cold calls warm leads The Ultimate Guide for Turning Cold Calls into Leads. Pity the cold call. It’s everyone’s favorite whipping boy. From movies like “Boiler Room,” “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “The Pursuit of Happyness” and the “The Wolf of Wall Street,” sales reps are depicted as beaten- up individuals ridden by tyrannical type-A bosses, frantically pounding the phones to close a deal.
Not a pretty picture, is it?
But what if we could pop the cold call into a microwave and warm it up a bit? What if it was something more than just having an inside sales rep dial up Jane or John Doe totally out of the blue?
What if instead it was a highly targeted outreach that presented the exact right offer—at the right time—to the right person who had the pull to sign-off on a deal? outbound marketing effectiveness That’s exactly what some of the biggest and most successful companies in the world do. Dell, Lenovo, Oracle, Pfizer and Morgan 39% of marketers identified outbound as Stanley are among those that rely on cold calling, or outbound the most effective method, more than marketing, to get in front of prospects. inbound methods including events (27%), online (17%) and social media (5%). Why? Because it works. Source: InsideSales.com 2013 study of the most effective lead generation methods Everyone’s talking inbound. cold calls On the other side of the sales equation, inbound marketing is getting a lot of positive attention these days, thanks to companies like HubSpot, which act like it’s an all-inbound world.
HubSpot talks a great game about the value of using various methods to drive consumer traffic to your company, by phone or more often, via your website, by pushing out high-value content and offers that generate sales leads.
What they fail to mention is that by neglecting outbound — or failing to integrate it into an overall marketing strategy — many companies are leaving a lot of money on the table.
What inbound marketing companies fail to tell you (and don’t get us wrong, we value inbound, but know it is not enough by itself to grow your business to its potential) is that outbound marketing today can be an entirely different breed than the boiler room school of sales.
How to warm up cold calls
The key to warming up a cold call is having the right tools and processes in place. That way you’re not relying on inaccurate contact information or poor or no sales intelligence and targeting.
On the pages that follow, are 7 practical steps that will warm up your cold calls.
1 Assemble your colddream team.calls
You need to hire dedicated outbound sales reps whose sole job is to set appointments daily for the more senior or field reps. This is not an easy hire, because these people are the face, or better yet voice of your company, to hundreds of people every month. You count on them to build a key element to your company’s success – pipeline growth. They need to be articulate, smart, coachable and hard working.
Action items:
Ø Make sure you are regularly spending time training, mentoring and coaching on your company’s sales methodology.
Ø Invest in a phone system that lets you “barge” in on calls and listen for those coachable moments; role play and adapt your strategies based on what the sales team is telling you.
Ø Create a compensation plan that rewards results, not just activity. It’s not good enough that sales people called 200 people today if they set no appointments; it’s also not good enough that they set 100 appointments today if none of them convert into opportunities or revenue. Make sure the team is compensated to achieve the end goal and help them build the right habits to that goal.
2 Apply sales intelligence.
For outbound sales reps, using direct dial phone numbers versus main office numbers is like the difference between using a crowbar or a key to open a locked door – you can try to hack it open by force, or just turn the handle and walk in.
Direct dial numbers make it much easier to contact decision makers at their office, instead of having to wade through intermediaries which can often subvert the process.
Action items:
Ø Use direct dial so your caller ID looks different to a decision maker
Ø Avoid receptionists and admins and get right to the person you need to speak with
Ø Use direct dial so you can leave messages after office hours Are direct dial numbers effective? Every 1% increase in direct dial numbers results in 2 more Ø Boost efficiency by improving your call-to- meetings a week. booking ratio with direct dial
Doubling the rep’s direct dial phone numbers triples the number of meetings set.
*Based on research by Vorsight and InsideSales.com
3 Know your salescold triggers. calls At your prospect companies, sales opportunities are being created all the time.
• Executives come and go and new ones on the job are looking to make their mark, which often leads to a decision to purchase new products.
• Projects and initiatives are always cropping up, requiring companies to source new technology, tools, goods and services.
• In the IT world, knowing a company’s installed base of software and hardware systems can be the proverbial Golden Ticket, giving sales reps insight into current and future needs.
Action items:
Ø Give sales reps an “in’ and leg up on the competition with sales triggers
Ø Arm them with information so they can present a solution that addresses a company’s immediate and pending needs
Ø Have reps introduce themselves and how they can add value via a congratulatory note to a new executive while the seat is still cool
44 Understand who’s who.
Knowing who reports to whom
in an organization, what the chain of command is, and who has purchasing authority is also vital information to a sales rep looking to make a warm call.
Action items:
Ø Let reps navigate around someone with no purchasing authority and go directly to the decision maker with an org chart
Ø Allow them to view influencers as well as decision makers for a multi- pronged sales effort
cold calls
5 Understand your ideal target.
You need to understand your ideal company and your ideal buyer within that company – there is no sense in letting your expensive new hire loose on bad fit companies or bad fit prospects.
Action items:
Ø First, clearly identify your ideal companies and prospects
Ø Keep reps focused on their targets
Ø Fine-tune offers and messages based on company, industry, pain points, etc.
6 Know your personas.
The buyer persona is a research-based, modeled representation of who buyers are.
Action items:
Ø Build personas so reps can know something about the person they’re talking to
Ø Go beyond demographics to what buyers need, how they buy, and what their goals and objectives are
Ø Connect with and relate to the buyer on many levels through personas, so reps can guide a conversation, develop a relationship, and ultimately make a sale
WHO’S READY TO SWITCH VENDORS?
Only 25% ofonly B2B 25% decision of B2B makers decision are makers actively are or passively looking to switchactively vendors. or passively Yet of looking those who to switch do switch to a competitivevendors. offering, Yet70% of say those they who were do “satisfiedswitch to aor completely satisfied”competitive with offering, their former 70% say provider. they were “satisfied or completely satisfied” with 7 Balancing inbound and outbound. Source: “Customertheir Loyalty former Guaranteed: provider. Create, Lead and Sustain Remarkable Customer Service” by Chip Bell and John Patterson,
Even when a prospect raises his or her hand as a result of inbound marketing, they’re usually about 60% of the way through the buying cycle — which puts you into a competitive bake-off situation.
Action items:
Ø Don’t over-rely on inbound or you risk losing potential new business — because you’re not reaching out to people who can be persuaded to switch given a compelling offer
Ø Find a balance of inbound and outbound to capture more new prospects and new opportunities
Execution: Outbound calls.
THE 9 KEY GUIDELINES
We've distilled outbound sales success to 9 key points.
Follow these best practices and reap the rewards of performance growth.
Ready to get started? Rule 1: Keep it short You goal is to get your call returned, not sell your product. 9 KEY GUIDELINES Keep your message short, and get your prospect to act. The optimal voicemail message is between 8 and 14 seconds.
Rule 2: Repeat your number It’s critical to reinforce your phone number at the beginning and end of your message, to make sure it was received and increase the odds of a callback.
Rule 3: Never say “I will call you back” How many times have you heard someone say they will call you back and returned their call? Remember, it’s about them and their situation, their pain points, not you.
Rule 4: Have a script What happens if the person isn’t there? That gives you about 3 seconds to come up with a message. Remember the Boy Scout motto: be prepared!
Rule 5: Call at the right time The best hours to call are from 6:45 AM to 8:00 AM and from 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM
Use time zone changes to make as many calls as possible during the optimal voicemail periods.
Avoid leaving messages on Friday afternoons or Monday mornings, as they’re often ignored.
Rule 6: Be personal yet professional Mention the person’s first name at least twice in the message. Avoid using their last name.
Rule 7: Choose your words wisely Are you saying “um” or any other non-words? Are you using over-used words? Are you using a word incorrectly? Are you using jargon or overly technical language?
Consult a dictionary or a thesaurus so you can change “good” to “acceptable, pleasing, reputable, superior, valuable, etc.”
Rule 8: Pace yourself If you are trying to keep you message short and sweet, don’t speak faster; instead shorten your message.
Talking too fast will make the person think you’re not worthy of his or her time, while talking too slowly may turn them off.
Maintain a strong and steady pace to capture their attention and earn yourself an audience. PERCENT Rule 9: Do your homework Gather all the sales intelligence you can before the call. While 80% of sales require five follow-up
calls after the meeting, 44% of “I would like to introduce myself” is NOT a reason for salespeople give up after one follow-up. 44 prospects to talk to you
Source: The Marketing Donut “I understand you just upgraded your ERP system” or “you just installed a new email server” IS a reason for them to talk to you.
Execution: Outbound email.
Email is much more effective when done in tandem with the telephone.
Do them within minutes of each other.
Doing both together THE ULTIMATE ü Provides an additional way to get in touch with you and COMBINATION reinforces the message/offer ü Highlights your eagerness to get in touch
The subject line is key
ü Tell the prospect why you chose them ü Request a specific action ü Make it relevant to their wants and needs ü Demonstrate how your product or service can benefit them (i.e., mention pain points) ü NEVER make it more than 50 characters
How to get your email read
ü Start a dialogue around other interests, familiarity with product ü Ask thought-provoking questions to generate responses ü Use Arial 10pt, the most readable font and size in Outlook and in mobile ü Send at the right time: Most emails are read between 8-9am and 3-4pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays Don’t get caught in spam filters.
Avoid
ü Graphically rich content ü Complex HTML messages ü CAPITAL LETTERS ü Promotional word(s) such as “free” ü Symbols ü Attachments
Tip: run your email through a spam score
Also avoid
ü Sending around long weekends ü Making it “salesy” sounding ü Generic “firebomb” content ü Using the person’s name in subject line
Other key points
ü Keep it above the fold ü Use an informal salutation ü 175 words or less ü Bullet your key points ü Use multiple breaks, short sentences
Use an effective call to action In a typical firm with 100-500 employees,
ü Create a sense of urgency an average of seven people are involved in ü Use a concrete response request most buying decisions. ü Make an offer Source: Gartner Group cold calls Pulling It All Together: The 7 Key Steps.
1. The goal: To identify firms looking for your IT products or services
2. The best solution: A mix of inbound and outbound marketing
3. Fire up your outbound: Use a sales intelligence solution to identify prospect companies and decision makers
4. Get smarter fast: Quickly identify reporting structure and IT decision makers with IT org charts
5. Don't miss an opportunity: Uncover purchase plans, projects and executive hires with real time triggers
6. Maximize success: Combine outbound calls with email to keep your offer top of mind
7. Watch your leads and sales grow as you warm up your cold calls
Case study: WatchDox.
The Company WatchDox provides businesses a way to be more mobile and collaborative while reducing the risk, complexity and cost of sharing information across and beyond enterprises.
DiscoverOrg helped The Challenge WatchDox WatchDox found it didn’t have enough accurate and useful information for its sales team. It had significantly some great marketing leads but they were incomplete or difficult to decipher. And its IT increase efficiency per rep, enabling a intelligence providers had inadequate Salesforce.com integration, forcing reps to work outside 300% increase in their normal business process. outbound marketing and The Solution calling. WatchDox selected the Enterprise, Mid-Market and SMB datasets from DiscoverOrg because they provided not just a list of names but actionable business intelligence for its sales team.
In particular, DiscoverOrg’s powerful Salesforce.com connector let reps seamlessly transfer any record as a lead or contact into Salesforce.com with one click.
The Results DiscoverOrg helped WatchDox significantly increase efficiency per rep, enabling a 300% increase in outbound marketing and calling.
The IT Org Charts helped reps identify key decision-making personnel at both existing and new accounts and book more appointments with them, and understand the mapping of IT departments to drive referrals to decision makers.
Case study: IT-ROI
The Company IT-ROI is a project portfolio management (PPM) integration provider that helps companies streamline business application performance.
The Challenge Using DiscoverOrg’s IT-ROI had no trouble selling IT project managers on the value of its solution, but its sales reps Enterprise, Mid-Market, were having difficulty connecting with decision makers that had the authority to sign off on a SMB and Government deal. In addition, the sales team was handicapped by the fact that about half its database had datasets, as well as its IT Org Charts, IT-ROI bad contact information. realized an astounding 60x ROI in 2013. The Solution Using DiscoverOrg’s highly accurate Enterprise, Mid-Market, SMB and Government datasets, as well as its IT Org Charts, IT-ROI easily addressed its data quality issues.
Also, because of DiscoverOrg’s native integration with salesforce.com, IT-ROI was able to do a complete refresh of leads, contacts, relationships and other key contact information in a matter of months.
The Results With DiscoverOrg, IT-ROI realized an astounding 60x ROI in 2013. ready to warm up some cold calls?
Utilizing the right tools and processes -- balanced out and integrated with your inbound strategy – outbound is a highly effective sales generator.
Now that you know how to warm up a cold call, use these tactics to keep your reps engaged with the right people, at the right time, with the right message. You’ll find you are always a step ahead of the competition.
Let’s connect 1.800.914.1220 [email protected] http:/discoverorg.com cold calls warm leads The Ultimate Guide for Turning Cold Calls into Leads.