The Great Guns Marketing Blog

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.

Selling would be a whole lot easier if someone hadn’t invented objections, wouldn’t it?

Telemarketing would be a lot easier without objections and that’s why, at Great Guns, we spend a lot of time training and coaching our telemarketers on handling and overcoming objections.

Objections are the reasons voiced by prospects for not wanting to buy exactly what you’ve recommended, or for not wanting to buy at all. I find it best to think of objections as hidden requests for more information – you can then consider them to be buying signals.

I like to get the objections on the table during the selling process and I find that asking questions like these will usually flush them out:-

• Is there anything I’ve not covered or that you are unsure about?
• Are there any reasons why we can’t go ahead with this?
• What needs to happen for you to go ahead with this?

Once I understand the objections, I can then clarify them by asking further questions like “Do you mean that the offer is too expensive or that you are not confident of it achieving the outcome and hence not giving value for money?”

Once I clearly understand the real objection, I can then set about tackling it.

I usually finish up the objection discussion with something like “so if I can overcome that to your satisfaction, will you go ahead?”

Once I get a ‘yes’ to that, then the way ahead is clear.

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.

Here at Great Guns Marketing we work alongside our clients to ensure their telemarketing campaigns are a successful part of their overall sales activity. Calling upon our 12 years of telemarketing experience we know how to get the best results.

Here are our top 5 tips on how to run a successful telemarketing campaign:

1. Ensure you have good quality, clean data.  Much of the early work that goes on in telemarketing campaigns is identifying the right decision makers and checking what opportunities exist within companies. If this work is carried out with some data cleansing activity up front then the telemarketing activity can focus on speaking to the right people at the right time, making it much more effective.
   
2. Make your message relevant. Think about what keeps your target decision makers awake at night. Have a few solutions to their problems ready to discuss, and make them compelling rather than the same as everyone else’s.  This is what makes them want to meet with you.
   
3. Don’t push an appointment too early – give it time. A good appointment should come naturally. If you’ve found a pain, you can offer a solution and they like you then they will naturally want to meet with you and do business with you. Stick with the telemarketing activity and it will pay off, don’t throw the towel in too early!
4. Have the right attitude. People want to talk to people who sound interesting, listen and are passionate about what they are discussing. If you sounds like you don’t want to be talking to prospects then they won’t want to talk to you. Enjoy it and your prospects will enjoy talking to you and open up more, giving you all that important information you need to find their pain.
5. Have strong case studies to back up your message. It takes more than just one conversation for people to trust you, you are starting the “relationship nurturing” process when you are telemarketing so have some good case studies to back up your messaging and treat your prospect with respect.

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.

As August approaches the murmurs that it’s always a ‘dead’ month are getting louder and louder and I personally think this is a deafest attitude. Whilst I know that things do tend go a bit slow due to staff, prospects and customers taking time off for summer holidays, this is no excuse for shutting up shop and sitting back waiting for September to come round the corner.

Here are my top 10 reasons why August is a great time to keep your foot on the pedal and build your new business opportunities:

1. Be positive. People really only ever take a maximum of 2 weeks holiday . What about the other 2 ½ weeks of the month when prospects and customers are at work and so are ‘open for business’?
2. Promote. There tends to be less ‘noise’ from your competition so it’s a good time for those who do promote to get their message heard.
3. Pick up the phone. Typically many ‘gatekeepers’ and PA’S take some annual leave. Why not find out when they are away and pick up the phone? In many cases the decision maker you need to get through to will be answering their own calls and managing their own inboxes.
4. Use your time wisely. Undertake those things on your to do list that you haven’t had time to do, such as updating your prospect database (don’t forget we are offering 10% off our data cleansing services for new orders undertaken in August).
5. Innovate. August is a great time to softly test new ideas, messages, campaigns. Gently dip your toes in the water, reflect and learn.
6. Get ready. Making the most of August will make September a more successful month.
7. Recruit and train. August is a great time to recruit new staff – be it school, college or uni leavers or even those parents looking to get back to work if their children are starting school in September.
8. Smile. Fingers crossed this year we will have some sun. When the sun is shining people smile, feel more upbeat and are generally more positive and therefore receptive to new ideas and proposals.
9. Enjoy. We get a bank holiday! I know some think this is costly for businesses to honour however in my experience we squeeze 5 days work into 4 so lets all be thankful for that extra day off.
10.  Think ahead.  Its only 4 months until xmas, start planning now!

So don’t write August off. Be realistic about what can be achieved. Plan and budget accordingly, and most of all don’t panic – there are always sales to be had, you have to get out there and find them.

Last night’s Ask the Chancellors debate on Channel 4 has certainly signalled the start of the election… Finally!

It’s not the first time they have debated with each other on television but as the economy is now perhaps a more important issue than it has ever been at any general election since at least 1992. It was good to see the Chancellor and his shadows actually speaking policies and answering genuine questions from the public rather than churning out the same political spin every time they appear on our screens.

As a business owner, I think there were two key points made last night. Firstly, George Osborne, Alistair Darling and Vince Cable all said that they will make jobs a priority, and secondly the much talked about National Insurance Contributions.

It is clear that unemployment is a problem in Britain at the moment and with so many people deferring jobs to stay in education, the problem will only get worse unless it’s tackled properly. Vince Cable mentioned an important point – the Government can’t create employment, but it can make sure that banks lend to small/medium businesses, something that the Labour government has failed miserably on. The UK’s SMEs need the support of whatever party wins the election because they’re the ones that actually create the jobs.

George Osborne called Labour’s planned National Insurance Contribution increases the “economics of the madhouse”, and I am inclined to agree with him. By increasing staffing costs 1% many businesses out there will consider freezing recruitment, which will make things even worse. It’s a tax on jobs, at a time when we should be encouraging employers to bring in new staff. If anything we should be thinking of reducing National Insurance tax.

The Conservatives may have taken a lot of flack over the last 24 hours for the plans to reverse Mr Darling’s National Insurance increase, but I personally don’t believe that the party’s latest policy is unwise and I’m fully behind it. What many people seem to be overlooking is that employed people create more wealth for the government. The treasury receives more revenue from income tax, there is a reduction in the amount of unemployment benefits being paid out and VAT income will increase because people can spend more.

All in all, I agree with political commentator Iain Dale’s view that the next Conservative government will have enterprise at its core and that is undoubtedly a good thing for business and Britain as a whole. I’m not quite sure if the same can be said for Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

For now, the election run is on and I’m looking forward to see the would-be leaders take part in their own debates over the next few weeks.