Teleprospecting Tips in a Down Economy
Obviously the last year has been a struggle for all of us. Being in the marketing services and teleprospecting industry, AG has been forced to take a hard look at how we choose to engage a prospect. More of a focus on building value, customization of your message and the simplicity of its delivery seem to be where we are headed now that the dust has begun to settle. What we are left with is a message we feel seems to resonate and can be applied regardless of economic conditions.
Keeping in mind that our prospects are wearing multiple hats and working with diminished budgets, here are some tactics we've been using to get on their radar:
Simplify Your Email
An email that simply asks- "Could you point me in the right direction? I wanted to speak to someone responsible for your lead generation efforts..."- has given us a much better response rate than a traditional email intro. Get to the point. Don't bother providing any substantive content unless you've identified a prospect as a decision maker or evaluator.
Customize Your Message
Whether it is an email, voicemail or live conversation, your content has to appear in some way that it is addressing your prospect specifically. As you sort through your lists, try to segment it as much as you can by industry, title, geography etc. Put together a few scripts based on these criteria. For example, take 15 minutes to sort your list and draw up a script and email specific to Director level contacts in the manufacturing industry based in the Midwest. Outside of your every day follow ups, task yourself with doing something like this a couple times a week. Your content will stay fresh and it allows for continual evaluation of what is and isn't working.
Be Prepared to Name Drop Based on Geography
A common trend we're seeing in the down economy is a bigger push into calling on the Education and Healthcare verticals since they are perceived as being more "resistant" to budget cuts. One thing I've found with both schools and hospitals is that they love to know what their neighbor is up to. If you can name drop a school/hospital locally that has seen a dramatic impact from the use of your service, that should certainly help to get the conversation off the ground.
30 Minute Webinars
We all know webinars can be an inexpensive way of getting your message out there, but like a cold-call, it makes sense to keep it brief. 30 minutes should allow for a quick demo, core differentiators discussion and Q&A. Our clients have seen a much higher registration rate by keeping it brief. Not only that your registrant will stay for the entire session rather than dropping off with 15 minutes left because they need to head to a meeting. Leave the hour-plus presentation up to your sales rep tasked with tailoring the message to their needs.
Follow Your Call Plan
Consistency is the name of the game. If you have no defined process in place for follow-up, then you are not making the most out of your dials. I'm not saying one way is necessarily the best, but come up with a plan and stick to it. This also helps with the customization of your message. Let's assume you've left your 3rd voicemail for a prospect. You should have an email queued up referencing the difficulty you have had reaching them and you've attached a case study they may be interested in. One thing I would highly recommend is to send an email immediately after you leave a message. While it's true that they will normally respond to the email and not the voicemail, I can't tell you how many times they reference getting my voicemail in their email reply. Their effectiveness is enhanced when you weave both together in your prospecting effort.
Price Comparison Info/ROI Tools
Nowadays it seems we need to share pricing sooner than you may prefer. We have found that our conversations aren't going anywhere if we can't give the prospect some sense of cost up front. With that being said, if you are coming in at a lower price-point than your competition you shouldn't hesitate to come up with collateral outlining a side-by-side pricing comparison. What if you can prove that your solution could pay for itself within 6 months? Come up with a basic ROI calculator proving how that's possible.
These are just some of the tactics my team and I have found to be beneficial over this past year. How about you? What do you do to get on a prospect's radar when your budget's been slashed?