“ If you’re selling to the ‘C’ Suite and doing B-to-B Enterprise Sales and you believe that Cold-Calling Doesn’t Work – You are leaving $ Millions of dollars on the table that will cost you dearly in 2013 !”
I read and see so many so called ‘Sales Gurus; saying and spouting off that Cold –Calling doesn’t work in 2013. That only idiots cold-call or Web 2.0 , Social media Google search , Direct mail letters eliminates the need to prospect and cold call
If you’re cold calling the old way not the ‘Permission based , Fear Free way, I can see their point .
Just like technology has evolved, the internet , Social Media, Marketing , Video marketing. In 2013 if you/re prospecting and cold calling the ‘Old School’ way , dialing for dollars the “ It’s a numbers Game” way and attempting to cold call Top level decision makers with 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s techniques and tactics, it will be Painful and won’t work any good
If you’re not using prospecting, cold calling and appointment setting with other integrated tools like ;
Ø Telephone based NLP strategies
Ø Negative qualifiers & chill down statements
Ø Hypnotic triggers to shift focus and perception
Ø Magnetic Marketing Messages & permission based
E-mail
Ø Educational Article Marketing , pain, problem and hurt development
Ø Nurture and Drip marketing
Ø Online Interactive Executive Web Briefings with top level decision makers
If you’re cold calling in the ‘Raw’ and your results suck . I can totally see why you would rather eat glass or bicycle parts than prospect and cold call top decision makers and qualify them for interest and needs in your core business offering
As a Revenue Acceleration expert that is specialized in Business-to-business ‘Go to market ‘ strategies that has worked with over 389 companies, in over 47 different industries, and been responsible for over $ 733 Million in increased sales revenues for our clients.
My career for the last 17 years has been to build, design and manage the Telesales & Lead Generation strategies to locate the customers that are ‘Ready to buy ‘ for my clients . I’ve coached and trained over 5,600 sales professionals to — Get through to the top level decision maker and Book meetings and presentations with them
I have been in and out of 389 companies, of which 172 have been high tech based . Interviewed over 1,500 CEO’s , VP’s of Sales and President’s of companies and honestly it’s not your fault that you don’t know how to prospect and cold call effectively without rejection or negativity
You have had bad advice given to you …
All of the Sales Gurus , VP’s of Sales and Presidents that I have worked with don’t know how to do this , they suck at it , they hate it and are afraid to do this –So they think it doesn’t work.
As a result, migrate to passive/ reactive strategies that don’t sustain, give enough sales activity or momentum . Which means feast or famine syndrome in your sales life.
Remember when you first got hired at your company . They started off with all your training induction.
Ø Product Knowledge downloads
Ø Technical information
Ø Demonstrations of the whiz-bag gadgets
Ø FAQ’s
Ø How to make a presentation when in front of a customer
Ø Possibly even how to overcome their objections , move the sales forward and close the deal.
If I could ask… how much “Live Cold Call Training” or appointment setting did they give you ?
It’s kind of like dating – It’s great to know what to do when you’re on a date with a beautiful girl . It’s really helpful to know what to say to intrigue and be interesting and funny with them
BUT …. How about how to actually “ Get the dates” ?
How much time did your Sales manager or VP of Sales make live cold calls with you to show you how to book appointments and meetings with top decision makers in your niche?
I find it quite ironic that all companies focus 98% of their training and coaching on when you get a meeting and the prospect is IN THE SALES FUNNEL
But maybe only 2% is on HOW TO GET THEM INTO THE SALES FUNNEL.
This is where the dirty , ugly truth lies.
As a result,
Ø 5% of companies are highly successful in any economy
Ø 15% are doing well
Ø And 80% are struggling and grappling with lack of sales pipeline activity, deals that don’t close or take wayyyy to long to close and sales person turn-over.
The real question here is — “ What does the 20% know that the 80% doesn’t?”
” 53% of purchaser’s report that when vendors and suppliers call , it gets them on the vendor list to propose and quote on their business”
–Digital Sherpa / CSO insights
As opposed to a spammed e-Mail or direct mail piece.
What are they doing ?
What do they know?
Here are the 4 most shocking Marketing and Revenue Capture secrets that highly successful technology and high tech companies and business leaders do in any economy to consistently increase their sales revenues
1) They don’t rely on their sales team for Sales Pipeline Development and Sales Funnel development activity
2) They don’t “ wait for their ship to come in – They swim out to it and if they can’t get on-board, they find a way to “Get Through” and get a meeting any top decision maker.
3) They control their marketing Destiny –And not wait and smoke “Hopeium” and wait for Google search, web inquiries, referrals, word of mouth or the phone to ring
4) They develop a “ Dream Buyer” Strategy with persistence, pig-headed discipline & determination target them with Phone calls , E-mails , Faxes , Voice mails , permission based E-mails , Videos , Testimonials , References, Raving fan interviews, Mulch-media presentations problem & dilemma based educational articles , White Papers and PDF’s –- to get in front of them to pitch them on their core business offering
I will elaborate on all of these a bit later .
If you ask 1,000 sales professionals that sell into the B2B mid tier and high tier markets all over North America , what is the biggest sales challenge ?
1) What to say do when in front of a high level decision maker ?
OR
2) How to get in front of high-level ultimate decision makers?
95% of all sales professionals say their biggest
challenge is
“ How to get in front of a top decision maker to tell your story to them …”
If they can get in front of them , they are convinced they can close them.
Typically they are confident in their ability to move the prospect through the sales pipeline. But, 95% are NOT as confident in their ability to set the needed number of meetings or appointments each week to keep the sales pipeline full .
The ability to set initial appointments and meetings consistently each week with qualified new buyers is an early and accurate prediction of a sale person’s success
As a group, professional sales people have a failure rate of over 70% . This is due to the necessity to fill their appointment book with qualified meetings and demos
Everyone has a per-conditioned mind-set about anything .
When it comes to high level prospecting and cold calling for new sales opportunities the “Sales Gurus” or even the VP of Sales or Sales manager has per-conditioned mindset about what can be achieved or not achieved
The VP of Sales or Sales guru was probably terrible at Introductory cold calling and doesn’t know how to do it properly . As a result, they suck at cold calling for new business and sales opportunities; they are horrible at follow-up calls on warm leads and have to find alternatives.
So it’s the fault of the sales organizations, the management team, the VP of Sales , the Sales Manager and the ‘Sales Guru’s ‘ and authors .
They are misleading sales people and entrepreneurs into believing that they don’t have to cold call any more
They are confusing sales people to think that all they have to do is :
Ø Send out direct mail letters to notoriously busy and hrd to get through to decision makers
Ø Send out a spam related e-mail to the decision maker without a conversation that has been attached to this
Ø Set up a Google adwords accounts and all the decision makers are going to float in and call you and/ or subscribe to a form
Ø Do SEO and get to the top of Google –that this is the ‘Holy Grail ‘ in high level B2B Sales.Hang out on Twitter, Linked-In, Face-Book and You-Tube and prospects will float in and give you orders !!
Let’s look at some of the “so called” alternatives
Here’s the scenario .. you have a $ 100,000 Software application that is good fit for mid tier and high tier companies . You need a buy in and need to build a business case with the CFO , Controller ,VP, General Manager and the CTO and the CIO . Oh yeah they are doing about $300 million to $ 3 Billion in business per year
This account entry, this target is a sophisticated purchaser which is living , eating and breathing a hyper –ADD( attention deficit disorder ) life . Their day-to-day is meetings, Management people, resource issues , target and Sales quota and number issues . These people are “Busy ‘ to say the least . To get their attention for 2 minutes is difficult, let alone 25 minutes for a meeting
So we are to believe that they have nothing better to do than sit in front of their computer on Google , typing in your exact keywords , float in to your web site , subscribe to a form , call your 1-800# — and then buy your 6 figure solutions .
Many authors , self proclaimed Sales Gurus feel that all you have to do is advertise on Google, go to trade shows, do social media marketing , send out a direct mail letter to create interest and demand for their solutions …
Let me ask you .. who doesn’t do this ?
I live in Vancouver , British Columbia and this would be the basic lift ticket to get to the top of Whistler Mountain . This is the basic business entry . Duhhhhh…..
Of course you should be doing this. But how good are you skiing steep and deep moguls the size of Volkswagen beetles ?
My point here is that … If you don’t add Premeditated, well thought out prospecting and Cold calling the new Permission Based way to your marketing Mix … you will be leaving $ Millions of dollars on the table , that your competitors will just gobble up .
The best accounts that you want to build a relationship with are NOT calling you .
The best accounts that you want to build a relationship with are NOT calling you . You must call them and leverage your success, validated business case studies and references with them . You must share with them the problems you solve with your solution to their ‘Peer Group’
All of your target ‘Dream Buyer ‘ accounts don’t know you , don’t know your reputation , your credibility , your reputation BUT when you send them something that is ‘Not requested’ , they will stop what they are doing and read your stuff
Fantasy Island stuff …
Who wouldn’t want this ?
This is ridiculous marketing advice , it’s sure not valid selling skills advice
You have to get on the phone and engage them in a tantalizing conversation, overcome their initial fears, uncertainties and doubts , show them you are a true sales professional , that you’ve got ‘Balls’ and that your not some AFC – Average Frustrated chump ( Neil Strauss , The Game)
It’s like the sales person waiting for the ‘Marketing ‘ department to generate and develop the leads for the sales people . Like baby robins waiting for mother robin to fly in and put worms in their mouths. If this was all there was to be a success in sales , then you would only need a Marketing department
Why would you need sales-people ?
The beauty of a Premeditated, well thought out, researched cold calling and permission based requested e-mail marketing solution is that you can CONTROL YOUR OWN DESTINY
You have fate at you finger-tips . You can control
everything , Such as ;
1) The type of company you want pursue . You can research them on Jigsaw.com Get the targets names go to Linkedin , do some research on their company and the individual –
People like people like them –Building rapport and common ground is everything –You can’t do that in static Email or Direct mail piece , there’s no personality to it
The magnitude of the opportunity –look at their body of work. How big are they ? What’s going on in their industry that’s really cool and exciting ?
2) The number employees and annual sales of the company – Make sure it’s not some small, marginal account which is waste of time
3) When you make the call and have a conversation and he /she is not the right target . You can get referrals and get steered into the right direction – Gathering referrals and name-drops along the way
n This alone is priceless to use with your Voice mail marketing and Email marketing to drop names within the company
The Sales Gurus marketing advice is just send out a direct mail piece or an unsolicited e-mail, go to a network function , chill out , don’t be pro-active and take another puff of ‘Hopeium’ the wonder drug of sales professionals
This is way to ‘Reactive ‘ for me.
Well I don’t know about you, but growing up in Los Angeles , specifically in Palos Verdes in the South Bay of LA , I didn’t wait for beautiful girls to come up to me and ask me out for a date . ( I’d be still waiting )
I was pro-active and would approach beautiful girls , get into a conversation with them , make them laugh and have fun teasing them , and then turned this into a gripping, tantalizing conversation and have them do all the talking and then turn that into a date and get their phone number
I’m also a short dude , I’d be lying if I said I’m 5’6 ( and Looked like Sean Penn in the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High remember that movie ) . Growing up in L.A, with all of these hot looking, buff surfer dudes was intimidating . However most of them could not get a date if their life depended on it , let alone could they be pro-active
I guess I’m old school since I’m over 45 but I believe that the Internet is at fault here . It’s made everyone lazy and they have forgotten the basics of Corporate Enterprise Sales
Ø About meeting and getting dates with girls and
Ø High Level Business-to-business Sales
You have to be Pro-Active.