How to do prospecting

Why sales reps actually sell only 40% of the time

The biggest brake on company growth isn't reps' inability to close deals — it's the fact that they don't have enough opportunities to negotiate.

According to Salesforce's State of Sales study, reps spend on average only 40% of their working hours actually selling.

The remaining 60% of their capacity is absorbed by activities that don't generate direct profit, such as:

• Manual prospecting: Searching for companies on the web and in stale lists.
• Hunting for contacts: Detective work on social networks and guessing email addresses.
• Admin: Hand-copying data into spreadsheets or CRMs.

Whom to target? A strategy for complex buying processes

In B2B, no single person decides anymore. Forrester reports that on average 13 people are involved in a typical B2B purchase decision today, and more than one department weighs in on 89% of them.

If your effort ends with one email to a generic address, your odds of success are minimal.

The goal of modern prospecting is to find a competent manager — a person with the necessary authority (and budget).

Sometimes you'll need multi-level outreach: identify and contact the user (e.g. head of production), the payer (CFO) and the approver (CEO).

How to find the right name and contact

If you're not starting completely from zero, there are several paths to decision makers:

• Intent signal analysis: Watch the market. Is the company hiring for technical roles? That can be a signal they're investing in production and will need your components.
• "Harvester" technology: Algorithms that crawl the digital footprint of companies in real time (websites, professional networks, annual reports) and extract up-to-date contact data you won't find in static databases.
• Use proven patterns: If you know the right person's name, the system can derive their email based on patterns confirmed for other employees at the same company.

Consistency is key: Why half of teams fail at prospecting

Salesforce data points to a fundamental problem: 47% of reps consider cold outreach the worst part of their job, and the same 47% admit their team doesn't have the capacity to prospect systematically.

The human factor is unreliable at this stage — after ten rejections motivation drops. An automated system solves it:

• Works at the right time: The system delivers outreach on working days during normal business hours, when the chance of an email being opened is highest.
• Disciplined follow-up: Most replies come only after several reminders. The technology makes sure no opportunity in progress falls through the cracks.
• Frees up hands: While the system "warms up" the market, your reps focus only on those who have already shown interest.

Sourcing: Prospecting as a tool for procurement

Effective supplier discovery is essential for production stability. A modern buyer uses prospecting to diversify the supply chain.

• Geopolitical risk: Distribute suppliers with an eye on regional stability (e.g. diversifying between Asia and the EU).
• Certifications and standards: Filter companies by whether they hold specific certifications (ISO, IATF, etc.).
• Production capacity: Identify entities by revenue, size and equipment so the supplier can actually handle your volumes and technical demands.

See also our dedicated guide on supplier sourcing.

Focus on business, not admin

It's no longer economically sensible or sustainable for qualified people to spend their valuable time inside spreadsheets and databases.

Delegate the draining routine to technology and let your people do what only they can — build trust, negotiate and close.