecting with b2b prospects.

While many reps use the basic platform, many may not know about their sales intelligence tool, Sales Navigator. This tool helps you discover new leads, build custom lead lists, contact decision-makers (without being connected), and stay current on your highest-priority prospects.

To get the most mileage out of LinkedIn, clearly identify your:

• Target audience 
• Current (and future) buyer pool 
• Industry fit
• Company size
• Company location 
• Role/title

Once you have these elements, LinkedIn will help you with the rest. 

Another helpful b2b prospecting tip to watch out for is new hires and leadership changes in your role of interest. When a new person comes into a decision-making role, they may be looking to change their systems, processes, technology, team, etc., which provides a fantastic opportunity for you to get in with them on the ground floor. 

Sales Navigator can help you sort through the data to identify prospects that are new to their role. This is a great place to start creating a list of high-potential prospects for your sales funnel. 

2. Connect to Qualified Prospects

You’ve done your homework and know who you need to connect with—now it’s time to start building the relationship. 

When leveraging social media to connect with prospects, there are some dos and don’ts. 

Apply Other-Centered® Selling To Your Outreach Efforts 

At ASLAN, we teach sales professionals how to best serve their customers. Because a philosophy of serving well isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s also the most profitable. In fact, other-centered® sellers outperform their peers by 44%. 

As you’re crafting a b2b prospecting message to your prospect via email (the most preferred), LinkedIn mail, LinkedIn groups, or other social channels, ground your messaging in the following principles:

• Understand Their Problem – or what’s on their whiteboard, i.e., their list of priorities. 
• Issue A Disruptive Truth – a creative, unique, or unknown insight about how to solve that problem. This could involve original research, a client case study, or an enlightening statistic from a reliable source in your prospect’s industry. 
• State Your Proprietary Benefit – something that distinguishes you from your competition. Think about something that not everyone who sells in your space can do or say. This could be a core competency, approach, philosophy, technology advantage, etc. 

Think about it like this—would you be more likely to engage with someone who is “just checking in” or someone who has clearly done research on your role, industry, and unique pain points? 

Given the highly educated and research-driven nature of today’s prospects, the ladder seems more likely. 

Use LinkedIn To Cast A Wider Net of Connections 

Again, we know that LinkedIn is an important prospecting social channel for sales reps, but many aren’t taking full advantage of the untapped potential in their second and third-level connections. These folks could be a great fit for your sales funnel.

With a second-level connection, you always have a mutual connection in common—this person can serve as a great referral source. 

For many people, their second-level connections are often links to qualified leads like decision-makers within their target company. If this is the case, tap your mutual connection for an introduction. 

With this b2b prospecting approach, you may be more likely to get in the door with your prospect as people are more likely to connect with people they know or through an introduction from someone they know. 

Your mutual connection may also be able to provide inside info and insight into what that person is looking for. 

As you’re conducting preliminary research, you could also find and connect with individual sales reps at your target company. Ask about their role and challenges, as this can help you tailor your outreach message and grab the decision-maker’s attention. 

Follow-Up Strategically 

In b2b prospecting, it’s rare that you strike a meaningful conversation from the first message—you’ll probably have to follow up with your prospect. 

There is certainly an art for doing this well. 

Avoid following up just for the sake of it—follow up for a real reason. Perhaps you want to share an interesting article you’ve read that they might find useful, a successful client case study or testimonial, or some new, relevant information. 

Don’t “just check in.” Show that you care by putting in the work to serve your prospect well. 

3. Demonstrate Thought Leadership

The fact is your prospects are doing extensive research before speaking with you. Gartner shares that buyers spend only about 17% of the buying process meeting with sales reps. 

This means that a significant part of their decision occurs before the initial sales call—but that doesn’t mean you can’t influence them in other ways during the information-gathering process.

The best way to do so—and perhaps the latest craze in sales prospecting techniques—is to become a thought leader. 

Thought leadership is an important tool in inbound prospecting. If you do this effectively, prospects and customers will see you as someone with unique insights, information, intelligence, experience, and credibility on industry subject matter. 

There are so many ways to start: publish blog posts or newsletters, comment on trending industry topics, interview other industry leaders, provide interviews yourself, record videos, answer questions in LinkedIn groups or other industry forums—be the person your prospect sees when researching anything in your area of expertise. 

If you do these activities on social media, like LinkedIn, your connections will start to see more of your posts in their feed, again associating your name with the things that interest them most. 

This establishes trust and a foundation for stronger relationships before getting on the phone. 

As you continue to optimize your LinkedIn profile, check out the platform’s Social Selling Index, which is a score between 0–100 that measures your social selling efforts. It's comprised of four elements:

1. Establishing your professional brand
2. Finding the right people
3. Engaging with insights
4. Building relationships

You can find yours through LinkedIn to get details on what your score is and why, as well as tips to improve it. 

Remember, at the end of the day, becoming a thought leader is all about creating space to serve your customers, both current and future, well.

From B2B Prospecting To Trusted Partnerships

As we wrap up our discussion on B2B prospecting strategies, it's clear that social selling has become an indispensable tool for modern sales professionals. By leveraging social media platforms and digital networks, you can build meaningful relationships, establish credibility, and engage with potential customers in ways that align with today's buyer preferences.

Remember, effective B2B prospecting is no longer about generic outreach. Sales prospecting techniques today are about becoming a trusted partner who understands your prospects' business needs and can cut through the noise of information overload. 

By embracing social selling techniques, you're positioning yourself to connect with better-fit clients and build stronger, more profitable relationships.

Now, it's time to put these insights into action. Start by evaluating your current sales prospecting approach and sales process and identifying areas where you can incorporate social selling strategies. Whether it's building your personal brand on LinkedIn, engaging in industry discussions, or sharing valuable content with your network, take that first step today toward a more effective B2B prospecting strategy.

Reach out to ASLAN for a complimentary consultation. 

Marc Lamson

As President of ASLAN, Marc is responsible for all day-to-day operations, including our sales and marketing efforts and growing our success in helping our clients be Other-Centered®.