27 min read
Sales Prospecting and Target Accounts: How to Modernize Your Sales Strategy with Will Smith
George B. Thomas
Sep 13, 2025 4:57:36 PM
Let’s be real for a second. Sales prospecting doesn’t exactly make most people’s list of favorite activities. For many, it brings back images of long nights with cold pizza, dialing through a list of strangers, and praying someone actually picks up the phone. And if they did, well, they were usually right in the middle of dinner. Not exactly the recipe for meaningful conversations.
But here’s the good news. The sales world has changed, and prospecting doesn’t have to feel outdated or awkward anymore. In fact, when paired with the right strategy around target accounts, prospecting can become one of the most powerful tools in your revenue playbook.
Recently, I sat down with Will Smith, not the Fresh Prince, but a certified HubSpot trainer and educator who’s helped hundreds of companies implement HubSpot successfully. Together, we unpacked the real differences between old school and new school prospecting, why target accounts matter, and how HubSpot can help you tie it all together.
Let’s break this down.
What Is Sales Prospecting and Why Does It Matter?
Old school prospecting was built on volume. Picture a salesperson driving around in a company car, knocking on doors, dropping pitches, and hoping something would stick. Or the infamous “cold call night” with greasy pizza boxes stacked on desks and sales reps pounding the phones until late.
That approach might have worked in the past, but in today’s digital-first world, it often leaves buyers frustrated and sellers exhausted.
New school prospecting is different.
Instead of “pitch slapping” every new connection on LinkedIn, it’s about using data and tools to identify the right people, and then reaching out like a helpful human. Not just to sell something, but to genuinely add value and solve problems buyers may not even realize they have.
Here’s the key: prospecting is about motion. Inbound alone won’t cut it. You can’t just build content, sit back, and wait for forms to roll in. You need to proactively connect with the right people to keep your pipeline moving.
How Does Prospecting Fit with Inbound Marketing?
Inbound is all about helping people who are already looking for you. They find your content, fill out a form, and boom, you’ve got a lead. That’s powerful, but it can also be limiting.
Prospecting complements inbound by reaching those who don’t yet know you exist, or don’t even realize they have a problem. Done right, prospecting expands your reach, helps you identify new opportunities, and even uncovers insights you wouldn’t find by waiting on inbound alone.
Together, inbound and prospecting create a balanced sales engine: one that attracts and engages while also actively seeking out opportunities.
What Are Target Accounts and Why Are They Different?
Now let’s turn the spotlight on target accounts. If prospecting is casting a wide net, target accounts are the laser-focused spear.
Instead of “anyone with money is a lead,” target accounts are about identifying the businesses that truly matter, the ones most likely to bring long-term value and relationships.
Here’s how they differ from general prospecting:
-
Strategic focus vs. broad reach: You’re not talking to everyone. You’re talking to the right ones.
-
Team effort vs. lone wolf: Target accounts work best when sales, marketing, and service collaborate.
-
Resource allocation: Your time, budget, and energy go where the potential return is highest.
-
Long-term value: It’s not about a quick close. It’s about lifetime value and real human relationships.
Think of target accounts as the 201-level course after Prospecting 101. You don’t forget what you learned in the first class. You just level up with sharper focus and deeper strategy.
How Do You Select the Right Target Accounts?
This is where most teams get stuck. Who should you actually target? Will laid out a simple but powerful three-step framework:
-
Look at past successes. Who have you loved working with? Which clients stuck around and grew with you? Start there.
-
Leverage existing relationships. Explore upsell and cross-sell opportunities. And don’t sleep on referrals, just make asking for them a consistent habit instead of a desperation move.
-
Revisit your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). If your ICP is from 2015, or even pre-2020, it’s probably outdated. Business goals, buyer behaviors, and challenges have changed. Refresh it.
The golden thread here? Patterns. Birds of a feather flock together, and the clients you love working with likely have peers or partners who would be a great fit too.
What Are the Biggest Misconceptions About Prospecting and Target Accounts?
For prospecting, the biggest myth is that it’s outdated. “We’ve always done it this way” or “we tried it once and it didn’t work” are dangerous mindsets. The real challenge is often poor data, outdated ICPs, or lack of research, not the act of prospecting itself.
For target accounts, the misconception is that it’s just a short-term tactic. Companies try it for three months, don’t see immediate results, and scrap it. The truth is target accounts take time, consistency, and collaboration. Think of it like fitness. If you only eat broccoli once or hit the gym occasionally, you’re not going to see results. The same is true here.
How Do Prospecting and Target Accounts Work Together?
The magic happens when you stop thinking of prospecting and target accounts as separate silos. Instead, view them as parts of the same continuum.
Prospecting gets you moving, expands your reach, and helps you discover opportunities. Target accounts focus that energy, align teams, and build long-term relationships. Together, they create a balanced, human-centric sales process that prioritizes quality over quantity.
How Does HubSpot Support Prospecting and Target Accounts?
HubSpot is like the control center for bringing this strategy to life. Three big ways it helps:
-
Alignment: HubSpot condenses data so you see the most important activities without drowning in two years of history.
-
Engagement: Features like website visits help you spot anonymous traffic from large companies that haven’t filled out a form yet.
-
Team deployment: Assign buying roles, coordinate outreach, and tailor communication by leveraging your team’s strengths.
If you’re a HubSpot user, activate the Target Accounts feature in your portal. And if you’ve never looked at the “website visits” section, you’re missing a goldmine of insight.
What Mindset Should Sales Professionals Adopt?
For prospecting, it’s simple: remember it’s H2H, human to human. Use the data, yes, but approach every interaction as a helpful human, not a robot with a pitch.
For target accounts, the mindset is collaboration. There’s no room for lone wolves. When the team wins, everyone wins.
What Should You Measure to Know It’s Working?
Will broke it down into a mix of customer-focused and organizational metrics:
-
Engagement (are they showing interest?)
-
Opportunity-to-win rates
-
Retention rates
-
Customer lifetime value
-
ROI of target account efforts
If you can measure these consistently, you’ll not only prove success internally but also fine-tune your strategy as you go.
Actionable Steps You Can Take Today
So what can you do immediately, even before your team is fully on board? Start with research. Dive into your ICP, revisit your client list, and study your best accounts.
When you’re ready to roll out a team-wide strategy, do it collaboratively. Don’t show up like the know-it-all with a silver bullet. Lead the charge, but invite everyone to shape the plan. That’s where the real magic happens.
The One Big Takeaway
If you remember nothing else from this conversation, let it be this: challenge your assumptions.
Just because something didn’t work before doesn’t mean it won’t work now. Just because you’ve “always done it this way” doesn’t mean it’s the best way. Sales prospecting and target accounts are about staying curious, staying flexible, and never letting your process get stuck in stone.
When you combine proactive prospecting with intentional target account focus, and the right tools to support it, you don’t just fill pipelines. You build meaningful relationships, uncover new opportunities, and set your business up to flourish.
Sidekick strategies expert interviews
-
Show Transcription
George B. Thomas (00:01.887)
Okay, fabulous Hub Heroes. I'm super excited about today's conversation for two main reasons. One, we're talking sales. And yo, sales is cool. Two, more specifically, we're talking about prospecting and target accounts in your sales process. And of course, with that, we're here with Will Smith, the man, the myth, the legend, to help us navigate this conversation. Now, if you don't know Will, he is a certified HubSpot trainer with a track record of 100+,
Will Smith (00:23.234)
Ha ha ha!
George B. Thomas (00:31.603)
company successfully onboarded to the HubSpot platform. Will came into the world of integrated digital marketing in 2018 equipped with decades of invaluable high school teaching experience, which helps him create and deliver engaging training programs that guide HubSpot clients to getting the most out of their HubSpot investment. I hope everybody understands how important that is. Will has spoken at HubSpot's annual inbound conference, delivering a deep dive session about
how to successfully onboard and manage organizational change, which can be hard, when implementing the HubSpot marketing and sales hubs, when Will isn't hubspotting, by the way. He is doing the musician thing on the weekend volunteering at his church or simply having a good time with his wife, Christy, three kids, Nick, Grace, and Rob, and two dogs, Athena and Sydney. Will, how the heck are you doing today?
Will Smith (01:24.214)
I'm doing great, George. You seem pretty excited. So I'm guessing you're doing pretty well too.
George B. Thomas (01:29.579)
I am doing great. I am very excited. I always love getting on the mic, creating content, adding value. And with you here, I just know that's gonna happen. There we go. All right, Hub Heroes. If you're listening to this, by the way, on the podcast, make sure you head over to the community. That's community.hubheroes.com or go catch it on our YouTube channel as well. Ladies and gentlemen, let's go ahead and get into prospecting and target accounts. Let's get into the good stuff.
So, Will, one of the things I want to do is level set for everybody who might be watching or listening to this. And so can you just start out by explaining the concepts, basic as they are, of sales prospecting, how you think about it versus maybe old school prospecting, so that our listeners who might not be familiar with it kind of have it as a foundational piece as we move forward.
Will Smith (02:22.606)
Absolutely, George, I'm so excited to be here and talk to you today. Let's start with the old school prospecting, because old school prospecting, I think of two examples here. First example I give, I think of, is the old school salesperson just dropping in and pitching. You know, they're in the company car, they're circling around their territory, and they're looking around and they say, there's a business, that business needs a new phone, for example, a new phone system. I always love that classic,
the office cold opening where the guy walks in and he's like, hey, can I meet with Michael Scott? And Pam Beasley, the secretary says, you know what, he's not here. Knowing full well that this new phone system is gonna totally replace her. So it's hilarious if you've watched the office, go check out that scene again, it's a great cold open. The second example I think of when I think of old school prospecting and that is those cold call nights. Hey everybody, we're gonna get together.
We're gonna grab a bunch of pizzas. We're all gonna stay late today on a Tuesday night and we're just gonna just pound the phones. We got this brand new list that we just bought and so we just gonna pound the phones, eat some pizza and we're just gonna have a great time. We're just gonna pitch slap everybody and when they answer, right in the middle of their dinner. So that's what I think of when I think of old school prospecting. Now, new school prospecting, of course we were in the digital age. We got all kinds of new tools, new things to do.
I don't know about you, George, but I still get pitch slapped, you know, after I accept that LinkedIn connection, all of a sudden it's like, thank you for connecting and now I'm going to slap you with a pitch, a sales pitch. So it's finding that balance of getting new school prospecting is finding that balance of getting the data that you need and just being a helpful human with it. Not somebody that's pitch slapping somebody else being helpful with it. How can I help you with this solution?
George B. Thomas (04:17.743)
Yeah, I love this so much. And by the way, if you're watching this or listening to this and you're like, oh, yeah, we just had pizza and a brand new purchase list just last week. And if you're out there pitch slapping people, by the way, which I think I'm going to steal that saying forever and a day. I'll just say shame on you. Now, with that said, the new school way, what you're talking about will with adding value.
Will Smith (04:32.315)
I stole it from somebody else.
George B. Thomas (04:42.287)
Let's drop in another layer of what I would say foundation, and that is understanding. Sometimes understanding is the power that organizations need to actually make the change. And so why is prospecting a crucial aspect of the sales and marketing process, even if a company has already bought into this inbound as their methodology, how does this kind of layer together with that?
Will Smith (05:05.27)
Yeah, so when I think of inbound, inbound is helping those who are actively seeking your solution. You have the content, you have the solution. They're actively looking for you. And so in the most base level, it's almost like you and your organization, you bought into inbound, you've set everything up, and now we're just gonna wait. We're gonna wait for that form fill. We're gonna celebrate when somebody fills out that form and then just go right after them. That is inbound.
not done too well. And so where prospecting comes in, this is where you're actually helping companies or organizations or people who may not know about your solution, who may not even know that they have a problem or that there's a better way of doing things and you are the person that can specifically help you and help them solve that problem. So the two complement each other in this way. They expand your reach.
You know, you still got a prospect. You're not waiting. You're not sitting around for somebody to just find you in an inbound way. It also helps you target specific segments. It helps you inbound. You know, you're kind of waiting. You don't know who's going to find you. You're not, you don't even know if they're going to be qualified or not. And so with prospecting, you can target specific segments. And what I mean by that is if you're prospecting, you may discover things.
that you don't even know. We always talk about, talk to your customers and have a conversation with them and figure something out. But when you're prospecting, even if you're cold calling and it's done right, because cold calling is not dead, just gonna throw that out there, if you do it right, it's not dead. But this helps you with discovering cross-selling opportunities, upselling opportunities. It actually helps you, prospecting can help with market research.
George B. Thomas (07:00.671)
I love this so much. What comes to mind when you're talking about this prospecting along with the inbound methodology and the weighting is this active motion. And it's an object that is motion, stays in motion, and getting your sales teams to be in motion. You also started, and I think you used the word target, but you use it in a different way. And I think, speaking of pairing things together, prospecting, and the second part of our conversation that I want to pair together.
is target accounts. So prospecting in action, in motion, having this kind of research or list or segmentation mindset. So let's go back to another foundational element and let's just talk about what are target accounts? Like how do you will think about or as an educator explain them? And how do they differ from just your typical like, oh yeah, that's a prospect lead potential customer conversation?
Will Smith (07:54.742)
Yeah, so I love this question, George, because they seem similar, but what are the differences here? Target accounts gives you a very strategic focus, whereas prospecting, the opposite of that almost, is kinda like, hey, we're in business, you have money, you're my prospect. That's a pretty wide net right there. So that's the first one, targeted focus versus anybody with money. Second one.
coordinated effort, meaning team effort, versus individual efforts. We always think of the salesperson, that lone wolf salesperson. You probably have that person on your team. They're like, I'm gonna close this deal. I'm gonna be the hero here. Whereas with target accounts, that's more of, hey, let's work on this together as a team. When we win, we win together with these target accounts.
The other thing that I think is very different is you can allocate your resources better with target accounts because it's so strategic, it's so focused. And then finally, the last thing, and I know as a helpful human being, George, you're going to love this one. It's the long-term relationship, the lifetime value and the growth of the account versus I'm going to close you and I'm going to move on to the next person.
George B. Thomas (09:18.887)
Yeah, I love me some lifetime value and actually sticking around for a human relationship. It is super powerful. You know, it's fun, Will. I'm glad I have you here today because the funny thing about target accounts is most people don't know what accounts to target. And so this might be, it depends, we'll see. But regarding target accounts, what criteria...
should sales teams consider when selecting the accounts to actually target, AKA focus on as a team. And again, it might be a it depends answer or you may have seen some patterns across multiple companies or industries that you can say, yes, it depends, but maybe start here or there.
Will Smith (10:05.646)
I love me a good pattern. So George, let's start with who you know. I bet you if you go into your sales team, you go to the service team, your customer success team, and you just say the following statement.
Who's your favorite client to work with? I bet you they have at least one person where they would go, oh man, I loved working with, insert company name here. And if they're a salesperson, they probably got a great story to tell you along with that, along with that answer there. So who are the dream clients? And that's where I would start. Start with past successes. Start with those past successes. So that's gonna be step number one.
past successes, who are the best people that you enjoyed working with that really are still around that you have that long-term growth with already? The next one, step two, move on to existing relationships. Are there upsell, cross-sell opportunities? What about referrals? And since I said the R word here, I just wanna make a little, this is one of a few soap boxes I may just stand on. Listen, your customers, your people know when you're in a dry spell.
because everyone starts coming out with a referral program. Hey, we just, just get into the habit, people. Don't do it occasionally. Always get into the habit at certain points in the customer timeline to ask for that referral so that it's not coming out of the dark when you're feeling a little bit desperate. Because if you're feeling desperate, they may be feeling desperate, everyone's busy. Anyway, move on to existing relationships. I would then focus in on your ideal
customer profile and Having said that is it time to go back to the drawing board is your ideal customer profile from 2015? Probably even if your ideal customer profiles from 2019 you know we have this whole thing where everybody's lives changed in 20 March 13th 2020 a lot changed goals changed. Did you revisit the challenges?
Will Smith (12:16.086)
that your ideal customer profile is now facing in a post pandemic era. So if you're gonna focus on the ICP, it may be one of those things where you just have to go back to the drawing board, get everybody in a room together and just say, hey, we haven't looked at this in a while. So.
George B. Thomas (12:31.919)
Yeah, ladies. Oh, well, that might be a rewind point of the actual show right there. And I'll tell you why, because you listed out three things and there are bits of pieces of my brain that were exploding as you're mentioning them. Step one, by the way, my brain goes to birds of a feather flock together. Their friends are going to act like them. And obviously, that's why you would want to target them. The second thing is I am always having conversations with organizations to read the book.
Will Smith (12:35.946)
Hahaha
George B. Thomas (13:01.263)
referral engine by John Jantz so that the referral system is just something they do and not something they think of in hindsight. And this idea of ideal client profile and keeping it up to date, so many people think that ideal client profiles and personas are one and done. And they don't realize or think about how much they've changed, how much the business has changed, how much the products or service have changed, and therefore,
what used to be is not still the same. Such a good section. Again, you might want to rewind and jot some notes, listeners. Now, I feel like we're going to have a little bit of a tennis match here, Will, because now we're going to kick it back to prospects for a second and talk about this idea of prospecting now that we have the foundation of what we think of and what we're talking about prospecting and target accounts. And so can you share some common challenges?
or even misconceptions that people might have when they think about sales prospecting.
Will Smith (14:04.042)
Yeah, I think the first misconception is we think of prospecting as a past thing, as something that is, you know, well, we've always done it this way. And so coming up with something new, that's not what we're going to be doing. That's we don't want to do that. Revisiting our ideal customer profile. Well, we've always done it this way. We don't want to challenge ourselves to create or think of something new. And don't forget.
the evil cousin of we've always done it this way is, well, we tried it once already. We tried it once already, it didn't work, we're not going back there. Maybe it's time to revisit these things. So, you know, those are some of the challenges and misconceptions that I see. There are some other things like, you know, competitive market, you know, everybody's busy, I can't reach the decision maker when it comes to prospecting, but really those.
kind of micro challenges, those bubble up to the surface. The deeper challenge is I don't have quality data to work with. I don't know my ICP very well at all because the data I'm collecting isn't there. Or I've defined my ICP poorly. I'm not doing my research because I'm doing things the way I've always done them.
George B. Thomas (15:27.835)
We're just going to spit some fire. Okay, well, I want to stay in this vein of challenges and misconceptions. This time, again, a little bit of that tennis match. What are some common challenges or misconceptions that people might have about what we've started to talk about? And that is target accounts.
Will Smith (15:29.879)
Yeah.
Will Smith (15:45.046)
Yeah, most people think that target accounts is just a tactic. That's it. That it's just a one and done. We're gonna try this for three months, six months, and we're just gonna half try it. That's the other thing. It's commitment, not occasional. Anything you do occasionally.
is not gonna yield the results that you're, if you occasionally go to the gym, you're not gonna be in the healthy state that you want to be in. If you occasionally have some broccoli, I hate broccoli, you're not gonna have the healthy, you're not gonna have what you need in your body to fuel yourself to get to the gym. So, so many people, they're like, well, we're gonna try ABM, another word, account-based marketing, another word for target accounts, we're gonna try that for three months, and if it doesn't work, we're scrapping it.
because we tried it, it didn't work, we're gonna leave there. So I think that is the biggest thing, you know, the biggest misconception there is that it's just a tactic. It's just one thing we're just gonna try and it doesn't work. It takes commitment, it takes time, it takes collaboration, it takes a lot. And while you're doing all these things, you cannot put it all into the ABM target account baskets.
You still gotta be doing all the other things that you're doing. It's a piece of the puzzle.
George B. Thomas (17:09.823)
Ooh, I like this idea of a piece of a puzzle because I want to take two pieces of the puzzle that we've been talking about so far, Will, and I want to put them together. And in this question, in your mind, how does prospecting, the topic we've been talking about, and target accounts, the other topic that we've been talking about, how in the world should we be thinking about them fitting together as a cohesive piece?
Will Smith (17:34.658)
So to me, target accounts is actually the next iteration of prospecting. It is getting into the, if it were, like if prospecting was a university course, a 101 course, target accounts would be the 201 course. So when it comes to target accounts, when you get to the second, when you level up, do you forget everything that you learned in the first course? No.
It's just the next evolution. So for me, prospecting is you're casting a really wide net. Whereas target accounts, it's right there in the name. You get targeted, you get focused, you get focused on quality over quantity. You get selective. Both of these things prospecting and target accounts require alignment of goals, require use of data, require personalization. So.
Target accounts is the next evolution of prospecting.
George B. Thomas (18:39.343)
It's interesting, Will, I need to pull something out that you just said where my brain went versus how I think most people also think about this conversation. You use the word target as in you are getting more specific. You're targeting what you wanna do. When most people think about the words target account, I feel like they're in this mindset of ready, set, aim, fire because we're at war in the sales battle of.
target those accounts men man your battle stations and the fact that you pivot this to like no we're talking inward here targeting our focus and targeting our efforts and streamlining the process to actually have valuable human conversations with those people that we can help I think there's something huge that happens right in that place and I love this idea of 101-201 and moving forward now
Well, you're standing here, and again, listeners, if you're listening to this on the podcast, you could go over to YouTube or go over to the community, community.hubheroes.com and watch it. But you're standing here with an Impact t-shirt on, which obviously means you know about HubSpot. You use HubSpot. You love HubSpot. I'm sitting here doing this interview. Most people think I work at HubSpot, even though I don't. So I have to ask. Yeah, it's the orange walls, I'm telling you.
Will Smith (19:58.73)
It's the orange wall.
George B. Thomas (20:02.543)
So I have to ask, how does HubSpot play a role in streamlining the sales prospecting and target accounts processes and conversation that we've been having today?
Will Smith (20:15.246)
Three ways. First way is alignment. I'll list them off and then I'll explain. First one is alignment. The second one is engagement. And the third one is team deployment. So let's start with alignment. So rather than, let's say you've had HubSpot for a while now, rather than scrolling through maybe two years worth of activities, past activities.
Web visit, open emails, things like that. HubSpot condenses and streamlines, which is that part of your question that I love, George. HubSpot streamlines all of that to show you the latest activity, the planned next activity, and this goes with team deployment. Who is either...
planning that activity or is going to be a part of that activity, whether that's a meeting, whether that is, hey, they're enrolled in a sequence, this email's going out. You can see that all in one place. So that's the alignment there, which also helps you with seeing their engagement. So you can also see in one spot, well, with this particular account, how many deals do we have going? But more than that, underneath those deals, you can visibly see what are their website visits.
how many emails were open, how many things. So again, you're not scrolling through two years worth of activity timelines in order to figure out where does this account sit? And then finally, what I love about it are the roles that you can assign, the buying roles that you can assign because this helps with team deployment. So maybe you have somebody on your marketing team that used to be an accountant and now they're in marketing. And so you notice that
There is a, we'll call him Jim, after the Jim Halpert of office fame. Jim is the financial person at this target account. You know what? I'm gonna ask Dwight to write an email to Jim because Dwight understands as a former accountant, he understands his pain points. He knows how to speak the language. He knows how to appeal to the budget holder that is Jim. And so if you're working as a team,
Will Smith (22:31.714)
how you deploy your team, deploy your resources, is gonna be very different because HubSpot helps you see that, align it, to make sure that you get all that engagement that you need.
George B. Thomas (22:46.259)
Mm. Did we cover all three? I'm trying to make sure that we covered all three. Because you said...
Will Smith (22:54.718)
alignment, engagement, and team deployment.
George B. Thomas (22:59.327)
team deployment. Yes, we did. Okay, beautiful. Beautiful. All right. Let's dig in a layer deeper before we actually pull back out and kind of have some other questions. We're here. We're having a HubSpot conversation. We might as well have a HubSpot conversation. Are there specific HubSpot features that can assist in this? Because I fully understand there are people that are bumping into this interview that might not be using HubSpot today.
And so I want them to know like, oh, this all sounds great, but can you get it into a tactical world that I can actually touch? So are there specific HubSpot features that can assist in this that the viewers or listeners should be paying attention to and like, oh, this is how I can make this reality.
Will Smith (23:43.406)
George, for your listeners, when you're done watching, listening to this podcast, this is what you need to do. Get to your HubSpot portal, and if you haven't activated your target accounts, go to Contacts, go to the Contacts menu, get down to Target accounts, and just activate them. And then this is where, now it takes time to set things up and do things right and everything, but this is where you're gonna see value immediately.
I want you to go on the left side all the way down to the bottom. It'll show you website visits. To me, that feature is huge because I have so many people that ask me, how do I know that people have visited my website if they haven't filled out a form? They haven't converted on a form. What websites visits do for you is these are prospects, these are visitors that are coming to your site that haven't converted on a form yet.
And so using the HubSpot tracking code, it can detect IP addresses for the page view. Now these are going to be large companies. When you get there, you're going to see a filter that says, uh, internet provider is equal to false. That's to, that's to get rid of people like you and me that are, you know, just working from home and have Verizon or T-Mobile as our internet service providers, but for your universities, for your larger companies, they're going to have a dedicated IP address.
These website visits, if you get nothing else out of this episode, look at that particular, look at that particular area of your HubSpot portal because most people don't know it exists.
George B. Thomas (25:20.247)
love that. I love that turning on target accounts. I love too that HubSpot has even got a prospecting tab now and there's a whole bunch of information there. So listen, ladies and gentlemen, at the end of the day, I love what Will said. Go into your HubSpot portal. If you don't have a HubSpot portal, hit Will or me up depending on if you're looking at free, starter, pro, whatever you're trying to do and we can get you rolling.
But here's the thing, let's go back to the human, because the human is what's important. Mindsets are what are important. And so, well, when you think about this sales professional, what kind of mindset should a sales professional adopt when approaching sales prospecting and working with target accounts as one cohesive piece that they're gonna do? Where should the cranium be?
Will Smith (26:10.83)
So let's start with prospecting. So we've all heard the statistics, oh sales has changed because 80%, your prospect's gonna know 80% about you because of the internet. Well the same is true for the salesperson as well, especially if they're looking at a company. So it's almost like that old Western, that Western showdown, they're like, I know everything about you. And you're looking across at the other guy, the other guy's like, I know everything about you. And so where can we meet in the middle?
The place that we meet in the middle is remembering that these are humans. And I've heard the quote, George, you probably have said this numerous times. It's not B to B it's H to H. It's H to H it's that simple. So instead of staring down, I know everything about you Western style. When you're prospecting reach out in a helpful human way. So that's prospecting. Let's talk about target accounts. Now what's the mindset for target accounts?
The best mindset for target accounts is a collaborative mindset, a team mindset. There are, there's no room for a lone wolf here. There's no room for the sales hero here. You, if you're going to do target accounts the right way, you have to be in a mindset of this is the team working on this together. When the team wins the account, we all win the account.
George B. Thomas (27:38.207)
I love this so much Will because my mind and I fully understand, ladies and gentlemen, I have a strange mind. I get it. But when you're talking about the kind of Western showdown and then you even started to talk about the team mentality, it came running back Tombstone, I'm your Huckleberry, because it's this idea of like first action, starting the conversation. But, but Doc was on a team. He was on team.
Will Smith (27:46.091)
Why we love you.
George B. Thomas (28:07.195)
Oh, anyway, I'll just keep moving forward. You guys know what I'm talking about. Well, here's the thing. When you listen to most organizations, most thought leaders, most C-suite executives, if we can't measure it, it doesn't make sense, which I totally get. So we have to have the conversation today. What are some key performance indicators or KPIs, metrics, if you will, that sales professionals should track?
to measure the effectiveness of their sales prospecting and target account efforts, like in HubSpot or elsewhere. I don't care where, but what should they be measuring so they can understand like, hey, it is being successful?
Will Smith (28:49.058)
The first metric that I love to take point at, point two is engagement. What's their level of interest? And like I referenced before, website visits. Are they coming back to your website? They may not have raised their hand yet and converted on a form, identified themselves to you, but what's their level of interest? From that, whether it's content, whether it's your emails, whether it's the website, or any other touch points that you may have, what's the level of engagement? That's the first thing.
The second thing that I would take a look at is, what are my opportunity to win rates? How many of these people that are opportunities converted into customers? Next one, builds on the last one and that is retention rates. If we're building long-term relationships, we have to retain these people. Are we doing that? Which leads to.
very happy metric that people like to look at, customer lifetime value. Are you building the relationship? Are you retaining these people? Therefore, what's the lifetime value? So those are kind of from the customer perspective, and I wanna point out one metric that's from an organizational perspective. You really have to take a look at what's the ROI of target accounts.
What if we're investing this time, energy, money into target accounts? What's my return on it? And of course the metrics that I listed are going to tell you your ROI. So don't just look outward, but also look inward to your team.
George B. Thomas (30:34.579)
Man, I hope people have their notepad out, some spray paint, some chalk, an iPad, something. I hope they're jotting down notes because to have that list of KPIs that they could be paying attention to and have some metrics towards is gonna make conversations internally in the organization so much easier. All right, let's keep digging in. Will, can you share some actionable tactics or strategies?
that our listeners can implement immediately today after they get done watching or listening to this podcast or watching it on YouTube or in the community that will improve their sales prospecting efforts or enhance their approach to target accounts. Like what's the one, two, three things that Will Smith has on this question?
Will Smith (31:20.098)
So this is a tough one because I've said many times, this is collaborative, this is a team sport, this is all these things. A lot of times, you can't just jump into a sales meeting and just say, hey everyone, I just listened to this great podcast with George P. Thomas and Will Smith and we're gonna do this, this and this. It takes time to socialize that idea. So let's talk about the individual listener, watcher, whoever you are. You as an individual, what can you do after listening, watching this?
And that is do your research. I wish there was like a magic wand to say, Hey, if you just go into HubSpot and click here, there, and this other place, your life's going to be that much better. But it's not that simple. So what can an individual do? Do your research because this is a long-term strategy. And if you're going to be the one that's leading the charge, you gotta know pretty much everything that there is to know about.
target accounts and that means doing your research, how does this apply to my organization? And then once you socialize the idea, you got your team ready to go, forget everything. Not literally, but how can you collaboratively work with your team if you're standing up there like a know-it-all? So forget everything and let the other, that we're only,
more minds make better work, whatever you wanna say. This is how we're going to get a really good implementation with someone leading the charge, but then stepping back, being humble, and saying, I don't know everything, let's get the team in and get their ideas as well.
George B. Thomas (33:05.311)
Mmm, a road to America as a team. Let everybody discover what's gonna work. I love that idea. Well, especially in the world of sales, I mean the world in general, but in the world of sales, things are constantly evolving. How can listeners or viewers stay updated on the latest trends and technologies related to sales prospecting target accounts? Is there like some go-to places, books, podcasts? How do you stay?
as educated as you are on these topics.
Will Smith (33:37.55)
George, I'm gonna go a little bit off on this question. And what I mean by that is I'd love to be able to say that this book's gonna solve your problem. Reading this and seeing this podcast, I'd love to be able to say that and everybody's world would be better. But what I'm going to recommend, something that I recommend that works for me, may not work for someone else. And so George, when I'm recommending to your audience, and I want people to kind of lean in a little bit closer, the best strategies
the best resources are the ones that you're going to use consistently. For me, I like podcasts like your podcast, George. That's where I like to go. I like books, but I can't read books because at the end of the day, I'm pretty tired and if I'm sitting on the couch, I'm probably going to fall asleep reading a book, but I discovered that I do much better if I listen to books. And so that's what works for me. So, uh,
I'd love to give you one thing, but just to recap what I just said, folks, you need to do something, know yourself, and do something that you know that you're gonna do consistently.
George B. Thomas (34:49.383)
First of all, there's some life philosophies there. Know yourself. Leverage consistency for power. If I bring in the other answer to the question, it's literally like research and educate yourself on the things. So listen, we might be helping you in sales prospecting and target accounts, or we might just be helping you in life right now with the things that are coming out of Will's mouth. You didn't know this one was coming.
But this has been a great interview and I just I want to ask this question as we start to close up. What's one thing if you had to drill it down to hashtag one thing, what's one thing you hope that people take away from today's episode?
Will Smith (35:31.202)
One thing that I hope people take away from this episode is that it's not all set in stone.
You gotta be flexible. You gotta say challenge what you're usually doing. And I'll give an example for that. I noticed that I listened to books best when I'm just coming out of the gym early in the morning because my brain is just receptive, very receptive. I then continue listening to books or the book that I'm currently listening to during breakfast. And I can get an hour in, I can get an hour of reading or listening in.
just by doing that. So challenge what your processes, challenge what you're always been doing. If something didn't work before, is there another way that you can do that? So the one thing is hashtag challenge assumptions.
George B. Thomas (36:24.911)
love that so much. Will, if people have questions for you and they want to reach out, where do you want to point them to?
Will Smith (36:30.702)
I spent a lot of time on LinkedIn, my friends. Spent a lot of time there. So DM me on LinkedIn. If you like email, you can always catch me at WSmith at ImpactPlus.com. But if you want a quick answer, LinkedIn's where you go.
George B. Thomas (36:46.799)
LinkedIn is the place where we all jam out. Hey, listen, if you're listening to the audio podcast, make sure you head over to the YouTube channel or head over to community.hubheroes.com to watch this bad boy. Also, not only just watch it, but there will be additional resources located in the description of the community area. Until next time, he's been Will Smith. I'm of course, George B. Thomas. Remember to be a happy, helpful, humble human. And we'll see you on the next episode of the Sidekick Strategy Show.
Will Smith (36:49.431)
Got it, man.
George B. Thomas (37:16.255)
real soon. Great job, brother.
Will Smith (37:19.534)
Thanks, man.