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What is Voice of Prospect and How is it Different from Voice of Customer?

What is Voice of Prospect and How is it Different from Voice of Customer?

Making go-to-market decisions about strategy, positioning, and messaging without Voice of Prospect data is like driving at night in the countryside without turning on your high beams.

You can study your SDR activity metrics, sales pipeline growth, close rates, and lead attribution data all day and all night.

But performance KPIs only shine light on how you're doing - leaving it up to subjective opinion and collective reasoning to infer the rest.

 

Voice of Prospect illuminates your go-to-market decisions so that you have a bright and complete picture into the who and the why impacting your customer acquisition performance.

At this point, you might be wondering:

You're in luck! That's what we answer in this article.

What is Voice of Prospect?

Voice of Prospect (VoP) data is information sourced from capturing, structuring, and analyzing what your prospects say on recorded sales calls.

The world is just beginning to understand the power of exploiting VoP. 

“More than 70 percent of B2B buyers fully define their needs before engaging with a sales representative, and almost half identify specific solutions before reaching out,” according to a report from CSO Insights.

Because a significant part of the buying journey is completed before companies even begin talking to their prospects, companies have lost touch and have an arm’s length understanding of their buyers.

What does that mean? Technology buyers no longer view interactions with sales people as their best source for information about an industry, product, or service.

The COVID Effect on Voice of Prospect

Until 2020, companies with inside sales teams were particularly susceptible to losing touch.

Then, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these dynamics between buyers and sellers... for everyone.

Field sales people who previously met with, entertained, and pitched prospects in person were completely grounded as work moved to remote.

This massive shift that affected every sales person at every company created an incredible opportunity for companies to gather MORE data about their buyers than ever before.

Now, nearly every intro meeting, demo, and proposal call takes place on Zoom, WebEx, or Go-to-Meeting, giving your sales team the capability to record these conversations so that everything your prospects say can be captured and analyzed.

 

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What's the Difference between Voice of the Prospect vs. Voice of the Customer ?

The difference between VoP and VoC is actually very straightforward.

Voice of Prospect (VoP)

Voice of Prospect data is sourced directly from what your prospects say during the new customer acquisition process.

People who are considering your product or service will share the following:

  • How they currently operate or try to accomplish something
  • Their current challenges or obstacles 
  • Their future desired state 
  • How they would describe your product or solution in their own words
  • Their objections are to your product
  • Which features are most important to them in a desired solution
  • Other competitive solutions they are considering

 

Voice of Customer (VoC)

The more commonly known Voice of Customer data is directly sourced from existing customers providing feedback after they've chosen your product or service. People who are already your customers will give you feedback about:

  • How they feel about using your product or service
  • What they wish your product or service provided
  • Feedback on their implementation process
  • Their experiences with your support team

Both VoP and VoC data are essential to building a successful business. If you’re interested in learning more about VoC, I recommend you check out these resources by Gainsight, HubSpot, and Qualtrics.

 

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