KEY PROSPECTS

What does Key prospects mean in marketing terminology?

Key prospects

Key prospects are potential customers or clients who have been identified as offering the greatest potential for success in marketing, sales, and other related activities. They are the foremost target for any business or individual looking to increase revenue and extend their reach.

A key prospect is a category of customer or client that your business should actively pursue and communicate with as it seeks to increase its revenues and/or customer base. Key prospects can be identified based on a number of criteria, but in general they usually share certain characteristics that make them attractive target audiences.

Initial determination – A business will typically start by carrying out market research to identify potential customers who have a demonstrated interest in their particular products or services. The focus should be on those customers who exhibit the greatest likelihood of engaging with the business in a meaningful way and demonstrating a genuine interest in their offerings.

A successful key prospect will typically have some combination of the following criteria:

• High propensity to purchase

• Potential for repeat or ongoing purchases

• Location and demographic that aligns with the product or service

• Likely to refer other potential customers

• Belong to major trade or industry organization

Pipeline visibility – Key prospects can also be identified using data captured from your sales pipeline. Any customer who is progressing through the pipeline in an accelerated manner and demonstrating a high likelihood of sale should be considered as a key prospect.

Prioritising prospects – Once identified, the prospects should be prioritised with the most promising leads placed at the top of the list. This could be done with a variety of metrics such as conversion time, lead scoring and budget size.

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Improve prospect intelligence – To gain further insight into the prospects, you could use a variety of business intelligence tools such as on-site surveys and customer segmentation to gain better understanding of them.

Engage with key prospects – Once identified and prioritised, it is important to engage with the key prospects to establish relationships, build trust and develop a deeper understanding of their needs. Engagement tracks could include regular contact (email and phone calls), personalised content and demo requests.

Track performance – To understand the efficacy of your key prospects, you should track the performance of each target audience to get an insight into campaigns, customer segments and individual customer performance.

Best practices

• Develop a multi-faceted approach to prospecting that includes understanding your customer’s needs and expectations.

• Conduct market segmentation to gain insights and identify potential key prospects.

• Set up automated marketing campaigns that are targeted at key prospects and track performance.

• Analyse the results of targeted campaigns to identify trends and behaviour patterns.

• Prioritise prospects according to their potential for success and focus resources on those.

• Establish relationships with key prospects engaging in personalised contact and offer tailored content.

• Conduct regular follow-up with key prospects to provide updates and to jump at sales opportunities.

• Analyse the performance of key prospects against other customer segments and compare to overall results.



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