"Make more calls and you will uncover more leads". That is a common approach to take when tackling lead generation through cold calling. There was a time when we had our reps make "X" number of calls per day and we decided that if we increased their call number by 28% per day we would pass over more leads to our clients. It backfired. We not only saw a decline in passed leads, we also saw a negative impact on morale. After a few months we readjusted our number to approximately 15% more of the original number of calls per day and that seems to be the magic number. It pushes our reps to make a solid amount of call activities per day while still giving them enough time to do research, make changes to their messaging, talk to our clients, and get a cup of coffee.
What I noticed when we increased the call number by 28% was that there was a clear point of diminishing return. Sure, the reps were making more "dials" but by the end of the day they were burnt out and no longer putting the same amount of energy into their calls. Instead, we have our reps focus on making a solid amount of "smart" phone calls. By smart phone calls I mean researching who you are calling, determining what other prospects might be part of the decision making process, changing an email message to reflect something specific about a particular prospect, and being adept at knowing when to leave a concise message and when to "0#" and find someone else to talk to. When our reps were driven to hit a high call number they didn't put enough time into their pre-call planning and their focus moved from getting someone on the phone, who they could have a business conversation with, to leaving a voicemail and moving on.
Now there certainly is a science behind cold calling. We all know that the more people we engage with in a business conversation, the more chances we have to uncover an opportunity. These are the numbers I like to focus on - the number of conversations my reps have, since this directly correlates with how many leads they pass. By not pushing them to make 28%+ more dials a day it gives them breathing room to engage in more qualified conversations instead of rushing through their calls so they can hit their number.
Anybody can make hundreds of dials a day. Instead, I want reps to understand the art of prospecting and how to uncover qualified sales opportunities - instead of focusing on blindly dialing so they can hit a call number.
What do you think? Is cold calling an art or a science, or both?
I have been asked, several times, about the type of individuals I look for when hiring telesales reps. Many assume that, due to the nature of the job, we must have a revolving door of employees - this couldn't be further from the truth.
Our people are our product, and it is imperative that we hire individuals whose values are aligned with ours and who impact our culture in a positive way. By doing this, our turnover has been much lower then is typically seen in similar organizations.
These are the traits I look for when determining if someone is a good fit for our team:
1. Energy and Enthusiasm - Employees with a high level of energy and enthusiasm tend to do very well in an inside sales role. Since all communication is done over the phone, I need people who sound passionate about what they are selling.
Good energy is contagious and I look for reps who will boost morale if need be.
2. Inquisitiveness - People who ask a lot of questions and have a desire to learn new things tend to have a high level of success in a telesales role. When you are speaking with prospects it is essential that the right questions are asked in order to uncover pains and needs. People want to talk about themselves and employees who ask questions and show a high level of interest will get prospects to open up.
This skill is also important when an employee is going through training - you want someone who will ask clarifying questions so that they clearly understand what they are being taught. It also demonstrates their level of engagement in the training process.
3. Positivity - Let's face it; there are days when even the most enthusiastic rep does not feel like picking up the phone. The best reps are those that rise above that and push through. Every one gets into a rut now and then where it seems that leads are impossible to find. The more positive a rep stays during a dry spell the faster they will get out of it.
I also look for my team to be positive and encouraging of one another. I once had a new hire turn to me, after she finished her first week of training, and say "is everyone really THIS nice??" I laughed and told her that, yes, everyone was actually that nice and that our low turnover was a direct result of our positive and friendly culture.
4. Work Ethic - I look for people who take pride in what they do and understand that those who work hard will be rewarded. Employees that put in extra effort and time when they are behind in their goals and show initiative in taking on extra responsibility are the ones that will move ahead.
5. Acute Listening Skills - A telesales rep doesn't have the luxury of reading body language and picking up on non-verbal cues, therefore, they must be adept at listening for certain things that a prospect might say (or not say) that will help to uncover potential pain points. They must also be good active listeners and remember things that a prospect said earlier in the conversation or during a previous phone call. Strong telesales reps never cut a prospect off and instead wait for a prospect to complete their thought before asking their next question.
There are certainly other things I look for during the hiring process but these 5 traits are essential.
What else have you found to be important to look for when hiring a telesales rep?
One of the most important items that needs to be addressed when building an inside sales team, or outsourcing this function, is who your reps are going to call. We have talked before about how crucial it is to have a quality list of prospects for your telesales team to go after. There is another piece of this that is just as important - how long should your telesales team focus on a single campaign before moving on? If you have a marketing department that runs numerous campaigns throughout the year it is important to make sure these leads are getting followed-up on in a timely fashion. However, you want to make sure you have the right team structure in place to support all of these call-downs.
If your telesales team is overloaded with new lists coming in every day the following issues will arise:
1. They won't have the bandwidth to apply their call process methodology and the number of qualified opportunities getting flipped to sales will diminish.
2. Due to time constraints, they might start cherry picking prospects who they feel are the best fit and disregard others who might have actually been ready to buy.
3. If they have tons of campaigns to choose from they will resort to calling off of "warm" lists and not focus as much energy into cold-calling into their target accounts. One of my previous blogs talks about why this isn't always the best strategy.
4. You won't be able to as effectively measure the success of each marketing campaign since your telesales reps might not have the time to call into each prospect on each list.
5. They might not be able to follow-up with certain prospects as requested since they are too busy making sure they "touch" as many people on all their lists.
My recommendation is to first determine how many marketing campaigns you are going to run each quarter and estimate how many leads each will produce. I like to limit my BDRs to 1,200 new leads per quarter, per rep, as this allows them to disposition each with the same call process. It's also important to evaluate what type of calling you want done for each campaign. Maybe you only want the leads from XYZ tradeshow called into with one voicemail and one email because you know it wasn't the best audience. In this case, my suggestion would be to have one designated BDR following-up on all marketing events and another BDR focused on strategic outbound cold calling into a target account list.
You have invested time and money into your marketing campaigns - make sure you have the right team in place to follow-up on those leads and convert as many over to the sales team as possible.
What do you think?
I can't stand most telesales reps. I cringe when I pick up the phone only to hear a teleprospecting rep jump into a 5-minute spiel on the benefits of whatever product/service they are providing. I respect that they are trying to do their job, and I always give them a few seconds to catch my interest (mostly because of the industry I am in) but 9 times out of 10 I am itching to get off the phone after 10 seconds.
Here are some of the most common reasons why I end up cutting an unsolicited cold-call short (and what I train my team NOT to do)
1. The sales person doesn't know who they are calling
First off, try and at least know the name of the person you are calling. I have been called "Linda", "Wendy", and "Lisa". I have also had B2C telemarketers ask to speak to my parents even though I haven't lived with my parents in over ten years. A good telesales rep should know a bit about their prospect and why they might have a need for what they are selling. When you are doing B2B cold calling, make sure you take a look at the company's website and confirm the name of the person you are calling into.
2. A monotone and unenthusiastic telesales rep
When trying to create interest and excitement around a product or service you want that to come across on the phone. It's the worst when your day is interrupted by a cold caller who makes their product/service sound as interesting as paint drying. I want to feel that the sales person is excited to talk about what they are selling.
3. The telesales rep doesn't know what value their product/service provides
During a cold call I am not interested in knowing every last technical detail about whatever product is being pitched to me. I am interested in 3 things - What are you selling? What value would it provide to my specific business? How is it going to save me time/money? Getting into specific technical details should be saved for a follow-up conversation.
4. A telesales rep that doesn't respect my time or doesn't follow through on expectations that have been set
If I am talking to a telesales rep that has peaked my interest but I don't have the time to continue the conversation, I will ask them to follow-up at a later date. It is a turn-off when the rep continues their spiel with complete disregard to the fact that I have told them it wasn't a good time. Or, when they tell me they will follow-up with information and a call at an alternate time and they never send me anything and call me at a completely different time then what was decided.
5. A telesales rep that leaves an irrelevant voicemail
I actually prefer a telesales rep to leave a voicemail as opposed to numerous "no contacts" where I can see that I have missed calls from the same number but have never been left a message. In my opinion, a voicemail should clearly state the purpose of the rep's call, the specific value that their product/service would have on my unique business (a simple glance at a company's website can give you enough information for this) and a strong enough reason why I should call this person back (ex: "we have saved our customers in your industry an average of 25% on their printing costs"). It also should include the rep's contact information and what their next step is going to be ("I will follow-up with a brief email" or "I will try you again on Thursday"). For some great information on effective voicemails, check out expert sales trainer Jill Konrath's most recent entry on inbound marketing guru HubSpot's blog.
What other mistakes do you feel telesales reps make on the phone that decreases the chance that you will return a call?
Nobody likes to be stood up. You make plans and carve out time in your busy schedule only to have the person you are meeting either cancel or not show up all together. It's a real let down. The same is true for prospects that don't show up for the meeting or conference call that your teleprospecting team has set up for your sales reps.
One of the biggest frustrations that my BDR team faces is getting feedback from one of our clients saying that a prospect that we have fully qualified, and set up for a conference call, blew them off. The BDR is frustrated because they felt the opportunity was a strong one, and the sales rep is frustrated because they set aside time to speak to a prospect that ended up being a "no-show". While there are certainly times when unforeseen events pull a prospect away from being able to take a call, there are some strategies you can implement to cut down on your prospect "no-show" percentage.
First off, I always encourage my BDRs to try and schedule follow-up appointments within one week of their initial conversation with a prospect. The further out an appointment is scheduled, the more likely the prospect will not show up. You want the prospect to recall exactly what your company does and what prompted them to agree to a call in the first place. If an appointment has to be scheduled further out then a week due to travel plans, meetings, etc., my suggestion is to call and email the prospect two days before the set call to confirm the appointment. Another thing that helps to cut down on the percentage of no-shows is to send out a calendar invite immediately after getting off the phone with a prospect. This gets it on their calendar and you can track when and if they accept the invite. I have my BDRs monitor and track when a prospect (and the sales rep that will be fielding the call) accepts the invitation for the meeting. Once it gets accepted they track that in our CRM system. If it does not get accepted they will reach out to the prospect a couple of days later confirming the call and making sure that the time and date still work. Getting other individuals that will be part of the decision making process involved in the initial call is also a way to ensure that the meeting takes place.
If the unfortunate does happen and a prospect doesn't show up for the call, I make sure that my BDRs begin calling back in immediately to get it rescheduled. As I mentioned earlier, there will always be a prospect here and there that misses a call - the key is to make sure that your "no-show" percentage stays within 10%. If you are noticing a higher "no-show" percentage, I would look at how truly qualified the prospect was to begin with (were they just saying yes to a call to get you off the phone?) and whether the appointments are being scheduled as soon after the initial conversation as possible.
What other strategies have you found to be helpful in cutting down on the percentage of time prospects miss scheduled calls?
When ramping up a teleprospecting campaign for a new client one of the questions I'm often asked is, "what can potentially hinder the success of this project?" While there are certainly several things that can get in the way of a successful lead generation campaign, the one that I feel is most important to talk about is data management - more specifically - the quality of the lists that a BDR is going to be calling on, how these lists are scrubbed, and how the information that is gathered during our calling is tracked and reported on.
The first step is to evaluate the quality of the list that your BDR is going to be calling on. Where did this list come from? How old is the data? Does the list have complete contact information that has been validated? Often times I will have a client who has thousands of records sitting in their CRM system that they want to export and give to us for calling. My rule of thumb is if the data is more then a year old then we won't get optimal results. It is important to also evaluate whether these raw leads have been contacted in the past and how often they have been sent marketing collateral. My suggestion to a new client is to pare down their list to about 300 target accounts that fit their ideal customer profile and then use a list generation tool or vendor to find accurate contact information. This has been proven more effective in generating qualified sales leads versus calling through a list of 1,000 contacts that have been sitting in your CRM for 4 years. Craig talked about his five "musts" for cold calling lists, and you should read more about those here.
This brings me to another point - the importance of having a well maintained CRM system. Internally, we use SalesForce.com, which I find to be a fantastic tool. Many of our clients will have us work out of our own instance of sf.com but we are also happy to work out of theirs. When the latter is the case I always stress the importance of allowing us to create custom reports and dashboards so that the client is receiving the most up to date metrics. The benefit of working out of our client's instance of sf.com is that the BDR can see any activity that has been made into an account, or if an opportunity has been created. Yet this is only effective if our client's sales reps are updating sf.com. There have been many cases where a BDR begins calling into an account only to find that one of our client's sales reps is already working with them and the sales process is well underway - yet there were no notes put into sf.com that would alert the BDR to this. If we are working out of our own instance of sf.com I will ask for a "Do Not Call" list to ensure we don't call any current clients or prospects that are currently in the sales process. Making sure the sales reps are updating sf.com is also important when we want to track how many of our qualified sales leads are on forecast and how much business has closed. This is important information to have when proving ROI from your teleprospecting campaign.
Having a scrubbed target list and a well-maintained CRM system will help to ensure the success of your teleprospecting and lead generation campaigns.
What else have you seen that can get in the way of an effective teleprospecting initiative?
In my recent webcast, Perspectives in Teleprospecting - A Closed Loop Strategy, I talked about the importance of having a closed loop feedback process in place to track all of the qualified leads that your telesales team is uncovering. When you are investing time and money in a lead generation program you want to be able to prove the effectiveness of your campaign and make sure that all of the qualified opportunities that your team is passing over to sales are being nurtured appropriately.
When we instituted a closed loop process a few years ago we noticed a higher level of accountability from the sales reps that we were passing leads to and our client’s project engagements became longer.
We implemented a process where we would send a very brief email survey out to the sales rep that received our lead after they had the introductory call with the prospect. This gave the sales rep an opportunity to let us know if they were able to connect with the prospect and if the information we gathered during our qualification call was validated. It also gave them the ability to give feedback on any other questions we could have asked to make the lead more qualified. This process held the sales rep accountable for following up on the opportunity that we generated and also gave them piece of mind that, if it was off target, we would refine our messaging/qualification questions to reflect the feedback that they gave us. All of the feedback that we received was tracked and reported on at the end of each month so that our client could see what percentage of feedback was positive, how many of our leads were moving forward in the sales process, and which reps were best at giving us feedback. One of my clients, at the end of a quarter, noticed that one of their sales reps had only given us feedback on 45% of the opportunities we passed over, whereas another rep had given us feedback on 90% of all the leads we uncovered (industry averages suggest that you should be receiving a minimum of 75-80% of feedback on all of your passed leads). My client decided that they wanted us to scale back our prospecting in the one sales rep’s territory and focus more attention on the other sales rep who was more engaged in the process. This was a strategic decision that they were able to make based on data that we didn’t have before implementing a closed loop strategy.
I have also seen an increase in the length of time our clients engage in a teleprospecting campaign with us since implementing a closed loop process. Before we started following-up and tracking all of the feedback on our leads, our clients sometimes had a hard time justifying their budget if their sales team hadn’t closed any business during our pilot program. Now we were able to accurately report on the percentage of positive feedback that we were getting from the sales team and exactly how many of our opportunities were moving forward in the sales process (how much on pipeline/forecast). This provided our client with some compelling ROI numbers that helped justify additional budget to continue the campaign. Often times this was data that hadn’t even been entered into our client’s CRM system.
If you have an inside sales team in place, or outsource this function, it is important to track what is happening to all of the opportunities that are being passed to sales so that you have an accurate picture of the effectiveness of your lead generation campaigns.
What do you do to measure the quality of the leads you receive or send over?
Buying a new home is one of the most exciting and nerve wracking experiences. There are so many things to consider and you want to make sure you make the right decision. One of the first steps is hiring a realtor to help you with your search. This person's job is to clearly understand what exactly you are looking for and how much you are looking to spend. It is also your realtor's responsibility to make sure your expectations are realistic. For example, if you are looking to find a home for $200,000 with 6 bedrooms, 5 baths, a two car garage, a brand new kitchen and hard wood floors your realtor will most likely have to re-adjust your expectations, otherwise, you are setting yourself up for inevitable disappointment.
Setting realistic expectations is also important when hiring an outsourced teleprospecting firm (or building one in-house). These expectations need to be set at the very beginning of a lead generation campaign so that all parties involved know how success will be measured.
I once had a client who, at the beginning of our engagement, told me that they had used a few outsourced teleprospecting vendors in the past as well as trying to build a lead generation function in house. When I asked what the results were I was told that they never were able to see the amount of leads that they had wanted. This client's software solution had an average ticket size of $750,000+ and a 12-18 month sales cycle. They sold into a fairly niche market and there were only a few hundred companies that would even be a fit for their software. During our implementation kick-off call I asked what their expectations were for their project with AG Salesworks. They told me that they wanted us to find 12+ qualified opportunities per month with decision makers who had an active initiative in place. They also said they needed to see half of those opportunities go to forecast and ideally have had closed a deal by the time our four month pilot came to an end. I asked them if they felt like these goals were realistic and they agreed that nobody had come close to achieving them in the past but it was what they wanted. I explained to this client that they might be setting themselves up for disappointment. Despite having a great BDR on the project and an effective call process in place, we are not miracle workers and would only be able to find as many qualified opportunities as their marketplace would bear. Once we re-adjusted their expectations and aligned our goals we had a much more successful project then we would have had we gone along and told them we could hit their original numbers.
What are your goals for an outsourced teleprospecting firm or your own inside team? Are these goals realistic and attainable?
Every year, around this time, fitness centers begin advertising their special rates for the upcoming New Year. At the start of January gyms are full of well-intentioned folks making good on their resolutions. After about a month the excitement wears off and many people fall back into their old routines and the gym slips down several notches on the priority list. It might be that the expected results didn't materialize and many give up to a degree. There are some that end up hiring a personal trainer for a one month trial period and hope that will get them into shape. Yet once a week sessions for a month is not enough to make much of an impact. Hiring a professional is a great idea, but giving the commitment enough time to succeed is the key to realizing your goals.
I have seen many organizations, especially in this economy, that recognize the value of hiring an outsourced teleprospecting firm but are weary of trying one out for more then a month. Unfortunately, these organizations are going to run into the same problem that the individual who expects to see results after a month of once a week sessions with a trainer faces. You want to give your outsourced teleprospecting firm enough time to get ramped up, build pipeline, and gain momentum. I have found that shutting down a campaign after only 30 days does not give my clients enough of a sample size to gauge results accurately.
A former client of mine was hesitant in signing more then a one month contract with us. They felt that a month would be enough time to judge how successful we were at finding qualified sales leads. This client wanted us to find opportunities with C-level executives at Fortune 500 companies. I set the expectation that it typically takes us at least a month to get fully ramped up, especially within the target that that they wanted us to go after, but they wanted to stick with the one month program. I got my team trained and on the phones as quickly as possible and at the end of the month we had passed over 4 qualified sales leads. My client was happy with the leads and felt that they were right in line with what they were looking for, but they had been hoping for more. They also mentioned that had one of our leads closed then they might have been able to extend the contract (even though they had a 12-18 month sales cycle). I assured them that if they were to extend the program they could expect to see the amount of leads increase in the following months and that 30-40% of these leads would start moving to forecast. Yet due to a tight budget they decided to stop after the month.
I received a call from this client a couple of months after their contract ended. They told me that two of the leads that we had passed were moving forward in their sales process and had a good chance of becoming closed business. They agreed that they should have invested more time into the program.
If you are looking for a teleprospecting firm to deliver fully qualified sales leads and truly become an extension of your sales and marketing team, a long term commitment yields the most dramatic and measurable results.
They say that doing something the same way over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. My job as a Director of Client Operations at AG Salesworks is to recognize when a process or message that we are using is not generating the expected results and to be able to offer my clients an alternative strategy.
When managing a teleprospecting team, it is important to recognize when your process and methodology isn't yielding the desired results. One of my BDRs was working on a project recently where the results were not in line with what we anticipated. I had spent time listening in on his calls and he was following the right call process, yet the leads were not coming. I sat down with my client and outlined a few different strategies that I felt might increase our lead rate. We implemented these strategies and saw our connect rate increase 40% and our lead rate increase 2%. In this case it just ended up that by changing some verbiage in our emails and targeting a different audience was all that it took to see an increase in qualified sales leads.
If you are using an outsourced teleprospecting team, do you consider them experts in the field? Do you trust that they will present new ideas and adapt or change their process if you are seeing below average results?