How to Find New Prospects Fast Online

Saphyte Team

3 min read

Updated: May 18th, 2022

There are so many ways to find new prospects online. But time is ticking for some salespeople and there’s also the risk of competition.

Prospects are necessary for businesses. When the sales strategy is done right, they will eventually become the long-term paying customers of the business. Finding prospects may sound easy, but finding prospects that will convert becomes the main challenge of any business.

How do you find new prospects fast? Check out our tips below.

What you should know:

Prospecting is the process of identifying potential customers for your business. A successful prospecting strategy would result in a high conversion rate early on (i.e. prospects will make their first purchase in the early stages of the sales process).

Prospecting is important because it is one of the important steps to get guaranteed sales, which are needed for the business to continue running.

Sources of prospects online mainly involve social media platforms. Sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and even Facebook comprise communities of individuals that may fit the customer profile you’re looking for.

With digital tools that enable sales prospecting, businesses won’t have a hard time identifying prospects and making their first contact and engagement.

What is prospecting?

Prospecting is the process of searching for potential customers, clients, or buyers for your business. The goal of prospecting is to ensure that from the get-go, the prospect identified will eventually convert into a customer (i.e. makes his first purchase and make a repeat purchase over and over again).

Why is prospecting important?

Prospecting is what makes a business continue to exist. Without customers, businesses won’t have sufficient revenue to sustain the costs and expenses associated with running a business. Skillful prospecting also lets you survive the competition. 

By securing sources of prospects that have not been identified yet by the competition, you guarantee a steady stream of sales without the threat of the competition dissuading those prospects to buy from you.

How to find new prospects fast

Below is a list of sources of new prospects online that are guaranteed to convert, no matter your business:

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the most significant social media platforms these days. With almost 740 million members and over 55 million registered companies, it’s a fresh source of professional prospects that may have needs and interests that your business can serve.

Send your first direct message (DM) to your prospect and with the right strategy, you’ll be able to secure your first prospects from there.

Pro tip: You can use tools such as Saphyte Sync so you can capture all your prospect’s data in a centralized database fast and easily.

2. Twitter

Twitter is one of those spaces where users can honestly speak their minds out. When a user tweets or retweets something, it offers additional insight into their needs and interests as an individual.

You can also use the # (hashtag) function to look for prospects that may be interested in your product or service. For example, if you’re selling wood crafts, you may look for people who typed in #woodcraft, or even narrow the search further by adding another hashtag of the city you’re in.

3. Facebook

While privacy is a main concern for Facebook users, some users remain confident with the information they put out on the site. Interests, hobbies, and the things they like offer an insight into the customer’s needs and preferences.

More importantly, by joining groups that specialize in a particular interest (e.g. Cooking Groups, Cycling Groups, Writer’s Groups), you can connect with a community of like-minded individuals that may be interested in the product or service you’re offering. This makes it easier for you to list down prospects and engage them with the unique selling points of your business.

4. Industry Blogs and Forums

Industry blogs and forums, just like Facebook groups, are blogs that gather discussions from people of the same interest. This makes it easier for salespeople to connect with individuals who are likely to be interested in the industry the blog or forum is involved with.

For example, race car blogs are more likely to pique the interests of race car enthusiasts and are likely to gather them in that channel. It’s also safe to say that members of that channel (or at least people involved in the discussions in that channel are likely car enthusiasts who may be interested in products or services targeting car enthusiasts).

5. Job Boards

Just like LinkedIn, job boards let you know the skills and possible interests of a person. It’s also highly likely that the information people put in there is sincere and honest. This lets you get a good grasp of what that person might be looking for to advance his or her career.

Using tools to make prospecting easy

To make sales prospecting a lot easier for salespeople, using tools such as a CRM software is recommended. CRMs let salespeople gather information about prospects and keep track of these prospects’ journeys. 

Automation features integrated into CRMs also let users personalize their interactions with each prospect in just a few clicks.

Check out how you can make prospecting easy by getting started here.