Alright, let me walk you through how I tackled this “dru baker prospect ranking” thing. It was a bit of a journey, but hey, that’s what makes it fun, right?
Phase 1: Digging for Data
- First off, I had to get my hands on some data. We’re talking about a list of prospects – names, titles, company info, contact details… the whole shebang. I pulled this from our CRM, making sure everything was nice and clean (as clean as CRMs get, anyway!).
- Then, I went hunting for more info. LinkedIn Sales Navigator became my best friend. I was trying to figure out things like:
- How active are they on LinkedIn? Do they post, comment, or share often?
- Do they have any connections in common with my team or me?
- What groups are they in? What are they talking about?
- I also poked around the company websites. Looking for news, blog posts, case studies, anything that could give me clues about their priorities and pain points.
Phase 2: Defining My Ranking Criteria
Okay, data in hand. Now, how to actually rank these folks? I didn’t want to just go on gut feeling, so I came up with a few key criteria:
- Fit: How closely does their company match our ideal customer profile? This was based on things like industry, size, revenue, etc.
- Engagement: How engaged are they with our content and industry trends? This looked at their LinkedIn activity, website visits (if we could track that), and any other interactions they had with us.
- Influence: How influential are they within their company and industry? This was a bit harder to measure, but I looked at their title, LinkedIn connections, and mentions in industry publications.
- Need: Do they seem to have a problem that our product or service can solve? This was based on their company’s challenges, industry trends, and any pain points I could identify.
Phase 3: Scoring and Ranking
Time to get down and dirty. I created a simple spreadsheet (Excel is my jam!) and assigned a score to each prospect for each of the criteria above. I used a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best.
Here’s the tricky part: weighting the criteria. I decided that “Fit” and “Need” were the most important, so I gave them a higher weight than “Engagement” and “Influence.” After playing around with the numbers, I landed on this:
- Fit: 30%
- Engagement: 20%
- Influence: 20%
- Need: 30%
I plugged those weights into my spreadsheet and calculated a total score for each prospect. Then, I sorted the list by score, and boom! My prospect ranking was born.
Phase 4: Sanity Check and Refinement
I didn’t just stop there. I knew the numbers could be misleading, so I did a sanity check. I looked at the top-ranked prospects and asked myself: “Does this feel right?”
I adjusted a few scores based on my gut feeling and some additional research. I also had a chat with our sales team to get their input. They had some valuable insights on which prospects were most likely to convert.
The Result
After all that, I had a ranked list of prospects that I felt confident in. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a heck of a lot better than just randomly picking names out of a hat.
Key Takeaways
- Data is king. The more info you have, the better you can rank your prospects.
- Define your criteria. Don’t just go on gut feeling. Have a clear set of criteria that you can use to evaluate each prospect.
- Weight your criteria. Not all criteria are created equal. Give more weight to the ones that are most important to your business.
- Don’t be afraid to adjust. The numbers are just a starting point. Use your gut feeling and sales team feedback to refine your ranking.
This whole process took some time and effort, but it was totally worth it. It helped me focus my sales efforts on the prospects who were most likely to convert, and that’s always a good thing.
Hope this helps you with your own prospect ranking adventures!
