Effective outreach prospecting is a methodical process.

It's about list building and then prospecting your lists to find the leads you can work into appointments.

This is not mass volume telemarketing.

The outeach prospecting I'm recommending involves routine follow-up calls.

These calls create trust, build your credibility and forward the sales process.

Outreach Prospecting In The Age Of The Customer 

This article in FORBES supports the sales lead prospecting I recommend you try.

Do yourself a favor. Read the article now.

Called 7 NEW RULES FOR PROSPECTING IN THE AGE OF THE CUSTOMER it tells of the shift in the marketplace of business to business sales.

• This upheaval is between buyer and seller.

• Buyers no longer need you the seller in front of them to make intelligent buying decisions.

• Your importance  to a buyer is vastly diminished if you follow old way selling habits.

Forget outreach prospecting for appointments.

Sure, face-to-face appointments matter...but their significance in the sales cycle has faded.

The importance of this dynamic for anyone in B2B sales and marketing cannot be understated.

Bottom Line: If you are prospecting for appointments you are playing a loser's game.

Get over it. Or get yourself another job --- but not in sales.

What about getting appointments out of this process?

Quality appointments do not happen overnight.

Routine follow-up calls plus e-mail follow-ups work wonders to get you in the door for a face-to-face meeting.

So EFFECTIVE  outreach prospecting is a process?

Absolutely!

Business outreach prospecting  is a form of direct marketing.

And building a highly targeted database is the key to any successful direct marketing campaign.

Therefore, I view each call as a means for fine tuning your database.

It's a work in progress that never ends!

How do you prospect qualify?

Good prospects...weak prospects? I find out who's who by asking specific questions.

For example, "Does this interest you?" Or "When would you like me to recontact you"?

Each follow-up call fine tunes a prospect's interest level.

That's why I make prospect qualify questions part of every b2b sales lead prospecting script!

What happens after you qualify a prospect?

Once I qualify a prospect as genuinely interested in your business, the next step is your email follow-up.

After that, I recontact your prospect by phone. Starting to see how this b2b sales prospecting process works?

When do you  make those follow-up calls?

My call backs are scheduled according to your prospect's request.

The time between the introductory cold call and the follow-up call varies from prospect to prospect.

Why not let my sales people do those follow-up calls?

Salespeople are notorious for leaving those all important follow-up calls for last on their list.

And if they do make those calls they settle for voice-mail follow-up.

They do old-way sales follow-up. And today, that's a loser's game.

How do you keep track of who to call and when?

I use a sales management program that organizes contacts, phone numbers, call back information and call histories into a single database package.

How do I know the prospects you qualify are worth MY time?

With introductory cold calls I learn who's a good prospect and who's a dud.

From there I make routine follow-up calls to further qualify and develop the best prospects.

Have you worked your Business To Business Sales Lead Prospecting in my specific industry?

A good over the phone sales person can work any industry.

Same goes for face to face sales. The top producers are at home regardless of product or service they sell.

What about voicemail? Do you leave messages?

Leaving voice mail for customers or prospects who you know well  is one thing.

But for new prospects it's usually a waste of time --- theirs AND yours!

When business to business sales lead prospecting or making follow-up calls, what do you say?

I never "wing it".

I use a script.

This keeps repetitions, omissions and improper sequencing out of my pitch.

They spell trouble when it comes to business sales lead generation phone prospecting.

What size call list do you need to get started?

Keep it simple. 100 or so prospects is plenty. Quantity is good. But quality is better!

Creating trust with each prospect is my primary goal --- NOT making a sale. Your calls are important…and making sure they’re done this way is why I don’t outsource to third party call centers.

Improve Your Business To Business Sales Lead Prospecting

Get updates on ways Business To Business Sales Prospecting can help your business grow ---especially in this economy.

Plus this Advertising Age update on B2B phone marketing.

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