Prospect management is key for a modern sales organization

A vital part of providing people with what they want and need depends on first finding them…and them finding you. After that come the relationships that lead to sales. 

Traditionally, identifying leads entailed reaching out to markets with conventional tools like trade show displays, advertisements, brochures and direct mail, then having prospects respond by coming to you. That meant they’d been “found.”

Now, the script has flipped, and for the better. 

Thanks to electronic communications and social media, prospects can reach out, and be reached with much greater accuracy and efficiency. Self-generated blogs and posts purposely put everyone’s passions and interests right out in the open. 

But it’s a busy environment: an estimated 7.5-million blog posts are published every day. 

Darren Howie, BinSentry’s senior vice-president of sales, says that’s where AI tools for information gathering come in. They accelerate the ability for potential clients to be seen, and to find you. 

“AI tools are helping prospects raise their hands and say they have a particular need,” Darren says. “They’re telling us we have exactly what they’re looking for.” 

And while this scenario opens doors like never before, it’s also a huge management challenge for modern sales teams. Darren says teams who develop prospect management protocols and recognize the key role of sales operations will be the most successful in this evolving culture.

“Today, sales operations is a highly defined role,” he says. “We’re hyper-focused on getting our message to the right people, and AI helps us do that.”  

Getting that message out still involves some traditional approaches, such as meeting prospects at trade shows. But now, the work-up prior to a show – such as identifying prospects and getting to know their needs – is as important as the show itself. 

“Today’s trade shows are great meeting venues,” says Darren. “We can be much more proactive beforehand, learning about prospects and inviting them to get together with us at a show. We know we’ll have something specific and meaningful to discuss. It’s a win for them and for us.”

Another example of putting a new twist on a proven sales approach is a grain elevator visit. Using modern AI technology to clearly and precisely identify a prospect warms up what would traditional be labelled a cold call.  

“Be it Oklahoma or northern Saskatchewan, we make the trip to meet onsite because people want to have a conversation,” Darren says. “Showing up is still a central part of doing business.”

Darren’s entire career has been focused on agriculture and technology, meeting clients and developing relationships. As a teenager, he worked on his family’s cattle farm and farm equipment and fertilizer dealership in High River, Alberta, less than an hour from the fertile foothills of the Rocky Mountains. 

Once he could drive, his job was to deliver and apply fertilizer for customers -- a practical and insightful apprenticeship for his eventual entry into the sector as a salesperson and later, in the 1980s, as an agronomist. 

Darren witnessed firsthand the intersection strengthening between on-farm sustainability and profitability. He helped producers plan and implement effective management strategies and practices, such as conservation tillage and computer-mapped planting and inputs. His goal was to use research and technology to position producers for greater environmental responsibility, without sacrificing efficiency and the bottom line. 

Darren was in the company of innovators who were advising producers on the next step towards fine-tuning their operations with cutting-edge technology. 

Even before the formal creation of virtual data centres that would become known as the cloud, he was actively engaged in activities such as downloading soil test results from the lab and sharing them with customers to pinpoint deficiencies and opportunities for improvement.

Eventually, he branched out into grain marketing and carbon management, through leadership positions that included general manager of agricultural solutions with Denver, Colorado-based Trimble Inc.

Darren and his wife Cindy now call Scottsdale, Arizona home, along with Red Deer County, Alberta, where they retreat each summer to their cabin in the woods. As an avocation, they spent many years buying, improving and selling homes, combining Darren’s sales prowess and Cindy’s talents in interior design (Cindy previously worked as a roof truss and structural floor systems designer). They are now in their 21^st house, and while their passion for home improvement hasn’t changed, their approach has. 

“We used to do all the work ourselves,” says Darren. “Now, that’s a job for someone else.”

And these days, no wonder he’s busier pounding the pavement than pounding nails. BinSentry, which is on the cutting edge of inventory management, has taken off like a rocket, and Darren spends about 75 per cent of his time on business travel. 

But he doesn’t begrudge it: to him, connecting BinSentry with customers is a noble pursuit.

“People are telling us that they want to know more about us,” he says. “BinSentry technology has given light to a dark room. We offer a product that keeps people safe, so they get home at night. That never gets old.”

Owen Roberts is a Guelph-based agricultural journalist and a former president of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists.