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17 Effective Prospecting Triggers to Engage the

Modern Buyer Our buyers are more in control than ever before. As a

modern sales professional, you must be able to identify opportunities to engage in real-time.

We’ve put together a list of 17 awesome prospecting

triggers that you can start using today to build authentic relationships with your buyers.

Published by: Kevin Hurley Head of Marketing & Growth Nudge @iamkevinhurley

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

HELLO FROM NUDGE 1

WHY READ 2

SOCIAL ACTIVITY (Triggers 1-5) 3

MENTIONS IN THE NEWS (Triggers 6-8) 4

PUBLISHED CONTENT (Triggers 9-11) 5

CAREER MOVES (Triggers 12-13) 6

MUTUAL RELATIONSHIPS (Triggers 14-15) 7

BONUS EXPERT TRIGGERS (16-17) 8

ABOUT NUDGE 9

www.neednudge.com

Welcome! It’s great to see that you’re ready to learn more about modern sales. Before we dive into these actionable tactics that we’ve learned from sales leaders across the globe, I just wanted to share a few words.

With 16+ years of experience working with some of the world’s most successful B2B sales and marketing teams, I’ve come to realize that trust always trumps content and at the center of every business deal is a trusted relationship between the buyer and seller.

Our buyers are more in control than ever before. With the

explosion of social media, our buyers are getting lost in the noise and frustrated with automated sales tactics. As marketing automation begins to mature, we are now experiencing a shift in the way sales professionals engage their customers.

I’m excited to have you join us on this exploration into modern sales! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, comments or suggestions for future content.

Paul Teshima CEO and Co-founder,

Nudge

paul.teshima@neednudge.com

1

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Why Read?

q  Increase outreach response rates.

q Drive revenue through more

qualified leads.

q Create more upsell opportunities

by building long-term relationships

with customers.

q Build relationships earlier on in the

buying process with decision

makers and key accounts.

q Begin establishing yourself as a

trusted advisor.

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SOCIAL ACTIVITY Social Listening enables you and your team to identify engagement

opportunities with your buyers on social media. Rather than flooding their

inbox with cold outreach emails, try engaging with one of the social

triggers below.

ü Follow event hashtags on Twitter where your target buyers are likelyattending. Look for opportunities to engage with their updates, especially ifit’s a topic that you're an expert on.

ü Search for event hashtags on Facebook to find posts from potential buyers.Engage with their posts and start a conversation in the comments or reachout directly.

ü Leverage event hashtags on Twitter that you know your buyers arefollowing and share relevant content during peak times. Start a conversationwith buyers who Like, Reply or Retweet your updates.

ü Create Lists on Twitter to organize your prospects, customers andinfluencers. Keep them up to date and check daily for opportunities toengage with their activity.

ü Join LinkedIn and Facebook groups where your potential buyers arelearning. Share relevant content, ask questions and stir discussions. Connectdirectly with buyers who engage with your activity.

5 Social Prospecting Triggers

73% of salespeople using

social selling as part of their

sales process outperform

their sales peers and

exceeded quota 23% more

often.

Source: Aberdeen

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MENTIONS IN THE NEWS Keeping up with news on your buyers and their companies has always

been a painful process. Instead of scanning every news site and blog, it’s

much easier to leverage technology that automatically surfaces these

opportunities for you.

Every time a decision maker or key account is mentioned in the news, it

creates the perfect window to reach out.

ü LinkedIn provides 2 easy ways to keep up with news mentions.Connect with your buyer personally and follow their company page toensure you catch their latest activity. LinkedIn will also occasionallysurface news mentions from external sources.

ü You can leverage social selling tools like Nudge to automaticallysurface news mentions on people and companies you care about.Whenever your prospect’s name or their company is mentioned in thenews, you’ll be notified and can engage in real-time.

ü Learning how to use major press publications such as PRNewswire orMarketwired can create huge opportunities for you. Manyorganizations share major company announcements “across the wire”which allows you to search or follow specific industry news related toyour buyer and their industry.

3 News Triggers for Prospecting

Your sales team has a 56%

greater chance to attain

quota if you engage buyers

before they contact a seller.

Source: SalesBenchmark Index

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PUBLISHED CONTENT Since the explosion of social media, we’ve all become familiar with

publishing our own content. Regardless of the industry you’re selling too,

there’s a good chance someone is publishing content that you can

engage with to access key accounts.

3 Published Content Triggers for Prospecting

Since July of 2015, over 1

million professionals

have published content

on LinkedIn.

Source: LinkedIn

ü Connect with your buyers on LinkedIn and follow their self publishedcontent so that you’re notified every time they post something. Useeach new post as an opportunity to learn more about them and/orengage with valuable feedback.

ü If your buyer is influential or looking to establish themselves as athought leader, you’ll likely be able to find some of their contentonline. Try some Google searches or leverage a tool like Nudge thatcan automatically keep you informed when their name is mentioned inan article.

ü Depending on the role you’re selling to, you may find your buyers areinvolved in publishing content for the company blog. You cansubscribe to the blog or run a few searches using their name to see ifthey’re already publishing.

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CAREER MOVES When your buyer changes positions, it provides an opportunity to reach

out and share any insight you have on how to best navigate their new

role. Regardless if they’re ready to buy or need some expert advice, it’s a

great time to say hello.

ü One of the most obvious triggers to learn about career changes is on LinkedIn. If you’re connected with your buyer, you’ll see a notification when they update their profile in your news feed.

ü If your buyer is not active on LinkedIn, yet is in a senior management position, you may learn about their newly appointed role on a major press publication such as PRNewsire or Markwired. Major press sites also create additional prospecting triggers which we’ll dive deeper into at another time. You’ll want to get familiar with how to search and follow stories related to your buyer and their industry.

2 Career Move Triggers for Prospecting

80% of prospects new to

their position who are

spending $1M+ on new

initiatives do so in their first

90 days.

Source: Craig Elias

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MUTUAL RELATIONSHIPS Accessing a buyer through someone you already know removes the

“cold” from your outreach. Buyers are more open to talking to you if

you’re referred to them by someone they know, like and trust.

In a world overloading with social connections, it’s become harder to find

out who in your network can introduce you to your next opportunity.

ü You’ve likely already used LinkedIn’s “Shared” connections tab on yourbuyers profile to identify mutual connections that you could ask for anintroduction. Never send a cold email referring to mutual connectionswithout checking first. It’s very clear to your buyer that you’re trying topitch them if they don’t actually know those mutual connections.

ü With Nudge’s Collaboration feature, you can share network strengthinformation with your sales team and anyone in your network.Collaboration allows you to see who in your network has the bestrelationship with decision makers or key accounts. Collaborating withfriends, colleagues, advisors, executives and/or your entire sales teamcan create many paths to your buyer.

2 Mutual Relationship Triggers for Prospecting

73% of executives prefer

to work with sales

professionals referred by

someone they know.

Source: IDC

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BONUS TRIGGERS:

Learn from the Experts If you’re at all familiar with sales leaders who are changing the game,

you’ve likely come across these folks before. Here’s 2 bonus prospecting

triggers from Jill Rowley and Craig Elias.

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Jill Rowley Social Selling Evangelist

@jill_rowley

Alumni Search: One way to find your next customer is by leveraging your existing network. Here’s how Jill taps into her existing network to find opportunities:

ü Visit your university and/or high school page onLinkedIn.

ü Click on the “Studentsand Alumni” tab.

ü Search for job titles thatmatch your ideal buyer.

ü Identify potentialopportunities and reachout.

Learn more about this tactic.

Craig Elias CEO, SHiFT Selling

@CraigElias

Email Bounce When your prospect’s email bounces back because they’ve changed positions, it creates 4 new prospecting opportunities.

ü Find the prospect at their new company.

ü Find out where the person they replaced moved to.

ü Find out who replaced your prospect at their previous position.

ü Find out who replaced your prospect's replacement at their previous company.

Learn more about this tactic.

ft

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Build Relationships. Grow Sales.

Nudge is a Modern Sales Platform that leverages relationship

strength to help you find and keep your best customers.

Get Started with Nudge

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Access Your Best Customers

Collaborating on Nudge allows you and your team to share network information, providing visibility into who has the best access to decision makers and key accounts.

Grow the Right Relationships

Relationship strength provides insight into who and when you should re-engage. When it’s time to reach out, Nudge surfaces relevant news and updates, helping you craft the perfect message.

Your Network, One Place

Nudge brings your network together by integrating with your favorite communication platforms. As you interact, Nudge will automatically keep your network up to date with relationship data.

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