The CIO of a Fortune 500 company receives over 200 voicemails per week from salespeople attempting to sell a variety of products. Virtually all calls go unreturned.  

Welcome to 2003. Business-to-business selling has completely changed in the last 18 months. Unfortunately, many companies and most salespeople have failed to recognize this fact and modify their sales approach. A common excuse is ‘the economy’. But the real issue is that companies have become “vendor resistant”. The problem today is: (1) all marketing departments and sales representatives have the same basic prospect lists and; (2) all salespeople are calling on this same database of prospects and rarely getting through.

In B2B prospecting, telesales techniques that are manipulative and tricky will not work and are likely to anger your prospect. Even the most skilled caller cannot overcome the statistical reality that the call today is unlikely to get through to the prospect and the voice message will never be returned. Many sales training methodologies focus on how to manage the selling activity after a salesperson has already engaged the prospect and identified the decision makers. But how does a salesperson get through, in today’s environment?

Companies Have Become ‘Vendor Resistant’

Salespeople must become smarter about identifying exactly where to spend their time prospecting. They must obtain more accurate contact information that will get them in touch with the prospect before their competition. Salespeople must become much more creative about identifying new sales opportunities or advancing existing opportunities. The successful sales representative must obtain ‘better’ information than his competitor- and faster. ‘Better’ information includes better access to contact names, prospective customer E-mail addresses and specific job responsibilities of the target individuals.

In addition, ‘better’ information now should help determine who is a real prospect, among the ‘sea of less qualified prospects’. The successful salesperson must be more intelligent, organized and strategic in order to find and use key prospect information quickly and to make their contact effort succeed and stand out from the crowd.
 
The Key-Trigger Events

Trigger events are specific occurrences that catalyze a sales opportunity. There are many examples of trigger events and they include, significant corporate announcements, new funding, mergers/acquisitions, key hires, moves and other important events. Salespeople are often unaware of the role an unseen trigger event may have played in a past sale; they are just happy to have had a customer. In almost every selling situation, there is a trigger event within the prospect’s organization that is causing them to buy.  
Once a salesperson is able to identify relevant trigger events, which signals that a potential sales opportunity may be on the horizon, he must learn to find prospects who have similar trigger events occurring. The good news; the Web is an incredible data source unlike any that previously existed. The Web is one giant, worldwide, online database of information that can be used to help the sales process. In many cases, the information is free.
 
Salespeople must use the Web to: identify better prospects, obtain better contact information (for example, finding a potential prospect’s E-mail address), enhance their knowledge about the prospect and the selling opportunity, and finally, use the Web to communicate more clearly with the prospect.  
The Web can be effectively used to:

• Make contact when the telephone approach was unsuccessful
• Convey additional information that cannot be conveyed via a telephone call
• Sell across a wider geographic area
• Build trust and rapport with the prospect
• Provide credibility

The E-mail/Telephone Prospecting Combo

The purpose of an e-mail message today is to provide an additional contact medium that can accompany a telephone call. The e-mail/telephone combination provides several advantages over just a telephone call alone. These advantages include: reaching the prospect (when you are unable via telephone), providing your correct contact information (often unclear or garbled on voice-mail), providing additional product information, or links to your company Website to obtain additional information. The purpose of the voicemail message is now to call attention to the e-mail you are sending. Voicemail messages are usually not returned. But beware, there are precise do’s and don’ts when using e-mail as a prospecting tool.  

Even the most experienced salesperson must learn new skills and contact methods to differentiate their prospecting approach. By learning enhanced skills to search the appropriate Web resources, salespeople can identify better quality prospects that are ready and waiting to buy their product or service. The Web is the most significant development to aid the sales process since the invention of the telephone.