An Effective Way You Can Build Custom Lead Lists
George ClayIf you want to build custom lead lists of prospects with a proven interest in what you offer try old school phone prospecting —-developing a base of well-qualified prospects interested in meeting you and learning what you can do for them.
Yes, it’s a process!
But you’ll discover it get’s you in-the-door to make your sales and get more customers with far greater success than one-call telemarketing ever did.
To build these custom lead lists here’s the process I use and recommend.
Phase One: Introductory warm-cold calls to find prospects worth pursuing.
Phase Two: Best prospects are nurtured by routine call backs from me and follow-up emails from you (see my post Appointment Setting Mistake).
Real-Time Follow-Up Calls are essential (see memo at right) for gaining trust, learning what your prospects really need and showing how your team outshines the competition.
NOTE: Voice-mail, e-mail and social media are all effective CRM…but over-used to where their messages too often are ignored (see my post “Lazy Follow-up“).
WHAT YOU LEARN: With real-time CRM calls you learn active selling opportunities you NEVER hear about unless your ear is on the ground!
EXAMPLE: Vendor drops ball…you jump in to prove what YOU can do.
Appointment Setting
Routine follow-up calls plus e-mail follow-ups & direct mail follow-up letters work wonders to get you in the door for a face-to-face meeting.
The secret is a personal touch that engages your prospects so they trust doing business with you.
Also, your business prospecting cold call is a form of direct marketing.
And building a highly targeted database is the key to any successful direct marketing campaign.
Therefore, view each call as a means for fine tuning your sales lead generation database. It’s a work in progress that never ends!
Improve Your Business Cold Call Prospecting Success
Get updates on ways business development phone prospecting can help grow your business —especially in this economy.
Also, this Advertising Age update on B2B phone marketing.
Also, for further study:
- Harvard Business Review On Cold Call Sales Prospecting
- 7 New Rules for Prospecting In The Age of The Customer
- Survey of best media for highest QUALITY sales lead generation.
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