Other than your overall general impression with how your call is going there is something I have found effective for prospect qualifying.
Ask a question.
How your prospect answers will indicate if they are a qualified prospect...or a prospect you want to drop.
I find the good prospects not only answer the quesiton but keep on talking and tell me something about what they do and what they need.
Used as part of your introduction this simple question helps you spot good prospects from the not so good prospects.
-
Building Good Prospect Lists
So much of what you buy has contact data you need to clean up and update with accurate info.
What to do?
-
Talk to people on the other end of the line!
Find out who's reachable and verify their contact information as well as how they prefer to be contacted.
You'll find prospects will appreciate this common courtesy, and they’ll generally end up sharing even more information that can eventually lead to maybe making a sale or two.
Building good prospecting lists with fresh data will change your life and keep your customers smiling.
Building quality prospecting lists includes data entry about each prospect you contact and what your conversation covers during your call.
For me, real-time data-entry is key to building quality prospecting lists.
Key data points to capture include:
Your prospect's interest level in your goods or services.
Identify their needs…learn about existing suppliers… and how YOU can pre-empt the competition.
Ask the qualifying questions to make certain your offer matches their needs.
Learn their “hot buttons” --- what is it you can do for them that matters most.
Use real time follow-up by phone for interacting with your prospect base and developing their interest in what you can do for them.
REAL time follow-up calls mean you engage your prospects with some inter-active, one to one Q&A.
These calls establish good rapport...forward the sales process..and keep your prospects and your customers from drifting away.
Call centers for phone lead generation services are all over the web.
If mass volume calling is what you need you might find a call center that's right for you.
But at the end of the day call centers and small business people usually are not a good fit.
My outreach services may be what you need.
First off, important you know that I do not farm out your work to a call center.
I'm the one making the calls.
I qualify prospects with introductory discovery calls.
Old school outreach with hardly any selling.
Just finding out if there's an interest which in most cases there is none.
That's the grind of real-world prospect qualifying!
Weeding out the good ones from the mostly bad ones.
If you want to test my services here's how we get started.
Select the prospects you want contacted.
- New prospects from an outside list.
- Old customers who have drifted away
- Folks from your house list of existing prospects (BEST CHOICE!). Working your house list is a sales strategy winner . Select 25 names from your list. Yes, 25 names is plenty.
Call me to discuss what you want and need.
If I can help you I will.
If I can't, I'll tell you right away.
858-756-2085
You are calling to get information -- NOT to book an appointment!
That means finding out if your prospect qualifies being added to the front end of your sales funnel.Picture a crowded room.
Your goal: find the folks interested --- more or less --- in what you offer. How to do it? Ask for a show of hands. There, that's the goal of your cold call ---- finding the right prospects
- separating them from the crowd
- qualifying their interest level
Question: Does effective business outreach cold calling require a background in the industry or markets you are calling?
Answer: Surprisingly, industry specific knowledge about the business segments you are calling is NOT essential.
Your ability to bond with someone --- usually a complete stranger if you're cold calling --- will have more to do with your tone of voice than anything else.
See my post: How To Make A Successful Phone Introduction
But too many sales managers insist only salespeople with deep understanding of the markets they are selling can do business development cold calling.
It's myth based on lack of real-world testing and experience rather than tested cold call business experience.
-
Tips
Technical data and industry buzz words are helpful.
But over-the-phone skills --- genuine friendliness...business savy...good etiquette --- are even more important.
Never "Wing It". Use a script.
It keeps repetitions, omissions and improper sequencing out of your pitch.
Test, Test, Test ----but control your variables carefully.
Be especially careful with key words or phrases.
You might think they don't matter, but they do!
So once you find a winning script, stick with every word of it!
-
old-style outreach
Forget selling and gently introduce yourself and why you are calling in casual sort of informal way.
Bottom Line: Only a small percentage of leads offer you REAL sales opportunities.
So forget making the sale and focus on simply qualifying your prospect.
-
Me doing Marketing Direct new client outreach. You're probably wondering how someone like me can help you find and develop new clients interested in what you do and wanting to hear more from you.
That's what your sales reps are supposed to be doing for you.
But what if how I sound on the phone is more important than what I know about your customers and all the technical stuff involved in selling to them?
-
You Pick Markets and List
200 Prospects Per Test
You Monitor Account Activity
Test Month-To-Month
Cancel Any Time
Recommended reading:
100 Best Business Development Books of All Time
Seven Must read classic business books
Forbes: New Rules for Prospecting In The Age of The Customer
Also: Harvard Business Review reports on benefits of cold call lead development.
From Harvard Business School On-line: This On-line learning course sounds interesting