So Many Sales Prospects to Contact and So Little Time...
Last week a client asked my boss and I a common question that we hear often, “How many accounts can one business development representative prospect in one month?” The answer to this question really varies depending on so many factors. For example, if your inside sales organization follows a strict call plan methodology like ours does, the number of accounts should hover around 500 per month in order to result in a healthy amount of qualified opportunities. My blog today isn’t about the magic number of accounts one BDR should call in one month, though. My blog is about what to do when you are presented with the challenge of calling through 1000s of names in one month as opposed to what you might be typically used to, like 500.
A couple of clients recently came to us with lists of 5,000+ names each to cycle through quickly. Like me, I am sure you have been faced with similar requests from your marketing and/or sales teams. While it can be overwhelming at first, it’s important to step back and think about how to approach the lists you have been provided with instead of simply sending them over to your rep(s) to dive into without providing any structure. With the help of our clients and based on our past experience, we’ve been able to come up with a plan that will allow us to prospect into all of these accounts in a short timeframe. With that said, I am writing this blog selfishly in hopes that others will share what their secret is to get through large lists quickly while delivering the best results. Here a couple of tips that I have found to be useful for my team:
- Prioritize large lists based on the leads that have been most recently created. One of my clients has a series of online marketing events that we are following up on. Some of the leads were created almost a year ago, while others were created in the last month or so. When I import these lists into our CRM system, I make sure to create different list views for the team depending on the campaign so they can target their efforts on leads most recently created. It’s a proven fact that the fresher the lead, the more likely it will turn into a qualified opportunity, so make sure to focus on these first. If you continue to receive lists from the same campaign over a series of months on a weekly basis, make sure to create list views that display only leads from this campaign, but make sure the “lead created date” is visible to your reps so they can sort the leads by this field and call the newest leads first.
- Utilize your internal List Development team to help clean up the data. When your inside sales team is given a large list to call, you want to make the best use of their calling efforts by providing them with the cleanest list possible. If you have a list development team or a team of interns available, they can be a very integral part in making the project successful. For instance, we all know that competitors and/or current customers find their way into large lists developed from marketing events. Your list development team and/or interns can help by deleting these leads from your inside sales team’s queues in your CRM system so that your reps can focus their efforts on cold calling instead of sifting through data. Personal email addresses are also a big challenge when it comes to following up on marketing campaigns, as prospects don’t want to be followed up with at work, so they don’t give out their business email address when downloading or attending events. List development can help by identifying leads that have personal email addresses associated with them and then update the lead record with a business email instead.
- Employ your organization’s email marketing tools. Prior to importing large lists into your CRM system, I would mass email the list to not only identify the low hanging fruit that exists within the list, but also to cleanse the data. My suggestion is to use a short email that explains why you are reaching out and that also helps to determine if the lead is the right person your team should be reaching out to regarding your product or solution. You’ll be surprised by the amount of responses you receive, and by the positive effect it will have on your team in jump starting the project.
I feel that by prioritizing lists, cleaning up lists with the help of your list development teams, and by employing email marketing tools you are on the right path to run a successful project when given a large list to work with. I am curious, what are the strategies you use to get through large lists quickly and effectively?