By Nancy Landl
January 14th, 2010
Sales slow? Sales people sluggish? Here’s a quick fix to jumpstart sales so you can have a happy 2010.
Try tele-prospecting—pick up the phone and systematically call your prospect database. Your sales team can do it, or for a small investment per call you can outsource a program that will get leads flowing to your sales team—so that all they need to do is close the sale.
Think about it. The average sales rep is able to log maybe four or five calls per day. A professional agent can rack up 10-15 per hour. That’s 80-120 contacts per day, or 400-600 per week that can be made by just one rep. Put a team on it and you’ll speed up the progress.
Even if just a message is left, you’ve imparted knowledge about your company that the prospect previously didn’t have. Better yet, when a person-to-person connection is made and a conversation begins, you’re one step closer to gaining a new customer. There’s very little downside and a whole lot of benefit to reaching out and touching prospects again and again.
One of our clients recently said that “the only customers they didn’t already have, were the ones they hadn’t yet called.”
How many new prospects do your inside/outside sales teams contact per day? Have you ever outsourced tele-prospecting to boost lead generation?
By Jared Bodnar
October 14th, 2009
Most B2B companies look at face-to-face appointments as the end-all, be-all of the B2B selling process. I’ve often been told that good sales reps can close a deal if they get in front of a prospect, but teleconferences or Web conferences are not as valuable.
However, the fact is setting face-to-face appointments with B2B prospects is a time consuming and costly task. You’ve got to identify the decision maker, call them several times, leave messages, get past the gatekeepers and persuade them that they need your company’s solution.
The good news is: there’s a surefire shortcut to getting in the door and meeting face to face with your prospects—nurture your leads!
According to Sirius Decisions, nurtured leads result in 20% more sales opportunities than non-nurtured leads. In addition, a nurtured lead—one who has responded to your e-mail blasts, online surveys, Webinar invitations and asset downloads—will be a lot more open to taking a phone call from you and, eventually, setting a face-to-face meeting.
What has been your experience with appointment setting? Do you have an automated lead nurturing methodology in place for your business?
By Matt Hensler
October 8th, 2009
Technology provides unprecedented control and independence for consumers. Want to find a restaurant in your area? Fire up the Urbanspoon app on your iPhone. Missing your favorite TV shows? Set your DVR and watch them later—commercial free. Or, stream them online through sites like Hulu.
Consumer control and independence isn’t limited to the B2C world. Today’s B2B customers are empowered with countless options to search and evaluate products and services online. Demand Generation marketing methodology helps organizations lead customers and prospects to a Web site where they can find the information needed to make a considered purchase.
The benefits of Demand Generation programs are easy to understand, but putting it into practice requires careful planning and a deep understanding of your industry and channel. There’s a great white paper on Demand Generation available on the resources page of Canyon’s Web site to help you better understand new approaches to generating demand for your products and services. Take a look and tell us what you think.
Do you have a Demand Generation success story you’d like to share? Is there a B2B marketing topic you’d like more information about?
By Jared Bodnar
October 6th, 2009
Most B2B marketers are used to writing benefit-oriented bulleted copy for direct mail postcards, or solutions-oriented text for case studies. However, I find that many marketers are not experienced at writing telemarketing call guides (AKA scripts, though I don’t like that word). So, here’s a little outline to help you develop successful, action-oriented call guides for your outbound B2B telemarketing efforts.
- Introduction/Credibility Building. It’s critical to introduce yourself and build credibility right off the bat.
- Problem Identification. No matter why you’re calling, it is critical to discover a problem that you can help solve. Do some probing on your prospect’s pain points (now say that tongue-twister three times fast!).
- Present Solution. Explain to your prospect that you have a solution for their biggest challenges. You know, the ones that keep them up at night.
- Offer. This vital step is often overlooked. You must have a compelling offer for your prospect. A ‘free infrastructure analysis’ or ‘complimentary ROI assessment’ should do.
- Close: Typically, you’re trying to set an appointment or asking your prospect to take some sort of action, right? Now is the time.
That’s the top-line stuff, but be sure to include some objection responses, a way to verify contact information and gather opt-in e-mail address. Did I leave anything out? Do you have any horror stories about bad call guides?
By Nancy Landl
September 28th, 2009
B2B marketers spend tens of thousands of dollars every year purchasing prospect lists to “mine” for new customers when what they’re seeking may be right in front of them– in their own database. Here are some real-life examples of how a simple phone call uncovered several golden opportunities:
Data Cleansing—A distributor of products perfect for use in government stimulus projects recently did telephone prospecting to clean up an in-house list of municipal, county and state contacts. They not only obtained up-to-date info on key decision-makers, but during the process discovered several open bids and acted on them.
No Customer Left Behind—A service provider found that a significant number of customers had opened accounts but were no longer purchasing from the company. An outbound call program uncovered and activated an astonishing number of these accounts.
Survey—A technology company used an old company list to conduct a survey. The information obtained regarding the prospects’ needs, budget and purchase timing was actionable, providing an opportunity to set many sales appointments.
Do you have an old prospect list? What do you do with all the leads you gather from advertising, direct mail, websites and tradeshows? Do you outsource calling programs?
