Outreach Business Development Prospecting
This tested approach may seem old-school
But it works!
Me doing Marketing Direct new client outreach. My outreach business development prospecting is not the usual telemarketing strategy used by call centers.
I build a rapport to establish a credible business relationship over time and not with a single phone call.
Seamless integration with your sales process.
Intelligent dialog.
Comprehensive pre-sales call campaigning
With follow-up calls for enhanced lead nurturing and lead tracking so you know what's going on with each prospect and each customer.
Immediate feedback on what your customers want
And how you can satisfy that need for higher customer retention.
Developed specifically for this "hands-on", one-to-one customer experience engagement my services are well suited for engaging high-level executives
Including CEOs..CFOs...CIOs...business owners and high net worth individuals.
Call centers you can try.
But helping you build strong relationships with your customers and your prospects so they become more loyal to you and keep buying from you is how I'd like to work with you.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
How QUALITY Appointments Develop
It is by working your prospect list with emails and real-time follow-up calls that your appointments will develop.
Today's business marketing by phone is about building trust...strengthening relationships...and educating your prospects on how you can help them.
Sure, it's a process.
But it pays you back with higher close rates and more repeat customers than one call telemarketing ever did.
You may have overlooked this appointment setting strategy completely.
Or have been hooked into trying it by call centers that are not suited for your particular industry niche.
But sales prospecting with the right personal touch is a practical way to get new customers and keep your existing customers from drifting away.
Q: What goals are realistic for prospecting to get appointments?
A: Forget phone prospecting for appointments.
Effective lead generation and list building are about qualifying prospects for future contacts.
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
My goodness --- now you have three goals!
Also, view each call as a means for fine tuning your prospect database.
It's a work in progress that never ends!
Small Controlled Test
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