Episode 18: Sales Prospecting Simplified with Nico De Bruyn

Rather than struggling to start a conversation with someone who doesn’t need what you’re selling, there are ways to streamline and systematize the process to make it more efficient and productive. On today’s show, we discussed some tactical tips for simplifying your sales prospecting with the CEO of Boundless Media, Nico De Bruyn. Nico is an entrepreneur with a focus on helping brands break through the noise to win more clients and live better lives. Tuning in, you’ll learn the value of personalization, creating human connections, and using online marketplaces to zero in on your ideal clients. Nico also shares his insight into Boolean searches and contextual follow ups that add value, as well why he believes that salespeople tend to overcomplicate the prospecting process in the first place. Nico has a key piece of advice for listeners who are struggling with prospecting: ask yourself what sales would look like it was easy, then make that a reality! Make sure not to miss this conversation full of winning sales strategies and practical examples with no-nonsense author, digital marketer, growth hacker, speaker, and entrepreneur, Nico De Bruyn!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Hear about Nico’s background and why he doesn’t consider himself a ‘traditional marketer’.
• The differences between sales and marketing and why Nico takes a holistic approach.
• How to break through the noise: find what works and master it before moving on.
• Find out how personalization can help you connect with more people.
• Nico shares some elements from his custom email template; don’t overcomplicate it!
• The benefits of multichannel prospecting, auditing your time, and just being human.
• Find more people who need what you are trying to sell using online marketplaces.
• Nico’s tips for developing your ideal client profile (ICP); be specific!
• How Google has all the answers you need for channel identification.
• How to use the Boolean keywords, ‘AND’, ‘OR’, and ‘NOT’, to narrow it down.
• Outreach methods you can try once you’ve found people who need what you’re selling.
• Nico outlines the benefits of sending contextual follow ups that add value.
• Why it can take from seven to 16 follow ups in your email cadence to convert a lead.
• Why Nico believes that salespeople tend to overcomplicate the prospecting process.
• The value of leaning into the unknown; embrace the no’s!
• Ask yourself: what would sales look like if it was easy?
• Nico’s final thoughts: find someone smarter than you to learn from and someone worse off than you to teach.

Tweetables:

“Find something that works, double down on it, master it, and then move to that next thing.” — @nico_debruyn [0:06:36]

“Whoever your target market is, there is a marketplace or a place online [where] people are already raising their hand, needing your service, and having budget for it. You can have a conversation with them rather than cold prospecting to people who might never need what you have.” — @nico_debruyn [0:22:27]

“You want to find where on the internet these micro-communities are living that [already have] the infrastructure to help you reach the person that needs your service.” — @nico_debruyn [0:31:17]

“Ask yourself: what would sales look like if it was easy? [If it’s] ’Someone has already teed up all the leads for me.’ Great. Then, hire someone to tee up those leads for you.” — @nico_debruyn [0:48:03]

“Go and learn from someone, learn from those podcasts, and then teach it to someone.” — @nico_debruyn [0:51:31]

“Know that it’s a continuous process. You’ll be a better salesperson, better leader, better marketer after this podcast, after next week, after next month than you were a year ago.” — @nico_debruyn [0:52:32]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Nico de Bruyn on LinkedIn

Nico De Bruyn Email

Nico De Bruyn on Twitter

Boundless Media

Upwork

Fiverr

The UK’s Most Hated Sales Trainer

Sam Capra on Linkedin

The Sales Samurai B2B Sales Podcast

flexEngage