B2B Sales Pipeline

I hate air travel.  There - I said it.  After 5 years selling in a remote territory, I enjoy commuting to work…not traveling to it.  So more of us are required to do more selling over the phone.

A blog post related to Successful Telemarketing found its way into my inbox, and after reading it (admittedly a little skeptically) - it actually has a little meat between the fluff.  What follows it the Readers Digest “Condensed Version”:

The Opening - Pretty basic - Who - What and Why…but TRY to make the Why pertinent:

• Good - Good Morning.  This is Derek Grant with Pardot, a Marketing Automation vendor that dramatically improves the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts by individually tracking anonymous visitors and prospects.
• Bad - Hi.  This is Derek with Pardot - Calling to see if your firm is interested in implementing marketing automation
• Ugly - What up?  This is Derek. Do you want marketing automation?

Author’s note - I know this isn’t great technique, however I like to get all the pertinent information in before pausing, so the person has enough information to work with and doesn’t have the opportunity to barge in during the introduction.

Engagement Stage - Match your product’s features to their needs in order to show Benefits to their organization.  This requires sales people to do something many are not good at - Listening to the customer.  It also requires thoughtful questioning, and probing once the conversation begins to lull.  If, after you’ve spoken, you haven’t learned what their pain is, then you have wasted your time and theirs.

The Close -This isn’t necessarily the deal closing, however you should always understand next steps.  Not Interested?  “Since needs change quite frequently, would it be appropriate for me to call at the start of next quarter”.  Want a Demo?  “Do you utilize MS Outlook?  If so, I’ll send you a meeting request for the time and date we discussed.” (NEWS FLASH - not everyone utilizes Outlook, so this should be something you confirm prior to getting off the phone and blindly sending a meeting request - Perhaps iCal is more appropriate)

At the end of the day, if you excel at the three steps above, you’ll be able to spend more time at home, and less time in the airport.

Sales Professionals - I’d like to take a moment to get up on my soap box and talk to you about KILLING the effectiveness of your Sales-Hunters. Hate effectiveness? Here are a couple of things you can ask your sales reps to do to stop them from doing that whole “Selling” thing:

1. Data Entry - You ask your hunter to find deals and close them, however you apparently also ask her to sharpen her typing skills. Leads from your friends in the marketing department should be already entered into the CRM, with any supporting information related to that opportunity. Almost every marketing automation and e-mail marketing solution provide the ability to take a lead generated by Marketing and convert that information, along with all background data, and create that as a Lead within your CRM. And don’t get me started on Landing Page / Request More Information form on your website that creates an e-mail and sends it to your sales professional…There are a variety of marketing tools available which can capture form data and enter it into the Marketing or Sales CRM system without the rep having to copy / paste from an e-mail.

2. Composing and Sending E-mails - Marketers already have a message they are trying to convey about the organization’s products and services. Quickest way to water down this message - let the sales professional distill that information into an e-mail based upon her understanding. A couple of bullet points about e-mail:

• Templates are Key - Don’t hope that your sales team understands what needs to be said, provide them templates of the key components which can be customized to meet the needs of that particular customer. The positive effect is twofold: (1) The message is consistent and (2) the sales rep isn’t wasting time typing out the corporate message over and over and over and over…..
• Automate the Process - Marketing Automation (Prospect Nurturing, e-mail marketing) systems and most CRMs support the sending of automatic e-mails to prospects. Sending them automatically basically “sales proofs” the process, and utilization of the automatic features of many systems automatically enters the information into the CRM, preventing excessive copy / paste functions just to have a comprehensive customer history.

3. Calling Blind - Let me qualify that sometimes too much information leads to brain freeze where the sales professional overthinks things (reference “Sales Proofing” above), however Marketing Automation / E-mail Marketing solutions capture open rates, as well as clicking of tracked links within correspondence, and many solutions offer visitor tracking for your website / microsite. Using this information can differentiate between a customer who has responded to your message, and one who said “Send me an E-mail” just to get off the phone with you.

Keep your hunters productive by cutting out repetitive tasks and providing some clarity as to the customers who have an interest in your offerings.

It’s a fact of life in sales – You will cold call. Most people hate it because they remember the many times that a cold caller has interrupted their dinner to ask them to change long distance services. This 6 PM annoyance truly is “interruption marketing”. That’s not what your sales manager is asking you to do…he or she is asking you to perform “consultive selling” by phone. What differentiates this from the call from your local phone company:

1. You are not calling to interrupt – You have a valuable service that will be valuable to this potential customer. You know that because of your research (see #2 below). Your goal isn’t to spin off into a sales pitch, but rather to introduce yourself, grab their attention and ask for a follow-up action (schedule an appointment, view a demonstration, download a whitepaper). MarketingSherpa found that the #1 think recipients of Cold Calls value is that the salesperson be considerate of their time.

2. You have done your homework – Know what you are going to say, to whom, and why it matters BEFORE you pick up the phone. Are they a good fit for your solution? are they already using a competitor? A study by MarketingSherpa found that the #2 thing cold call recipients appreciate is that a cold call be educated on their business and not just calling down a list and reading a script.

3. You engage the potential customer through probing – Ask questions about their particular business processes to find their pain points. If you do all the talking, expect the customer to identify you as the annoying sound coming from the other end of the phone.

Pitfalls to Avoid:

• Sacrificing Quality for Quantity – Sure it’s a numbers game, but do a little precall planning. What does their organization do, who do you want to speak to (use resources such as LinkedIn or Spoke for good info).
• Initially Leaving a Message – You use a CRM…when you call, if you are obviously headed directly to VoiceMail, hang up, set a reminder and call later that afternoon. It’s easier to delete a message from a sales rep than it is to cut them off when you are on the phone. NOTE: everyone has caller ID, so avoid the stalker appearance and only call 2x’s without leaving a message lest you weird out the customer.
• Not trying to “Warm” the call prior – There are ways to warm up individuals who you are cold calling – a couple of options: Dropping a name of a person who redirected you to them, sending a precall e-mail to identify yourself, the organization and what you’ll be calling about, getting the target’s gatekeeper to set an appointment for you. NOTE #2: Gatekeepers can be powerful allies, so remember their name, make your case and ask for an appointment rather than just leaving a message.
• Launching into features and benefits – In Geoffrey James’ column “The Art of The Cold Call Pitch” he brings up the ideal of “voice-spam” and that a potential customer would delete this same message if it were received by e-mail. Rather than flying into features and benefits, use this opportunity to identify next steps such as a follow up appointment at a more convenient time (See #1 “You are not calling to interrupt” Above)

Now pickup that phone, and let’s dial for dollars.