I often get inquires from companies looking for help with
lead generation. Granted, that’s what
MarketCapture helps many enterprise software companies do better, quicker, and
cheaper. One point for the
MarketCapture website! When I call up
the person to find out more, nine out of ten tell me they are looking for
someone to help with cold calling.
I have nothing against cold calling. On the contrary; I think the phone, when
correctly used, is still one of the most effective ways to reach potential customers.
I do have a hard time, though, when I
see companies that view cold calling as a silver bullet, a cure to all
marketing and sales ills, and an effort that can stand on its own.
Here is where I see the problem:
So you get some outsourced telemarketing agents to call your
prospects. Why would your prospects want
to talk them? Think about all the calls
you get from people wanting to sell you something. How many of them do you talk to?
And what are the chances that you’d agree to anything more than saying
“send me some info”, if you haven’t hung up on them in the first place?
You say it’s a numbers game. Well, that’s true. If you
call enough people you might get a handful that will move on to the next
step. But you will spend a lot of
money, and more importantly, time, to reach these few. And it’s probably not going to be enough to
fill up your pipeline.
Using the phone to call on your prospect is a necessary ingredient
in the enterprise sales process. At the
same time, expecting a cold call to turn into a hot opportunity is like
substituting a hard job with a paycheck for a chance to win the lottery. It can happen, but you don’t want to count
on it.
So what can you do?
Here are some ideas.
Use cold calling to build and clean up your permission list
Identifying the prospects who can eventually buy your
product (even if not in the immediate future) and getting their permission to
communicate (including e-mail address!) is the foundation to any ongoing
marketing effort. I cannot think of a
better way of doing it in a systematic fashion other than using the phone.
I do believe, and there is evidence to support this belief,
that callers have a better chance of getting the information and the permission
they look for when the offer is of immediate value to the recipient. White papers, case studies, and seminar
invitations are all good examples of such offers. Even better, the caller could offer to share with the prospect
the results of a relevant industry study.
Using a specific offer that is educational in nature, you
don’t have to use your big shots. This
type of a call is much easier for someone who is not at the level of your top
sales executive.
It usually works better than “just calling to check some
information,” calling to schedule a meeting with a salesperson, or “looking to
learn more about your business issues” (see more about that in the article from
CIO blog below). If it doesn’t work,
you can call a month or two later with another offer.
Use “warm” and targeted calling to turn prospect into
opportunities
Once you have your target list and the permission to
communicate, you can use this list for an ongoing marketing touch program,
which can include additional learning opportunities for your prospects, such as
seminars/webinars, additional white papers and case studies, and an electronic
newsletter.
By continuing to offer valuable material, you build the
credibility of your company and maintain the permission to communicate with
your prospects. These multiple touches create
opportunities for your prospects to signal their areas of interest, and a
starting point for your salespeople to follow up and engage in a conversation.
Contrary to common practices, I believe the next call should
be made by a senior sales executive. Depending
on who you’re calling, it could best be made by a higher level officer in your
company, maybe even the CEO! Why? Because you need to put on the phone someone
that can understand the problem of your customer, articulate this understanding
to the person on the other side of the phone, and paint a vision that would
compel the prospect to engage in a dialogue… and do it all in less than a
minute! Of course, this is just the
beginning of a dialogue. But if you
fail here, it could also be the end.
For the call to be effective, it should be personalized and
intelligent. No matter how senior the
person making the call, she or he must be well-prepared. I’ve seen senior executives just picking up
the phone thinking “I’m the CEO. They
would be honored to speak with me, and I can just wing it and get them
excited.” Wrong! There is nothing that can cause more damage
than a CEO that comes across as arrogant and myopic.
Preparation for the call should be focused on the specific
issues of the prospect. Know what these
issues are and have readily available references to your experience with other
customers in similar situations. Other
than that, your pre-call preparation should be focused on what you ask, not
what you say. The best sales call is
the one in which the customer talks and you listen.
Five questions to keep in mind
Whether you follow these tactics or others, the important
thing in my mind is that you use calling (cold and warm) as part of a sales and
marketing process, not a stand alone component. To keep yourself in check, keep the following five questions in
mind:
- Who
do you call? Know who you’re
calling and do the research prior to picking up the phone.
- What
are you trying to achieve? Treat it
like a dating process; don’t try to boil the ocean in your first call.
- Who
is calling? Don’t hold your guns;
you need your best consultative skills in the initial conversations.
- What
do you say? Nobody wants to hear
how great you are; instead, be prepared with references and questions.
- What
happens before and after the call? The call is only one part of an ongoing communication
program. Supporting marketing touches
before the call and between calls will help you keep top of mind awareness and
smooth out the overall selling process.
Happy calling!
