A recent eBook by Nigel Edelshein called “Don’t Cold Call. Social Call” covers the thorny subject of using social networking to prospect for leads.
Despite the title of the eBook, the central argument is that telemarketers need to do their homework before they begin ringing their contacts – as we learned at the S&M Forum earlier this week, senior IT buyers still find telemarketing to be an effective method, but unprepared cold calling is an ineffective use of telemarketers’ talents.
Edelshein outlines six factors that he believes determine what gets salespeople through the door:
1. Product – you need a good product that offers value to your target market; if you can’t offer value, your buyers will not be interested in meeting with you.
One thing that might work best to underscore the value of your product in these economic times is provocation marketing. As I discussed in “Lead gen in a downturn: is provocation the answer?”, provocation is most effective when it anticipates a problem that the customer is experiencing but has not yet put a name to – the aim is to identify a high-impact issue, develop an original point of view, lodge your provocation and prove your point.
2. Message- Edelshein believes salespeople have no more than 15 seconds to effectively communicate an introduction. The elevator pitch needs to be concise and “all about the prospect” – not about you or your company, just about the value that your product can deliver for your prospect right now.
Chris Cottam of HP advocated this when I spoke to him recently (see “How do you get onto a senior buyer’s consideration list?”). He told me, “If you stop many sales people and ask them about an elevator pitch they understand the principal, but can they actually deliver it?. No… It’s crucial that you know exactly what you’re going to say to them in that 30 seconds or one minute.”
3. Repetition of message- the message has to be repeated across different mediums; as Edelshein puts it, “different people react differently to different media… we need to try reaching people in a variety of ways – not just keep pounding away on one ‘frequency’.”
Edelshein points to research that says that we may need to see a message as many as seven times before we remember seeing it – as I pointed out in my post “The case for multi-touch campaign marketing”, prospects often need to receive multiple “touches” before they are ready for a sales meeting.
4. Talking to the right people – don’t just sell to the CEO/CXO; the aim is to get through to anyone in your target company that is involved in buying your product. MarketingSherpahas recently reported that for a product that costs more than $25,000 being sold to a company with 1,000+, there are 21 people involved in the buying process. Edelshein recommends being in contact with all of them.
Claire Myerson, speaking at the S&M Forum earlier this wee, relayed an anecdote about telemarketing – she took a phone call from a salesperson who explained that he had been researching her company and didn’t want to waste her time, and would like to know what he could do to get a meeting with her – his approach was honest and humble, and Claire agreed to find time to meet him.
5. Using changes in the buyer’s environment- buyers who are comfortably in their status quo don’t buy because there is no pain causing a need for your product. Make the most of trigger events such as new executives, mergers and acquisitions, new products (theirs or their competitors’) or external factors such as the economy. Edelshein recommends keeping tabs on your prospects by reading their press releases – “you can set up Google Alerts to monitor press releases that contain the name of your target companies… and have news items emailed to you.”
Google News can be a great starting place for information, as can analyst blogs such as TechMarketView. Knowing the forces that are affecting your target companies is a great way to begin to engage with your prospects, but press releases need to be balanced by independent news reports. I’d also recommend trying to find any blogs written by employees that could give you an ‘inside scoop’ on what’s going on that isn’t being reported on.
6. Use your relationships – if you don’t have a relationship with a senior buyer in your target company, you can begin establishing a relationship by using social networks to connect to them. However, it’s important to remember that relationships established online need to be “realised” by contacting or meeting the person offline.
One method to try is getting introduced to and connecting with prospects on LinkedIn and seeing what events they’re listed as going to. Once you’ve put a “face to the name”, getting in contact with your prospect becomes much easier and the conversations you have more likely to deliver value to you (by allowing you to be more successful in your sale) and your prospect (by allowing you to more effectively solve their problems).
