The Great Guns Marketing Blog

I was interviewed last week by a journalist who was reporting on the recent CMI research which states that women executives are paid less than men and that it will take almost 100 years to close the gap. To be honest, I did a rubbish job on the interview – I hadn’t slept all night thanks to my newborn baby and the journalist was a bit of a twit, so I certainly wasn’t on form!

However, it did make me consider a few things. Most of our management team are women – not necessarily by design, in my business it just so happens that we have the talent weighted on the female side. This does mean however that from time to time we have long term absenteeism due to maternity leave and when a few people’s pregnancies overlap, it can call for some good business planning!

For women in senior positions, and I include myself in this, it has been great to have had the freedom to bring my sleeping baby into the office. I mean, let’s face it – all they do for the first few months is eat, sleep and poop! I’ve loved being able to do just a couple of hours a day and it has enabled me to continue relationships with clients and mentor my team. I’d love to be able to offer this to the rest of my team as most mums aren’t keen to put new babies into nurseries and of course, most nurseries only offer care in half day or full day increments which is often too long for new babies.

I’m not really sure what all the Health and Safety laws are around offering these exceptions and obviously it is not appropriate for all environments but certainly offering some kind of crèche that is close to the new mums and gives them the freedom to come back to work early for a few hours a day is the way forward. There will always be women who will want to take a year off and there’s nothing wrong with that, but for those of us who love our children and our jobs, being able to keep our hand in is not only great for the workplace but makes us much better mummies too!

Personally I think this could really make a difference on the pay gap.

Also, it is well proven that the most profitable companies are well represented by women both on the board and in management positions. Now, I might be stating the bleeding obvious but why would this surprise anyone based on the fact that probably a good number of any company’s clients are women, their staff will be women, shareholders will be women etc…? This means that if a company is to have empathy and understand clearly all the different areas they need to serve then surely both genders will need to be influencing and making the key decisions. Let’s face it, girls are better than boys at some things and boys are better than girls at other things! Let’s make sure that we fully take advantage of all of our talent and if we need to make exceptions then we should do, as exceptional people equals exceptional profit.

For many of our clients, identifying key decision makers and approaching them from cold is something that is a lot harder in practice than it sounds, which is why they come to us to do it for them. In this market the success of engaging with decision makers from cold relies heavily on approaching the right decision makers with strong, personalised messaging (not a script!) as you don’t get many chances to make the right impression.

One of the tools we find really useful for researching prospects and their companies is LinkedIn. Here are some tips as to how to use it

1. Look up company profiles. This will give you lots of information including numbers of employees, sectors, website details, office locations and you can even follow the company to hear about new hires so you can engage with them as soon as they start. You will be able to see employees who fall within your network and your groups so you have a name, job title and conversation point for when you want to engage. Tip – now LinkedIn has hidden some names, if you copy and paste the job title into Google it should come up with the full name on their search results.
2. Search for individual people. If you already have a name, look them up on LinkedIn. This can tell you a lot about them – their hobbies and interests, groups they are members of, other decision makers they work closely with  and discussions they are involved with. If they have a blog, follow them to learn even more about them.
3. Connect. Once you’ve met or engaged with a decision maker, connect to them. Do this immediately and they are more likely to accept your connection when you’ve just met. This allows you constantly updated information on them – if they do leave the company you are trying to build a relationship with then you’ll have a new contact in another company at least!
4. Join groups. Once you start identifying which groups your prospects are members of, join the same group and more importantly, be active. Focus on a few groups which are most relevant and join in the discussion. Do not be tempted to over sell your company, you want to be seen as a thought leader not a sales person!
5. Search for key topics relevant to you.  You can soon see who are the thought leaders contributing to the discussions and starting them. Connect with them and join in their discussions. They’ll soon start noticing your contributions and click on your website, downloading your content in return.

This can take some time so you need to focus on targeting people you really want to build a relationship with and stick with it, or alternatively contact Great Guns and we can do this for you.

I spend quite a lot of time with fellow entrepreneurs and recently had the pleasure of interviewing Nick Claxson of Comtec.  Whilst speaking to Nick, it became apparent that although he is ridiculously successful and has managed to build an organization from scratch to a £12 million turnover business, he has little regard for material things.

Nick works really hard, long hours to achieve the ongoing brilliant results, and it has certainly paid off.  Thinking about it though, for a lot of people work is something they do to allow themselves to have a lifestyle out of work.  I have heard many people say things like “I work to live, not live to work”!

But as I sit here and write this blog at 4.00am with my family sleeping and my brain going a hundred miles an hour brimming with excitement about Great Guns it strikes me that perhaps I, and others, have an addiction to business.

Nick clearly loves what he does. He has started many companies in different fields and seems to have a genuine passion to grow them.  Even though this means he has to make sacrifices like working a 6 day week most of the time.  Of course Nick is well off and drives a lovely Bentley but that doesn’t seem to be much of a reward for him.  Building the business it definitely what excites him.

I believe some business people get the same thrill out of running a business as some sports people get out of running or working out.  I hate exercise and never understand when folks talk about being addicted to it as it’s my worse nightmare but I’m beginning  to see that I get the same buzz out of business that they get in the Gym.

I don’t think anything will challenge the brain and nerve like building a business. There’s definitely nothing more competitive than pitching, and the feeling of winning a deal and collecting an order form as your trophy makes you feel like Lewis Hamilton on the finish line.

So I don’t think we should ever feel sorry for business leaders who work hard and long. It’s their drug and even when business is hard you’ll find that some of these girls and guys will be buzzing and on a ridiculous high.

So is it wrong to have this love for work and this passion for business?  If it was a charity we would all be applauding, but people like Nick employ many and create secure, successful and honest working environments which I think is an incredible contribution to society.  Why then do you see so many civil servants and charity workers in the New Years honours lists while business people hardly get mentioned?!

Also here in the United Kingdom, unlike in the United States, when business owners achieve great success in their field we often say things like “well, they were given more opportunities than others” or try to unpick their success in some way.  Look at the bad press and judgement that leaders like Phillip Green and Alan Sugar get.  Whatever your view they have created many jobs and a great deal of wealth in the UK and world economy.  In my view, if we’re now heavily reliant on private business for economic recovery, I would like to see the business people who take the risks and ride out the recession creating jobs rewarded for their contributions.

Getting my MBE was a lovely reward for me and I appreciated it but I don’t think I was any more deserving than many other business people I know. Yes, ultimately private business owners aim to profit from their efforts but they also create employment opportunities for many thus contributing massively to our society.

It’d be great to see these contributions regarded with the same esteem as other national “heroes” such as Olympic Medalists like Kelly Holmes and scientists like Sir Mansel Aylward.

If you want to watch my interview with Nick Claxson, then take a look at the video casts below:

The Great Guns training team holds regular buzz sessions with our telemarketers to refresh skills. It provides an opportunity for team members to contribute and feedback their experiences regarding current telemarketing activity that we are undertaking for clients.

One topic that regularly gets raised, especially from our newest team members, is the role of ‘gatekeepers ‘ and this quite often brings about a lengthy discussion.

Firstly – what do they mean by the term gatekeeper? Ask the team to explain and a succinct description would be: “ PA’s, secretaries, receptionists…. those answering the phone who block me from speaking to the decision maker”.

OK, so turning this around, we always encourage the team to step into the recipient’s shoes and imagine themselves in situ.  For example – PA’s and secretaries are simply doing their job, quite often managing  extensive diary commitments, undertaking a varied workload and in many cases representing the senior management team at a high level – in addition to dealing with inbound calls and enquiries that can be distracting and interrupting. Empathy goes a long way towards building a relationship with someone with such a heavy workload.

In our Drill for Skills sessions we reiterate some simple do’s and don’ts…

Do

• Be polite and courteous and respectful.
• Listen, show an interest and ask questions that will help to qualify the prospect.
• Build a rapport – PA’s for example probably take over 20 sales calls a day, why would they put you through to their busy boss over somebody else?
• Recognise that the individual who answers the phone is an integral part of the sales process and respect them.
• Remember, if you can’t get them on side then you won’t get through to the decision maker.

 Don’t

• Be too forceful, pester or become a pain.
• Ignore the influencing power of the person answering the phone – they can be responsible for deciding who gets transferred through to the decision maker.
• Use the term ‘gatekeepers’!

 In fact here at Great Guns Marketing we have banned the ‘gatekeepers’ term within the office, instead using  ‘influencers’ – its much more positive and has definitely had a great impact on the success of our clients’ telemarketing campaigns.

Why role play is essential to efficient telemarketing?

Here at Great Guns we host many role play sessions on a weekly basis. This gives our telemarketers the opportunity to practice their approaches and objection handling in a safe environment.

In this “safe” environment our team can make all their mistakes and approach things from different perspectives without risking our clients’ brand.

When we first started role play as a training model many of our team found themselves completely out of their comfort zone. I found that people fell into two camps- those that love it and those that don’t.

The way I persuaded them that role play was a worthwhile exercise was to let them watch their colleagues achieve higher results than average – especially in the early stages of projects.

Role play should be a fun experience. I find that these sessions are always much more successful when our team are relaxed so I encourage loads of banter and creativity. I think it’s really important that we try and preempt as many objections and therefore prepare as many answers to objections as we can.

I know role play is critical because even the best telemarketers – myself included- find it difficult to come out of a client brief, pick up the phone immediately and sound fluid, professional and competent. Carrying out these sessions prior to project start not only gives our team the great opportunity to build their confidence but also gives our account managers the opportunity to ensure our guys have really understood our clients features and benefits.

I personally carried out a role play session this week on a project. The exercise was 40 minutes long and the transformation that took place in our telemarketers and their ability to present the client was incredible. When the session started they were rusty and their voices sounded quite monotone. By the time the session had finished they sounded like they had worked for the client for years and their personalities really came through in their tone. This was because our team members were now comfortable with the subject and able to combine this with their natural telemarketing abilities to successfully represent the client.

At Great Guns Marketing we offer Telemarketing training. If you don’t currently use role play with your team and want help in developing techniques, call Great Guns Marketing 01256330571.

At a recent ABBA (Association of Business to Business Marketing) meeting, we had a really interesting discussion about the cost of “pitching”.  Many companies don’t measure their cost of attending meetings and their conversion rates.  Here are some key facts from an agency who did measure this:

1.  The conversion rate was 1 in 3, therefore 2 out of every 3 pitches were lost.
2. The average cost of just going in for a meeting was £2K (research, travel expenses, preparation, follow up etc).
3. The cost of responding to an RFP was £3K-£5K.
4. A second stage pitch with strategy included was £10K.
5. A third stage pitch with strategy costs £20K upwards.

25% of this company’s overheads were spent on sales pitching costs – 25%!!!.

Doesn’t it make sense then that one of the key things that can make an instant impact on the profitability of your business is to reduce the cost of going to poorly qualified sales pitches?

This is one of the reasons we stick to our beliefs of only generating the best quality meetings for you. Whilst you may have to reduce your expectations slightly with regards to the numbers of meetings you should expect to go to, you will still win the same number of clients and you can massively reduce your costs.

Here at Great Guns Marketing we are passionate about the art of conversation – and for those of you who know me, you will know how much I like to talk!

This ethos is shared by the team of Great Guns telemarketers who excel at conversing via the telephone on behalf of our clients.  As an organisation we firmly believe that talking directly to prospects (and customers too) must be at the heart of our clients growth strategies and not undertaken in isolation from broader sales activity.

Here’s our top 5 reasons why picking up the phone is an essential part of the sales mix:

1. Talking builds relationships: People buy from people and connecting directly instills confidence and trust. This should be part of your relationship nurturing process.
2. It’s two-way: Prospects want you to listen to them and they need assurance that you understand their business.
3. It’s information rich: Talking provides opportunities to gather critical data, to identify decision makers and to understand specific needs.
4. It drives efficiency: Telemarketing focuses efforts on the right contacts. Find out instantly if a lead is an opportunity, ascertain quickly if you are targeting the decision maker.
5. It increases your ROI: By openly discussing options and solutions you can overcome barriers to buy. This will increase conversion rates and the ROI of your lead generation spend.

 In my new role as VP of the Institute of Customer Service a colleague of mine commented that the term ‘customer service’ doesn’t sound inspirational, believable or exciting!  My belief is that customer service for many of us in the service sectors will become our main USP and the thing that makes the most difference; we are becoming fanatical about it here at Great Guns!  I am keen to change the term to reflect this and was thinking of calling it ‘Customer Devotion’? I would love your views on this.

Tomorrow we are taking part in the Basingstoke Race for Life in a bid to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

We will be joining the 1,000 women running the 10km route at the Down Grange Sports Centre in Basingstoke tomorrow. We are running in memory of Debbie Jenkins, a much-missed colleague, who passed away last year after suffering from cancer. Debbie has been a huge inspiration to the team and they will be honouring her memory by raising as much money as possible for the charity.

The Great Guns Marketing Race for Life team

We’re really looking forward to taking part in this year’s race and each have our individual reasons for wanting to raise money for Cancer Research. It’s also great to have the rest of Great Guns behind us every step, limp and jog of the way! It’s such a good way for everyone to get together and help raise money for such an excellent cause in Debbie’s memory.

If you would like to sponsor us then please visit http://www.justgiving.com/great-guns1

It’s that time of year again – we’re heading into the summer and in the B2B world, things start to slow down a little – particularly in August when everyone heads off to sunnier climes!

That’s not to say that at Great Guns Marketing we down tools and head for the park – quite the opposite in fact. We have been working really hard over the last few months to develop our services so our clients can use this quieter period to focus on the areas that they are usually too busy to deal with. And one of those is the perennial problem of data cleansing.

As we all know, successful sales and marketing lead generation requires an accurate and well profiled database. With B2B data decaying faster than consumer data, at 30% a year compared with 7% with B2C, if you let your database degrade then you are wasting at least a third of your annual sales and marketing budget by targeting out of date contacts. And with the economic climate bringing an increase in restructures and redundancies, your prospect database is at risk of becoming obsolete at an even faster rate.

However, not all B2B service providers realise the importance of maintaining, profiling and building their contact databases and those that do quite often don’t have the resources in place to undertake this ongoing task. But it’s critical that companies recognise the value that up-to-date data delivers to sales and marketing efforts.

A well-maintained database will ensure reduced waste by eliminating duplicates and poor-quality addresses, ensuring companies focus their efforts on ‘live’ contacts. In addition, an enhanced database will offer alternative routes to communicate – for example if you don’t hold email addresses for contacts then why not undertake some telemarketing to gather this critical data, after all, email marketing is a relatively quick and cost effective way to interact with prospects and customers.

Overall, cleansing and building your database should be something that companies get into a routine of doing regularly. To be in with any chance of generating leads, it’s essential that the people on your records are the right contacts, to save you wasting valuable time and of course, money.

Fortunately our clients are starting to recognise the benefits of data cleansing and are working closely with us to get their database up to scratch, but there are still far too many companies out there losing opportunities by the minute because of something as simple to rectify as bad data.