The Great Guns Marketing Blog

Many companies ask us about minimum trial periods for telemarketing activity, or at what point they should start to assess whether their internal telemarketers are working out for them. This really depends on how quick your sales cycle is and you need to apply a bit of common sense to it.

Sales in the B2B world is still about building relationships and this can take a bit of time. We’re just about to finish a 3 month initial contract to deliver telemarketing services for an employee benefits company. Their objective was for us to generate 40 sales appointments a month to hit their growth targets. With employee benefits, it is difficult to create a message that is truly unique, as every provider will claim they offer the best solution – our job is to persuade decision makers to consider our client as a supplier over every other employee benefits specialist.

We agreed a 3 month telemarketing campaign with the objective to prove that 1 appointment a day would be an achievable task. In month 1 we delivered 15 days of telemarketing, generated 1 appointment every 5 days and converted 5% of decision maker calls to appointment. In month 2 we delivered 35 days of telemarketing, generated 1 appointment every 4 days and converted 10% of decision maker conversations to appointment. In month 3 we delivered 40 days of telemarketing, generated 1 appointment a day and converted 14% of decision maker contacts to appointment.

This shows that telemarketing in a competitive B2B arena needs to be sustained. Testing it over the course of a few weeks won’t give you an accurate reflection of what results you can achieve in the longer term through telemarketing. Ideally you need to give telemarketing between 3 and 6 months to really test its effectiveness. If our client had have stopped at the end of the second month they would have had the conclusion that telemarketing can’t yield the results they need to make it cost-effective. By continuing they have a solution which is working really well and helping them to meet their business objectives.

The recession has been a very trying time for a lot of businesses.  Managing finances, workflow, headcount and pressure from clients to provide more than ever before is challenging to say the least and can push leaders to the edge of their abilities.

It’s always in the tough times when our strength is tested. We’re a bit like tea bags, we don’t find how strong we are until we’re in hot water! I personally don’t think being a business leader is that difficult if you’ve got plenty of time and money; but when these 2 things are heavily restricted and you have to make hard decisions about the people you spend most of your life with; it can be both physically and mentally exhausting.

That’s why when I recently read Terry Waite’s book, ‘Taken on Trust’, it hugely inspired me and I was keen to share with you the wisdom I’ve drawn from it.  I belong to the RNIB library which is a resource for the blind.  The books are all read by volunteers; Terry Waite reads his book on the audio version himself which I think really added to the experience for me.  He starts the book by explaining that he has a pretty good understanding of blindness as for most of his 5 years in captivity he was blind-folded.

I am currently only half way through the book but am already blown away by Terry’s amazing strength, will and faith.  I only hope that if I ever go through any persecution I would have the courage to be even half the person he is.

When Terry was first taken he told himself 3 things which I believe are a great mantra for all of us in tough times.  The first one was ‘I will feel no self pity’.  Certainly when the pressure’s on and the work place isn’t quite the fun place it used to be, the first thought that goes through our heads is often ‘poor me, I’ve got to work longer hours, it’s harder than it’s ever been and I’m not getting any more for it’.  Does that make for an inspiring leader?

The second thing he told himself was ‘I will have no regrets’.  Blimey, if I had a pound for every time someone said ‘well, we shouldn’t have….’ I absolutely know that I’d rather run an organization that has made mistakes, than one that never did anything because it was too scared to fail.  You only have regrets if you don’t understand failure as a learning curve; if you draw from it and apply the new knowledge to the future it will make you stronger. It’s better to accept where you are and get on with it, dwelling on the past is a waste of time and has no value in changing the future. You can do nothing about the past; you can everything about the future.

The last piece of advice Terry gave us was ‘I will not be sentimental’.  How often do we put off decisions in business because of sentimentality? It’s really hard to make difficult decisions especially when peoples’ lives are involved.  Companies have gone to the wall because the business leader didn’t have the resolve to cut the cloth to fit.  That meant everyone lost their job, how wise was that?  It’s really incredibly important that when you’re the one leading the way, you consider the situation with clarity and make decisions that mean that when you next look in the mirror you can look yourself in the eye knowing you did what was fair and right.  If you lead with the basic rule of ‘treat others as I would like to be treated in the same situation’ you will always win the respect of your team, they might not like you at the time but good leaders shouldn’t have at the top of their priorities popularity, it’s about doing the right thing, not about being liked.  The new government seem to understand this.

Finally I’m so moved by the comments Terry makes about being thankful for the opportunity to experience solitude.  Solitude has been something he has wanted throughout his life and being held hostage has given him that gift.  I will always try to be thankful for all of life’s adventures both good and bad! So let’s ask ourselves what we have learnt over the last few years, what have these difficult times meant to us and what changes to our team and companies are we thankful for.

I’ll be very happy to share with you the difficulties and excellent things that have happened at Great Guns in my next blog, but it would be great to hear from you about your challenges and developments.

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.

A friend of mine was talking to me at the weekend about the challenges she faces in her role as a sales person in the telecoms sector. She has just started to target the blue chip market and wants to engage with CIO’s, CTO’s and IT directors of blue chip companies. After selling largely to the SME sector, she found this switch nearly impossible as she couldn’t get through to any decision makers. After asking for some advice, it was clear that she needed to change her approach and so the following areas were  identified for her to achieve success:

1.  Build relationships with PA’s. Most decision makers at blue chip companies have PA’s that control their diaries. If you don’t get on with the PA you will never get access to the decision maker’s diary. My brother was commenting just yesterday how his PA had taken too much control and doesn’t even consult him with regards to what she books in his diary!
2. When you do get through to speak to the decision maker or get an email address and permission to send them something, make it relevant. They’re not interested in who you are and what your company does, but what you can do for them and what you have done for their competitors. Therefore create a strong message which outlines case studies and benefits to their competitors to stimulate their interest.
3. Always follow up these conversations or mail pieces. You have to be tenacious, but respectfully! They need to know you care about their business and want to work with them, but you need to respect their diaries. Call back when they ask you to and don’t push them too hard or you’ll lose them.
4. Follow them on twitter, find useful articles for them and directly send them to them to show you’re taking a personal interest.
5. If this fails and you’re just not getting anywhere with the relationship, try finding out which industry events they’re going to and make sure you’re at the same events. If you get chatting to them in a networking environment you can build an instant relationship with them directly.

As a specialist B2B new business generation agency, we’re used to generating sales appointments for our clients. A meeting must be fully qualified to pass the Great Guns management checks, and we expect our clients to convert an average of 30% from our meetings to sale. Our telemarketing process involves us gaining as much information from decision makers as possible on every call to enquire such high quality of meeting.

Here are our top B2B market research questions our clients want us to ask:

1. Which decision makers are involved in the buying cycle (how many and all their contact details)?
2. Do they have a current solution in place?
3. Is this outsourced or internal?
4. Are there any areas they feel they want to improve with their current solution (requirements)?
5. What timescales are they working to?
6. What options have they considered?
7. If there is no requirement now, when may they be considering reviewing?
8. Would they be happy to speak to us when the time is right?

You may be asking why budget questions are not there. This is a sensitive question and one not many decision makers want to discuss at an early stage. If you feel you have a good enough bond with the decision maker then you can ask probing questions about how much budget they have. If you don’t feel it’s right to ask this questions however, if you know the options they are considering and timescales they are working to you can often get good feel of whether they are a suitable fit for the budget you need from them.

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.

The ABBA Debate

23rd September2010 

Automated marketing can take care of all your marketing needs so you don’t need a marketing department or an Agency.

Perhaps you disagree? Come and join us to debate this topical and contentious issue and put your views and questions to the panel.

        15.45 – Registration and refreshments

        16.00 – Welcome and introduction from John Stanton

        16.15 – Debate

        17.30 – Q&A

        18.00 – Networking – drinks and canapés on the terrace

Sales is all about results – largely measured by return on investment.

Here are some things to think about before you go steaming ahead with the sales process, which will help you to manage your pipeline and get more out of your telemarketing activity:

1. What makes a good client? Do you really know who you’re targeting and who you want to sell to? One of the first things you can do to make your time more productive is to only go after prospects you know will be your best clients. Profile them based on the industry, size of company, where they are in their buying cycle, what the potential opportunity is etc. For example, if you are a printing company, you may want to think about targeting companies that have a minimum annual print spend, have requirements for lithographic printing, are local to you etc.
2. Build a process to manage your database and gather this market intelligence as you are calling. If you set up you database correctly, it will prompt you to ask these profiling questions and record the intelligence. Some prospects will automatically drop off your radar as you identify they don’t have the correct opportunity for you, reducing your time and money in continuing to target them. Those that do meet your criteria for an excellent client will become apparent and you will put more effort into targeting them.
3. Decide the best way to engage with each prospect. This may be a multi-channel approach. In the first instance you should ideally speak to them over the phone, identify what their pains are, what their personal objectives and business objectives are and understand how they would like you to keep in contact with them. Don’t push too hard – listen to them and respond to what they want, when they want. If you can’t offer a solution to them at the time, be honest about this as it will earn trust and respect.
4. At the end of every conversation agree a next course of action. This may be to send them some information, to invite them to events you run, to call back in a few weeks or to put them on a mailing list. Agree this with your prospect and make sure you deliver to this agreement. We still find one of the best way of achieving appointments is by calling back when we say we will. If this is difficult for you to manage as you’re too busy to stick to your promises then maybe you need to look for support to carry out the telemarketing on your behalf. If you’re not very organised and miss your call backs then maybe you should look for a CRM system where you can set alarms to remind you to call prospects back.
5. Get the level of contact right. If you have followed the above steps then you will be giving your prospect just the right amount of attention as you are agreeing next steps with them. If you contact them too often then you are likely to drive a prospect away. Don’t take advantage of an agreement to contact a prospect again – this is a sign of their trust so don’t abuse it.
6. Give it some time. Stick to the principles and you will win quality meetings with great prospects.