A Sales Lead Resolution for the New Year:
NO MORE COLD CALLS OR RANDOM CALLS

By Michael A. Brown
www.michaelabrown.net

OK, fellow SLMA members and leads fans, let's start with a shocker for 2010: no more cold-calling! Hey, don't look so surprised! You don't like cold-calling either. You don't accept cold calls at dinnertime at your home, and business prospects hate them, too. So don't do them.

In 2010 and beyond, you will enjoy greater opportunities for leads success with either of both of these approaches:

• Call second or later in the prospect communication sequence … after the prospect has inquired via your website or has responded to a marketing message in another medium. This approach works because by some accounts, 70 percent of all business considerations now begin on the Internet. So the phone becomes integral once a prospect has"raised his\her hand." Alternate: place a first call to invite the prospect to your web site. Call again to hear the reactions and go from there.

• Call because there is a relevant event in your prospect's business life … something they have recently done, are presently doing, or are about to do that makes them brighter blips on your business radar. In other words, go beyond mere demographics and look for companies' actions such as expansion, reorganization, introduction of new product lines … actions that make them more likely than others to need your products or services. Your inquiry about them, not you, legitimizes the call.

And to prevent a repeat of the random calling that hurt many 2009 phone-based lead initiatives …

Do your homework

A list shows names, not leads. That is why an ounce of pre-call research, such as a quick web-site visit, is worth a pound of script. At the very least, callers must learn beforehand what their prospects' companies do for a living. Do not merely allow your reps to prepare, insist that they do so!

Clarify the business premise

Reinforce with your callers that the business premise for lead generation calls is to locate and develop viable new opportunities. It is NOT  to conduct a satisfaction survey about the product or service the prospect uses now. Nor is it about "just gathering information." Monitor calls frequently to assure that all callers conduct their dialogues accordingly.

Earn the right to have a conversation          

At the outset of lead generation and development calls, your reps have 15 seconds at most to convince recipients that it's worth it to converse. Anything that slows down getting to a powerful and compelling "reason for my call" decreases the likelihood of a conversation and puts success at risk. So don't make your reps waste precious time with throwaway lines like "We provide products and services that help our customers maximize efficiencies and make it easier to conduct business with their customers, vendors, or partners." Stuff like that stops calls dead, as it did for the software company that actually used to say it.

Instead, begin with an introduction saying first and last names, your company name, a verb or two about what your company does, and a right-up-front statement of why a conversation is merited, based on what the homework revealed. Then confirm that the time is right (or OK) to talk.

Position the calls correctly

In lead generation and development, your reps are making calls of business inquiry or exploration. Train and direct them to find out … by asking … what the prospect is doing and\or considering that might make your product or service viable. Never position lead gen calls as administrative data capture.

Ask before telling, learn before selling

Or as they say in medicine,"first diagnose … then prescribe." Train and direct your callers to quit pitching and start communicating. Resist the urge to tell prospects everything about your product or service. Instead, provide enough content and explanation to enable your prospect to take the next forward step, and then ask them to take it.

Be prepared for the"long haul"

Because of the economy, business considerations take a long time, and prospects who used to be"decision-makers" may no longer have authority to act. But neither of these aspects necessarily means a lead is not viable. Train your callers to recognize"not no, but not yet" and to deal with it professionally.      

To close the conversation, tell the prospect what to do, how to do it, what you will do and when, and what to expect. Then follow-though all the way to the bank!