HOW AGILE SALES PROFESSIONALS USE SPRINTS TO TARGET, MESSAGE, AND ENGAGE PROSPECTS 1

How Agile Sales Professionals Use

Sprints to Target, Message,
and Engage Prospects

Communication that compels action from

prospects means speaking to the customer’s top-
of-mind needs. Successful sales professionals do
so with an iterative approach built for speed.

Sales professionals need to “message the moment.” They need to create prospecting communication that
demonstrates that they get the customer and have a solution that is relevant. This goal is not new, but the
challenges surrounding it are because changes to the prospect’s business now occur daily, and even hourly. These
changes are sometimes unexpected even to the stakeholders.

Accelerated change means that prospecting must embrace the dynamic nature of the customer’s world. To do so,
sales professionals must become agile in their approach to prospecting. Moreover, they need agility that works. This
means bringing the term down from its lofty, theoretical heights and into the everyday conversations that happen
on the ground level. Developing this actionable agility means adopting a sprint pattern.

A sprint is a burst of activity that revolves around key moments of conversation with the customer. Each sprint
should result in a mini close. Sprints follow a prepare – engage – advance pattern. Each of these three parts
integrate specific techniques, skills, and tools to progress each interaction. Richardson Sales Performance’s Sprint
Prospecting works because it is a process-driven method for developing agility that quickly gets to the core of the
customer’s needs and communicates messaging accordingly.

Here we explain the specific actions that occur within each part of the prepare – engage – advance model and how
they add up to a single strategy for keeping pace with customer changes so that prospecting outreach resonates.

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 HOW AGILE SALES PROFESSIONALS USE SPRINTS TO TARGET, MESSAGE, AND ENGAGE PROSPECTS 2

1- PREPARE BY BUILDING ACUMEN THAT RISES ABOVE

EVERYDAY INSIGHTS
Sales professionals need a level of acumen that enables them to speak to the prospect’s core needs and challenges.
Prospects don’t want to be sold to or prospected to, but they do want to be engaged, and engagement comes from
addressing what is unique to their setting. Developing a deeper understanding of the prospect’s challenges is a front-
loaded task but this extra work yields more long-term revenue. As the outreach becomes more salient, more prospects
are likely to travel the full length of the pipeline.

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HOW AGILE SALES PROFESSIONALS USE SPRINTS TO TARGET, MESSAGE, AND ENGAGE PROSPECTS 3

Building acumen differentiates the sales professional by enabling them to:

1. Communicate Competency
When a sales professional develops a precise understanding of the prospect’s world, they are showing them
that they not only understand what is important to the customer but that they can research, learn, and
articulate the new characteristics of the prospect’s business. Tracking, and understanding the fast-moving
change occurring in another business requires considerable skill. Therefore, demonstrating this capability is
an early way to build credibility.

2. Put the Prospect First

Much like a good listener mirrors the person speaking, strong acumen demonstrates that the sales
professional is attuned to what is important to the prospect. A lot of traditional prospecting aims to draw
attention to the product or service or the successes of those selling them. When the sales professional proves
that they understand the current state of the prospect’s business they are making it clear that they put the
customer first.

3. Position a Partnership
Acumen is what narrows the distance between the sales professional and the prospect. Both sides
become aligned to the same challenge when the sales professional knows the prospect’s world. If the sales
professional is going to convince anyone that they have the solution, they must first convince them that they
truly understand the problem. When the prospect knows that they are talking to someone who gets it, the
relationship becomes collaborative rather than transactional.

How to Do It
• Explore the prospect’s social “footprint” which reveals the prospect’s direction.
• Share relevant content and insights that invite responses and are searchable.
• Develop a research cadence and protect that time.
• Research the prospect’s digital transformation initiatives.
• Understand how the prospect’s business overlaps different non-core industries.
• Talk with existing contacts in the same, or similar industries.

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HOW AGILE SALES PROFESSIONALS USE SPRINTS TO TARGET, MESSAGE, AND ENGAGE PROSPECTS 4

2- ENGAGE WITH STRUCTURED MESSAGING THAT GAINS

INTEREST
Drafting engaging communication means being brief and being brief means sticking to a structure.
With structured messaging the sales professional prevents falling into the trap of becoming
longwinded. Structure is also what enables Sprint Prospecting to work at scale because it offers
a repeatable method for drafting different messages for different prospects. By committing to a
structure, the sales professional develops critical thinking that repeatedly asks them to make clear
and concise connections between the customer’s challenge and the value the sales professional can
provide.

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HOW AGILE SALES PROFESSIONALS USE SPRINTS TO TARGET, MESSAGE, AND ENGAGE PROSPECTS 5

Taking a structured approach to messaging gains the customer’s trust by:

1. Delivering Relevance Early

Sales professionals need to draft messaging that makes clear their understanding of the
prospect’s challenges. Doing so illustrates that the sales professional is prepared to offer
insights and ultimately a solution that addresses the specific issues within the prospect’s world.
Relevance is what prevents the prospect from feeling that they’re being sold to. When the
conversation has this kind of customer-centricity a trust develops. This progression is critical
because trust underpins every sale.

2. Making the Meaning Measurable

Making the meaning measurable means drafting messaging that offers quantifiable results. For
example, some sales professionals may choose to draft their messaging around a customer
success story format. With this approach the messaging cites a previous success with a
customer within the same industry. Here, the messaging flows from articulating the situation,
to the critical business issue, to the underlying reasons for those issues, to the capabilities
needed, and finally the quantifiable outcome that solved the challenge.

3. Inviting Action
One major goal of prospecting is to start and maintain a dialogue. A message that invites
some kind of action is more likely to spark conversation. What separates effective prospecting
from ineffective prospecting is how the sales professional invites action. Asking the prospect
to provide detailed, non-public information at this stage will likely prevent any further
communication. In contrast, a sales professional is more likely to prompt a conversation if they
ask how a new development within the prospect’s industry will impact their business.

How to Do It
• Draft messaging that suggests how the solution has helped the prospect’s peers.
• Offer evidence of tangible value.
• Keep the phrasing concise.
• Choose the best format: value statement, customer success story, or value proposition.
• Personalize the first lines of the message directly to the prospect.
• Focus on the solution capabilities that are both most relevant and differentiated.

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HOW AGILE SALES PROFESSIONALS USE SPRINTS TO TARGET, MESSAGE, AND ENGAGE PROSPECTS 6

3- ADVANCE WITH NEW INFORMATION LEARNED

Sprint Prospecting is agile because it is a framework designed to benefit from new information from
the customer which equips the sales professional to deliver value in the next message. Each “sprint” is
propelled by a new insight. As the sales professional incorporates new information learned into their
pursuit they become more customer centric. Each customer conversation arms the sales professional
with the knowledge needed to assess the next best move against the original objectives. This cadence
maintains agility and advances prospecting efforts to more involved selling efforts.

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HOW AGILE SALES PROFESSIONALS USE SPRINTS TO TARGET, MESSAGE, AND ENGAGE PROSPECTS 7

Leveraging new information learned from the customer will advance the pursuit by:

1. Creating Salient Insights

Salient information that stands out or seems relevant is more likely to affect the prospect’s
thinking and actions. The value of learning new information from the customer, even if it is
unexpected, is that it equips the sales professional with details needed to deliver salient follow up
messaging that is akin to broadcasting at the customer’s frequency. A key component of Sprint
Prospecting is developing a mindset in which unforeseen developments in the prospect’s world
are not seen as a discouragement. Rather, they are seen as important information that enable
ultra-customized messaging.

2. Fostering Authenticity
When the sales professional applies new information learned to their follow up messaging,
they are demonstrating their ability to listen, learn, and apply critical thinking. Moreover, they
are showing their commitment to a continued focus on the customer without redirecting the
conversation toward the solution. Authenticity is about showing the customer that the sales
professional has their interests in mind. Doing so means knowing what those interests are by
reflecting on information learned in the initial outreach.

3. Distilling the Value Proposition

The most effective value propositions are those which are distilled to the few solution
characteristics that truly matter to the prospect. Reflection and follow up is a critical step in
distilling the vast scope of the solution into just a few sentences that get to the core of the
prospect’s needs. The key is to revise the messaging by considering the customer’s phrasing and
where they place emphasis. Understanding these factors and creating messaging to address them
is what elevates a sales professional to a trusted advisor.

How to Do It
• Explore any clues in the customer’s responses that might help refine the message.
• Follow up internally and externally with all commitments made to the prospect.
• Assess the strength of the sale to determine if it is viable.
• Consider contacting other stakeholders cited in the conversation.
• Evaluate how new information learned might be applied to other prospects.
• Send a brief follow up reconfirming what was discussed and expressing thanks.

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HOW AGILE SALES PROFESSIONALS USE SPRINTS TO TARGET, MESSAGE, AND ENGAGE PROSPECTS 8

Richardson’s Sprint Prospecting™

For an Agile Approach to Earn the
Customer’s Attention
In our Sprint Prospecting program, we teach your sales professionals how to apply selling
sprints to embrace the dynamic nature of engaging and selling, and integrate specific
techniques, skills, and tools to progress each interaction.

By applying selling sprints in their prospecting efforts, sales professionals will learn that
each customer interaction – from an informal, social engagement to a more formal, initial
meeting – arms them with knowledge needed to assess the next best move against their
original objectives.

Delivery Options

Richardson Sales Performance’s new Sprint

Prospecting Program is a blended offering:

• Two 4-hour Virtual Instructor-Led Training (V-ILT)

sessions or
• 1-day Instructor Led Training (ILT) session

Richardson Sales Performance’s Accelerate™ Digital

Learning Platform for:
• Pre-workshop learning
• Post-workshop sustainment activities
• Measurement tools and reporting

Learn more about the program here

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HOW AGILE SALES PROFESSIONALS USE SPRINTS TO TARGET, MESSAGE, AND ENGAGE PROSPECTS 9

Contact us to learn how to bring agility to your US: +1-215-940-9255

team’s business development efforts with our EMEA:
new Sprint Prospecting™ program at
London : +44 (0) 20 7917 1806
+1-215-940-9255 or at
Brussels : +32 2 70 98 580
[email protected].
APAC: +61 (0) 8 8376 1667
Follow us on LinkedIn for more insights on CHINA: +86 21 32577032
effective selling.
[email protected]

www.richardson.com

Contact us to get started today.

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