It's always surprising to me how few sellers conduct an audit of a prospect's website and social media presence prior to meeting with a prospect.
This simple step doesn’t need to take a lot of time, but it will go a long way to help prepare you to ask better, more knowledgeable questions about the prospect, their business, and what might be important to them.
Improve Digital Sales Performance
Even if you have a digital audit tool, reviewing their digital presence will provide clues to some areas of questioning you should explore. Here are a few areas you should look to before your first meeting:
Start by going to their website to gain insight into what is important to them.
- What products and services do they dedicate space to in their navigational menu?
- What do they promote on their homepage?
- Do they have any events or promotions coming up in the near future?
- Are they running paid ads?
- Do they use Google Analytics or other web analytics tools?
Review the content on their website to gather clues on how they use their website.
- Does the site inform or educate?
- Are they generating leads?
- Setting appointments?
- Do they provide resources or a blog for their users?
- What is the experience like for their users?
- How quickly does the site load?
Once you see what products or services are important to them, search for them (like a consumer) on Google and Bing.
- Where do they rank? First? Third? Five pages in?
- What competitors come up when you search and where do they come up in relation to your account?
- Are they using paid search?
Check out some of the top reviews to see what their customers are saying about them.
Both positive and negative feedback can be helpful when identifying your client’s potential needs. Look to see if and how they respond to reviews.
Identify the social media sites they use to promote their business.
You can typically find them all by locating the social icons on their website (they are usually at the top of the very bottom of the page.)
- How often do they post?
- What type of messages do they post?
- How frequent are they?
- What type of engagement do they receive from their posts?
- Are they running paid posts?
Take a look at the sites of their biggest competitors.
- What is the competition doing that your prospect is not?
- What do they do well?
- How does your potential client compare?
- What can you tell about each brand based on what you see?
By taking the time to do this research, you will be more prepared than the majority of sellers who call on your prospects. When you ask tough, informed questions, you will build trust and credibility, and you’ll uncover needs your competition couldn’t.
*Editor's Note: This blog was originally written in 2013 and has since been updated.