As long as sales teams have had to balance the needs of today's close against the prospecting requirements to drive next quarter's - or next year's revenue, the future has always ended up with the short end of the stick. Only the most exceptional sales people - and teams - have been able to maintain a consistent flow of prospecting and lead follow up calls AND stay on top of the revenue that will guarantee that everyone gets a paycheck this month.

Some say that business is looking up right now. Others disagree. But no matter what your crystal ball is saying about the economic outlook, you'll probably agree that businesses - especially small and medium sized ones - are scrambling to do more with less right now and the priority is (as it has always been) to close business for today and then worry about tomorrow.

Understandable? Absolutely!  The obvious rationale? Get this month, this quarter, this half under our belt.  Inch the numbers up every time and we'll find the money to hire more people to fix that future problem.  The problem with that?  How are you going to "inch the numbers up" when the job of filling the pipeline isn't getting done?  In spite of what you might be reading, social media isn't filling your pipeline.  It takes sales people, working your business to bring in money.

There's a link in this post to a summary of Vondara's Rapid Outbound Phone Service.  The concept is simple, afforable and effective.  Let us make those important calls that simply aren't urgent enough to get handled effectively by your own team.  We will help you open those doors in a variety of ways, either by leaving your own recorded voicemails, or talking with receptionists and PA's to delivery your message, or delivering your messages personally to the contacts on your list.  We'll follow up by sending your email and relay any changes in contact information - and contact requests- back to you - quickly.

And we call it Rapid Outbound Phone, because the process won't take months to set up or weeks to execute. It can happen in days.

Here's that service summary I promised - ROP - Service Summary

I was talking with a person the other day and trying to communicate why I think that the Rapid Outbound Phone is such a great product for smaller or medium sized companies who rely on the phone and personal prospecting from their sales team to drive revenue. What they wanted to understand was, "What is unique about Rapid Outbound Phone and what is the best way to use it."

What is Unique about Rapid Outbound Phone?

Rapid Outbound Phone helps sales and marketing teams use the telephone as a communication medium - alone or as part of an integrated campaign. They can make a relatively large volume of simple outbound calls quickly and affordably and take advantage of every technique the phone presents to put their message in front of the people they want to talk to.

They can use the phone to deliver their own pre-recorded voicemail message, either during the day or off hours.
They can deliver a live message directly to their main contacts personal assistant or receptionist- if that's the best way to communicate with that prospect/prospects company.
They can deliver a live message directly to their contacts and where applicable collect simple feedback (like a good time for the sales rep to call back or whether or not a contact is interested in attending and event or demo).
All forms of message delivery can trigger either a single email follow up or an automated sequence of follow ups- both written and voiced.

Rapid Outbound Phone is more comprehensive that just voicemail delivery and will reach more people than a voicemail campaign alone. Rapid Outbound Phone will deliver hundreds of calls a day on a preset and guaranteed delivery schedule. Rapid outbound phone is not a computerized service so each delivery is managed and monitored individually to ensure that the clients remain in total control of their outbound call programs.

Rapid Outbound phone is a hybrid service for companies who want more inbound sales inquiries created using outbound sales and marketing calls delivered affordably and quickly. Dare I say "More-Faster-Cheaper."

What is the Best Way to Use it?

Hands down, the secrets to a successful Rapid Outbound Phone campaign are:

Take advantage of EVERY delivery option available, including voicemail, live message to reception/PA, live message to contact and email follow up.
Manage your list to differentiate message streams to deliver the most relevant message content to the individuals.  You can segment by industry, job function or seniority- but don't fail to segment.  If you're planning to blanket a company- run it in stages with unique message content.
Take advantage of the low cost calling and guaranteed timing to preplan ongoing communications programs and not just one off calls.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of small and medium sized businesses in North America alone who can not only benefit from this simple and flexible service, they can actually afford it too.

Reviewing some delivery statistics with our production manager I was reminded that when the goal is to reach a business prospect, it really pays (in terms of the ultimate campaign results) to use every possible means available to deliver that goal.

For Vondara's full suite of Rapid Outbound Phone services, that usually starts with a guided voicemail from Boxpilot delivered during business hours, but it should never stop there.  Messages are also delivered very effectively (and sometimes more easily) both before and after regular business hours.  Off hours delivery doesn't mean that messages are dropped at 2:00am - but from 6-9 pm or 7-8:30 am local time.

Email follow ups to delivered messages offer an opportunity to reinforce the persuasiveness of the verbal message with the in-depth provision of detailed written follow up  and a simple "Reply" option that offers one of the fastest and easiest response mechanisms available.

But voicemail is just one option.  Some organizations - for a variety of reasons do not choose to accept voicemail messaging during business hours and instead, messages are recorded manually by receptionists and personal assistants during the day.  It's not unusual for organizations who operate in this way to not have individual voicemails available in the evening, either - just company or department mail boxes.  I've seen this frequently in professional services (doctors, dentists, etc.)  and in retail, the construction industry  and among smaller accounting and legal practices.

As a business with a mandate to make contact on behalf of our clients, we offer expanded delivery options to include the communication of a Live Message to receptionists and PA's.  Some clients resist the idea , feeling  that this affects their absolute control of the message content.  Personally, I disagree since our client's sign off on the exact scripting.  The best messages of this sort are those which are reduced to the key information that will be recorded on the message pad. Now that's absolute control.

The irony of any resistance to a Live Message delivery made to receptionists and PA's is that the response rate for this type of delivery is at least 3 times higher than a voicemail response.  Why?  We don't know for certain, but logically, it's a reflection of the nature of the businesses that don't use voicemail and the people working there (they tend to be a little more "old school") and perhaps our clients also benefit from the necessary brevity of messages that need to be hand written.

Yet another option which has offered some clients an excellent response rate is the delivery of a Live Message, directly to their target contacts.  Again, 100% scripting control is available, but this service also allows for a short, controlled and highly desirable dialogue.  For example, on campaigns supporting sales initiatives, from cold calls to agreement renewals or customer revitalization campaigns, the call center agent can offer a live follow up option from the sales representative on whose behalf they are delivering the message. Just think of it as opportunistic appointment setting.  Event and other invitation and reminder calls can secure either a registration or RSVP.

Consider that in campaigns that include Live Message and Live Message to Target, outcomes like elevated response rates, booked appointments and event registrations - all of which are incredibly desirable outcomes- are the alternatives to a non-delivery.

With list and database degradation caused by takeovers, closures and layoffs, making every possible delivery has a real impact on the ROI of each campaign.  Even if all delivery types were created equal (which they are not) the extra 10-15% of contacts that are made  are well worth the investment.  And given that the alternative delivery methods often pull higher response rates and higher value responses , their impact on the overall campaign results can be significant.

There is always controversy around sale cold calling.  Who should do it? It is worth the time? Should you leave a message?

While some companies might have enough money  to drive a sufficient quantity of inbound leads, filling the sales funnel and negating the need for any of their sales reps to do their own prospecting, most companies and especially smaller businesses are NOT in that position.  Why do sales people cold call?  Because they need to.  It's that simple.

One thing about cold calling that is not in any doubt is that it's harder than it used to be. Making a live connection with a prospect takes more calls and far more time than ever before.  And if it takes more calls to reach your connection, you need to to make more calls just to stay equal with where you used to be.  In fact, the average sales person would have to make about 3 times as many calls as before to net the same results.  But that probably isn't possible.  The work day hasn't tripled in length, although I know some days it feels like it has.

If we can't work three times as long, we need to be at least three times as smart and two immediate options present themselves. The first is to "automate" your outbound calling to speed up the process and the second is to find ways to improve the quality of your messaging for the 90%+  calls when you won't make the connection.

For B2B sales calling, if you want to make a positive impression with you messaging and improve the odds that contacts will click on your follow up emails or even return your calls use part of your message to offer them (hopefully) valuable information.  I only say "hopefully" because until you talk with them its impossible to know for sure what is of value, but given a title, and industry and some list segmentation on your part, you should be able to offer something with a reasonable chance of piquing their interest.

We have made and executed hundreds of cold call campaigns over the years and those that include a well thought-out, free information offer (a.k.a. content) stand head and shoulders above even the most brilliantly scripted "give me a call" message.

 

I was reading an article written by Jill Konrath about Sales People who move too fast and it reminded me about that enemy of all sales people, the status quo.

As budgets shrink and companies tighten up even further on their staffing, doing more with less resources and fewer people, the power of the status quo has grown exponentially, because of the effort and the risk to change it.

Sales is a great job in many ways, but one of the things I really loved about it was that working with a variety of businesses, you get a snapshot of what they're all about.  You have the pleasure of learning a little bit about many different industries and functions. You don't however, get mired down in all the details and bureaucracy that overwhelm your clients. But, with that distance comes the risk of losing respect for the power of the status quo and its role as your biggest competitor.

It's easy to criticize prospects who fail to jump on the massive improvements you're offering, because what they already have isn't broken badly enough to need to change. After all, isn't every business person worth their salt constantly striving for continuous improvement? No. They're not. Most of them are doing their best, trying to keep their head above water, but under the radar while the next round of cuts gets pushed through the company and they're hoping that this week won't be another 60 hour grinder.

One of the best reasons to call at the VP level verses the Manager level is because the VP - seeing a potential for improvement is more likely to initiate the process. They delegate it, of course, usually to the same manager who won't give you the time of day, because your promise of improvement will not apply to their life.  You'll have an easier relationship if you can find a way round that hurdle.

So, keeping the power of the status quo in mind and its influence on the different people you're reaching out to, it's good to tailor your contact tactics and your messaging with a mind to undermining the influence of your secret and biggest competitor.

If you look over any of the sales discussions happening now on LinkedIn, what you'll notice is that in spite of what you might have heard to the contrary, cold calling is not dead. It's happening every day and while sales reps don't like it any more than they ever have, it is showing no signs of going away.

So, why is there such a perception discrepancy between marketing and sales people on the subjects of cold calling and in fact anything that has to do with lead generation?

I think the first reason is simply one of different definitions. To some, cold calling is door-to-door and face to face. To others, it's on the phone. Some people call businesses and others call consumers. Some work from a phone book or a business list and first need to find the right person to talk with and others start with a company,  contact name and title.  Some call all types of businesses and others focus on specific markets. Company size can be anything from a single person in a home office to a Fortune 100 multinational. Some models require pre-call research and others - nadda. And, what's very important - some people are working on a product or a sales model that requires they attempt to close a sales on the first call, while others are only trying to open up a dialogue and set up a meeting on the first contact.

With so many different ways to look at cold calling, it's hardly a wonder that no one seems to agree as to whether or not it still works.  When I write about cold calling, these are my parameters:

Telephone based, not in-person calling.
Business to Business
Working from a market specific company base - usually with a named contact and if not, with a job title.
Small, medium and large business but not SOHO.
Cold call objective, lead generation- book a sales consultation phone meeting- 15-30 minutes.
Pre-call research maxes out at about five minutes per company.

A cold call is one that the sales rep initiates. It is not in response to an information request or a quote. It is the result of a Rep doing what they have always done; think about their service and who can best benefit from using it and then reach out and see if there is a problem to be solved.

This type of cold calling hasn't gone away and probably never will. Although it has become harder and takes longer to make that initial contact, and in spite of the many virtues of social marketing and in-bound lead generation, many sales reps feel that they are still the ones creating the opportunities that lead to their best deals.

Look at this breakout from a webinar presented by Vorsight:

Where to your best deals come from?

Definitely Marketing Sourced - 10%
Probably Marketing Sourced - 19%
Probably self generated - 32%
Definitely self generated - 39%

For leads that result in deals worth over $100K, this research shows that 45% were definitely self generated.

Given that it takes anywhere from 8-16 attempts to make a contact in their first place, it's pretty clear that a lot of skilled sales professionals are still pounding the phones and still leaving a lot of voicemails and sending a lot of emails to get that coveted first contact.

So it appears less than likely that cold calling has gone the way of the Dodo yet or that it should.

Here's a really well done article from blognotions posted by Kathy Tito that reports on her interview with Judy Garmaise a corporate sales speaker/trainer.  Shattering the Five Myths of Effective Sales Follow Up

A few points stood out, one being the statistic that 50% of sales people will only make one attempt to follow up (I understand that to mean on a meeting or presentation).  That astounds me.  They must be working in vastly different markets than the B2B Marketing and Technology Marketing arena where my company operates and where 7-15 follow ups is more along the lines of a minimal norm.

With so much attention paid lately to lead generation and nurturing, the whole process of sales follow up hasn't been getting the coverage it deserves, other than a nod constantly being given to the lengthening sales cycle.  But, its during that long (seemingly endless) sales cycle that your follow up program will do most of the work to build a relationship, create real trust and close the business.

The article goes on to report on "The Top 5 Myths to Shatter Regarding sales Follow UP" and the three that I feel are worth the most attention are the assumptions that our message was received, that it was understood and remembered and that repetition of the same message is enough to get you the result you need.

Sales can be difficult, but sales people can choose how they want to respond to the  challenges.  Think of it this way, if you''ve left three messages for someone after what you felt was a good meeting and they haven't called you back you can choose to believe that they don't want to talk to you or you can choose to believe that maybe they didn't get your message. If you need to keep motivated, its helpful to jettison the negative attitude.

Multiple attempts at communication are necessary, but every time you leave a message (and you'll probably agree that obviously you're going to need to leave quite a few of them) you should have something new to say.  The clients who use our Rapid Outbound Phone Services, which include Voicemail, Synch Touch and Live message options, realize that each new pass creates a fresh opportunity. With every message they can share something with their customers or prospects that will build on what they already know and relate to their needs in an often rapidly changing market.
It's also doubly helpful to be brief. Design a voicemail message of between 18-30 seconds and keep "follow up"emails as short as possible. This helps in two ways:

Short messages of all types have a better chance of being completely reviewed and totally understood
By keeping your message brief, you'll save key points for your subsequent follow ups.

Following up can be frustrating for sales reps who feel chained to a script that doesn't deviate much from "Just calling to follow up on our last discussion. Please give me a call". They think they're wasting their time and for many of them, if that's all the value they have to bring to their relationships, they're probably right.

Not all products and services are the same, but if you don't work on a one-call-close model then you had better ensure that you can count on a system (your own or your company's) that can follow up on meetings that you've already held with the same consistency and originality as your programs to generate leads and nurture them into viable prospects.

Smooth B2B marketing communications at a trade show calls for forward planning.  Put your programs into place ahead of time and with just a little bit of luck,  your preset communications will execute seamlessly on autopilot.

Remember that at a trade show or other large event, the telephone is an excellent choice for your communications.  Its one of the few occasions where you have large groups of people with the same general purpose, all congregating in one place and trading ideas in person.  So', making your communications programs more personal couldn't fit the venue better.  Granted, you're not likely to reach them when you call, which is why we love voicemail for personalize messages from your event spokespeople.

Anyone actually speaking at the event is a great spokesperson for your marketing campaigns.  Boost their at show profile - and your companies - with personal invitations to speaking events, demos, your booth and any networking event.  Use a text message or an email (or a mix) to follow up your voicemail.  At show voicemail and email messages are fast and easy to set up as preplanned campaigns.

When choosing your at-show priority contacts, get input from your sales teams about companies or individuals expected to be in attendance who they would really like to connect with, and build small, highly targeted campaigns around those contacts.

Download new scanned and collected contacts into your database as frequently as you can, even if you're simply collecting business cards. That way you'll, be able to appropriately message Day One contacts with Day Two or Three updates and invitations.

Even before you have sorted, analysed and qualified your leads make an immediate post event follow up call particularly to thank people for attending one of your events or presentations. Third party help can be secured quickly and very affordably to help put lists into a workable state, although using scanning systems make list creation easier.

Start your relationships off on the right foot by matching up your contacts with someone in your company with similar seniority.  They don't have to maintain the relationship but having one of your own executives thank  C Level contacts, technical people reach out to other techies and mirrored seniority levels acknowledges that you're treating your contacts as individuals.   These campaigns are easy to structure in advance. The contacts can be adjusted as you move raw leads into your early lead management/sales funnel.

Major events - like most great opportunities - are very competitive environments.  Planning ahead and communicating a little differently than everybody else will help you stand out in a very large and very crowded room.

In 2012, tradeshows will eat a lion's share of marketing budgets in organizations of all sizes. (MarketingSherpa) with the largest (1000+) organizations spending the biggest proportion -33% and companies under  100 still spending 19% - almost one fifth of their total budget on trade shows.

The numbers surprised me at first, but since the perceived effectiveness of trade shows ranks them as the 4th most effective marketing tactic – up from 7th it does makes sense.  And of course, since trade shows are hardly a small expense, if you're participating, it's almost inevitably going to be a big budget item.

With all the hype and emphasis being placed on some of the newer marketing options, the simple truth is that like other tried and true marketing tactics, which seem to wax and wane in popularity from year to year, trade shows are still here to stay.

So, if you're going to sink a significant part of your marketing budget into trade shows, how can you maximize the effectiveness of every dollar spent and create the most possible productive introductions and conversations with a cross section of representatives from qualified companies?  You have two main avenues of promotion to work on – active and passive.

Passive promotion is the work you do to drive inbound leads (who will naturally enough believe that contacting you is their idea).  The best vehicles for passive communications are social media, site based communications and word of e-mouth.  Blogging and discussion participation can pique background interest and develop credibility in your  targeted communities.  Site announcements and white papers downloadable from your site can be followed with nurturing campaigns (email, direct mail, voicemail, personal contacts) for down-loaders that will incorporate news of your tradeshow and event plans.  Look for interesting hooks and promotions (maybe even fun) to induce contacts to share your emails or site information.

Both before and during the event, take advantage of mobile platforms and stay up to date with new smart phone event apps that can help you create interest around your participation and perhaps incorporate a useful at-event service for your contacts.  Look at replacing at least part of your standard booth handouts (also known as throwaways) with QR codes for visitors to scan. And of course, Tweet your little heart out both before, during and after the show. Combine a preplanned schedule with  up to the minute spontaneous Tweets.

Boost your passive programs with some more deliberate and active trade show lead generation ideas. It's about generating visibility and promoting your company to actual and prospective attendees so that you can talk –face to face - with the right people.  Make your best impression when they visit you – at your booth or not- and follow up promptly and consistently to qualify your new contacts and channel the right prospects into sales ready leads.

There are several audience "pools" to choose from when creating contact lists to receive your promotions,  including – (in no particular order)

Local customers
Past Attendees – customers and prospect companies
Registered Exhibitors
Speakers and their companies
Registered attendees
Locally based prospect companies
Prospect companies most likely to be attracted to the show
Current prospects in any lead nurturing or sales funnel
Sales rep suggestions and recommendations

With the exception of a registered attendee list (only available from show organizers), building lists of companies and contacts is possible for most organizations although it requires different levels of research.  If you simply do not have anyone to execute this research, basic web and telephone researchers can be found to do it for you. Their services are fast and very afforable.

Depending on the time lines; direct mail, email, web announcement and newsletter promotions can create advance awareness of your participation at an upcoming event. As you get closer to the show, telephone contacts mixed with a few emails from your marketing and/or sales teams are a more personalized way to issue event-within-the- event invitations, including booth appointments, appointment confirmations, demos, networking events, dinners and other receptions.

A few days ago, in  the blog Eyes on Sales I read a great post.  The start, suggesting that there are sales reps whose only career plan is to stay employed made me laugh.  Michael Pedone, who wrote the post, obviously has an off beat sense of humor.

But there was more to this post than a laugh.  It was also a great demonstration of how basic common sense is an important  among good sales people. (You would wonder about that when thinking how many people seem to be missing this one!)  He writes in his post  that 60 calls including returned calls and/or 3 hours of talk time is his winning formula.

Its good  that talk time is part of the metric, because most articles miss it.  They write about dials but dials are only an action. Talk time with prospects, customers, and purchase influencers is the goal. Three hours might not seem like enough time to some, especially anyone working in a one-call-to-close boiler room sales environment. (Nope, they haven't all been put out of business with the current miracle of inbound leads). I talk with lots of companies who are stuck in the 100 dials a day metric, but I can't see how that can be productive.  If you're  reaching your connections or having any meaningful conversations, 100 calls isn't going to happen.

The key to successfully working the phone is to spend more time talking (and of course -listening) and little or no time dialing and navigating automated systems (you can't even connect with gatekeepers anymore and little time leaving voice mails.  Although voice mails are very important in every stage of a business relationship.  They are a challenge though and one that continues to place demands on the creativity and persistence sales people, their management and the marketing departments that support them.

To expect many call backs is naive, so one of the most effective ways to use voicemail is just offer something of value. Use your voice as a relationship builder. Reading is just about your words, but listening means contacts are hearing YOU. You're communicating with more than just words. You have your tone and manner and emotions. You voice is a powerful tool for building a relationship and voicemail lets you use it.  Asking for a passive response such as click on a link or check out the follow up email, will generate more responses which is why email is such a great follow up for voicemail.

Combine the persuasive power of your voice with the detail you can offer with a written follow up and you will use both mediums in the most compelling way and by creating pre-planned calling campaigns with written follow up you can also start to drive higher contact metrics with controlled timing and strategic messaging. Planned calling campaigns will enable streaming different message progressions, each with a unique flow to matching groups of contacts.  You can offer more value to the people with whom you will soon engage in person.

So, now that you have your campaigns in place, do you stop calling?  Not at all.  You're still in sales. You have to talk to people.?  You just don't need to waste your time with repetitive messaging. Instead, invest in a little more call prep to research and make notes on the contacts you want to reach.  When you connect, you'll be better prepared, to make every conversation truly meaningful and spend your three hours a day in the best possible way.  You'll make  more sales and the increased talk time will also give you the ammunition to create better voicemail and email calling campaigns that - over time - will keep your own phone ringing.

Now, that's a perfect world.