Welcome to the second in our series of blog posts discussing the Dream 25 strategy for nurturing prospects or strategic partners. At this point in the process, you should have a list of at least 10 right-fit, dream, prospects. If not, take some time to revisit our first blog in the series for some tips to help you curate that list.

As we continue building the roadmap for strategically engaging prospects, understanding them is a milestone that not everyone achieves. It's the second constraint many entrepreneurs face after creating their Dream 25 list. As highlighted in our conversation with industry experts on the "Sell With Authority" podcast, merely having a list isn't enough. The challenge—and opportunity—lies in deepening your knowledge about the “who” behind the name.

Building the Foundation of a Relationship

Before we dive into some actionable steps to help you overcome this constraint, it might help you to understand why this is important. To develop the kind of emotional connection which motivates a prospect to give you an opportunity to pitch, we must start by building the foundational components of a relationship, starting with trust. And that means, showing these prospects that you understand their world, you validate what is important to them and that you care about them more than just as a potential transaction. Once the prospect knows you have their best interest in mind, they will begin to trust you.

Now, in order act to on those three components of a relationship (showing understanding, validation and care), you have to know something about their world, right? It’s for this reason that we take a step back and dig into their digital footprint. We need some information to form our strategy on how to show them that we understand and care.

Understanding Your Prospects Through Research

When it comes to starting your research, the first practical step we have to take is deciding how you want to collect this information. Start a spreadsheet to keep track of each of these datapoints per dream prospect. Or create one document per contact. Either way, you’ll want to analyze them collectively in future steps.

Once you’ve decided how to store the data, you’ll then start scanning the internet for the insight that will form the basis of your strategy.

Company Owned Digital Sources

Start by digging deeper into your prospects' business environment, challenges, and goals. Use a combination of tools like LinkedIn, company websites, and industry publications to gather this intel. It’s not enough just to know their address and a contact name. Understanding what drives them, their pain points, and how they define success is crucial.

Actionable Tips:

Company Websites and Blogs: These are goldmines of information about a company's values, mission, and the projects they’re proud of. Pay attention to their team and team activities as well. What is their culture like? What awards have they won? Do they have causes that they passionately serve?

YouTube: We call this company-owned because it’s usually a company channel. Do they share videos and if so, what topics are they covering? Does this reveal some of the industry information you’re looking to collect?

Social Sources

Next, take a close look at the various social platforms that you can find for your prospects. This should start at the company level, but as you know, sometimes there is also a company thought leader who does a significant amount of posting as well.

You want to understand their activities, interests, and the discussions they engage in.

Actionable Tips:

Start with LinkedIn to see if the company has a presence and active posts. You should also switch over to the main contact’s personal profile as well. Scan the posts for things like conference mentions, recent achievements, and celebrations. You might also find them sharing team activities, which you can use to find collective interests and hobbies. Maybe they share posts about conferences or events they are attending. These are important to their continued learning and something you can support.

Next visit social hubs like Facebook, Instagram & X to scan their activity. One thing we like to do in our research is challenge ourselves to find at least three noteworthy things about the company. This can look like company mascots, team building activity favorites, books they’ve read, trips they’ve been on, etc. These are interests you might be able to tap into.

If you find that a company has no active feeds for the last 6 months, this may not be a lead you want on your list. It could be a sign that the company is no longer growing or has changed direction.

Google

Where else can you get information? Don’t forget that a simple Google search can lead to a lot of insights. Google both the company and the contact, as well as a thought leader (if they are not your contact). What other content, articles, or videos do you find that will help provide insight?

Actionable Tips:

Content Themes: Identify recurring themes or topics that seem to recur or that they seem passionate about.

Engagement: Look at what content they engage in. Do those topics offer any insights that might help as well?

Industry Level Searches

Once you’ve been through what you can find on the company and the most visible contacts in the company, you may also want to dig into general industry information. 

Actionable Tips:

Industry Publications: These things can help you understand industry goals and challenges. What pain points are these companies facing that you may be able to help by providing resources?

Annual Industry Research:  A lot of times if you search for “Top challenges in x industry” or “<year> trends in the x industry” you’ll find research that can inform the gaps you may need to fill. 

Industry Associations: Finding associations in your target industry will also be a useful source. Most of the time these associations will be producing content that your prospect needs to help their business grow. You’ll be able to derive some insight from that content as well.

Understanding your prospects is not just about collecting data but about learning enough for you to be able to show up and build a foundation for meaningful and trusted relationships. By taking these steps, you can transform your Dream 25 list from names on a spreadsheet into contacts that are poised for engagement – and ultimately conversion. Remember, the goal is to move beyond seeing your prospects as leads to understanding them as people with unique needs, challenges, and aspirations. With a little up-front dedication, you can move through this second step in the Dream 25 process to set up your new business strategy for the year.

If you need help with your research, we’re always happy to have a conversation. Bring your questions or challenges to one of our monthly Q&A sessions and the community will gladly help get you moving. Or feel free to schedule time to chat one on one.