Most of us as can recall times we have been “sold.” Salespeople pushing product, being aggressive, or being unaware of, or insensitive to our needs, leading to an unpleasant sales experience. Perhaps we walk away feeling that we didn’t get what we were looking for, or walk away without buying anything. We would have been more satisfied with the outcome if a consultative sales approach was undertaken.
Consultative sales is a benefit for any sales process. It entails selling by building relationships rather than pushing product. It involves uncovering the needs of potential customers through a series of questions, getting them to speak about what is important to them and what their needs are, and most importantly building a rapport with them. Once that relationship is established and the customer’s needs known, the salesperson can more easily suggest products or services that would help solve the customer’s problem. Instead of being pushy, a salesperson can be seen as a resource, someone with expert knowledge of what customers need, and how to get them to the right solution.
The consultative sales approach can be applied to every step of the sales process. At the earliest stage, it involves doing research before approaching a prospect, to find out such important information as company size, types of products or services they offer and who their target market is. Armed with that research, salespeople can ask the right questions of prospects, and find out what they really need.
Consultative selling is used throughout the pre-sales process, a very important and highly successful way to gain qualifying leads. According to The Harvard Business Review, a properly executed pre-sales process can increase new business 13%.
Pre-sales involves learning about leads, weeding out ones that aren’t a good fit and cultivating a relationship with prospective customers by engaging in conversation with them and asking questions, and probing for more information.
Another aspect of pre-sales that uses consultative sales to generate leads is cold calling, a process that even many of the most seasoned salespeople dislike. The defining image of cold calling is a prospect hanging up on a salesperson trying to sell a product or service over the phone. However, the use of consultative sales within the cold calling process can actually result in more pre-qualified leads. Using consultative sales in cold calls, engaging in conversation with a prospect on the phone, and learning about a prospect’s needs, goes a long way toward generating leads.
Honing skills in consultative sales and lead qualification can pave the way to better prospects, more productive sales calls, and a noticeable increase in the bottom line.
Like building a house, cold calling campaigns must follow a process to make them successful. The first step in building a house is to excavate and pour the foundation. Once that is done, floor joists or footings are installed and walls are framed out. The process doesn’t deviate and nothing can be omitted.
The same is true with lead generation campaigns. In order for lead generation to be successful, a strong foundation needs to be laid. That foundation includes:
Understanding your target audience and identifying and extracting the lead data
Gaining expertise on products/services, value propositions, challenges solved, etc.
Developing the scripts and emails needed for various aspects of the campaign
This is accomplished with regular collaboration between your cold calling team, outside sales, marketing and leadership. No aspect of the foundation of the campaign can be skipped and the cold calling cannot begin before the entire foundation is laid.
Laying the foundation is not the only aspect of lead generation that requires a long-term vision. Prospects may commit to meet in a week, some in a month, some in a year or more. If you expect to get immediate results on any lead generation campaign, you will be disappointed. And if don’t lay down the right foundation, it will lead to failure. Laying the proper foundation for your campaign and following a well, thought-out process will deliver qualified leads and relationship building that will continuously feed your pipeline.
Appointment setting is crucial for sales organizations that rely on leads and is a key element of their process. It is considered one of the most difficult parts of the sales process and often a major hurdle to meeting sales goals. If you are looking for better outcomes and less fruitless sales, you might consider outsourcing lead generation. Here are seven areas where you can benefit.
Lower costs. While big businesses can afford to maintain inside sales departments including recruiting, hiring and training plus phone, computer and supplies, for most businesses it is cost prohibitive. The ongoing costs of one new hire outweighs the price of using an experienced lead generation company.
More qualified. Not all salespeople are good at finding new prospects as well as nurturing and closing them. Appointment setting requires a different skill set from sales presentations and closing. It is rare to find a salesperson who is good at all three. B2B lead generation companies are experts at just that.
Better use of your time. Managing a sales team can monopolize your time. Outsourcing B2B lead generation allows you to focus on other priorities including turning prospects into sales.
Scalability. The outsource company will ramp up to deliver the number of appointments you need to fill your pipeline. When business fluctuates, outsourcing allows you to scale efforts up or down accordingly. It’s easier to adjust the budget than hire or fire employees.
Accountability. It is the lead generation company’s commitment to keep you fully engaged throughout the process. They continually refine and hone their methodologies to improve outcomes. Their reporting and metrics allow you to evaluate the ROI of the program.
Quality of appointments. What you don’t want is your sales team wasting time on calls to prospects that are not a good fit for your company. Outsourcing companies are experts at analyzing information, identifying appropriate decision makers, and weeding out the leads that will go nowhere.
Better results. B2B appointment setting companies are experts in their field. They know the best practices to get decision makers on the phone, quickly establish rapport, uncover needs, and get the appointment.
A company may find significant benefits from outsourcing its appointment setting efforts, rather than relying on its sales force to set their own appointments or implementing an in-house program given better quality outcomes and the fixed costs and overhead involved.
There is a misconception that cold calling doesn’t work. While this has been a topic of this newsletter in the past, it is important to note the data that specifically applies to appointment setting.
It is generally quoted that that only 1-2% of cold calls actually result in a meeting. However, there is strong evidence to the contrary, highlighting the effectiveness of cold calling in today’s B2B market. The reality is that 78% of decision makers have taken an appointment or attended an event as a result of a cold call.*.
The reason most cold calls fail is simply because they’re done wrong. If you want your team to attain this level of lead generation, make sure they are following these cold calling strategies.
Set a schedule. Allot time on a regular basis to do your cold calling. The more qualified leads you want in your pipeline, the more frequent you will want to set aside time to cold call.
Be prepared. Research your prospect before you get on the phone but don’t overdo it. You want to garner enough about them to have a conversation. Over-researching will cause call reluctance which will most likely result in voice mail. Take a minute to check them out on LinkedIn, Google, their website…and then make the call.
Be persistent. It takes an average of 8 – 12 attempts to reach a C-level prospect. Most sales professionals stop at 3 attempts. A big mistake.
Ask for permission. At the outset of a call, once you have reached the prospect, ask for their permission to continue.
Set the right tone. The goal of a cold call is to engage a prospect and set up a meeting. It’s about making that first connection, not closing the deal. Be confident and relaxed. Be mindful of not only the words you use but the tone of the conversation.
The success rate of cold calling largely depends on the approach taken. Cold calling gets a bad rap when these simple tactics are not followed. If your organization does not have the time or expertise for successful cold calling, One Of A Kind Solutions is here to help.
Whether you are pounding the pavement to get in front of prospects or on the phone to set appointments, you are familiar with the term ‘gatekeeper’. This is the person whose job it is to screen calls or visits to the decision maker. These skilled individuals make it very tough to get through to the decision maker unless you incorporate the right approach.
Always start at the top. Before you get started, know the name of the decision maker that you want to reach. Aim high. Managers often won’t make a decision without upper management’s approval.
Keep the right perspective. The gatekeeper is not an enemy; but they are also not your friend. They are just doing their job – managing the demands on the decision makers time. They are trained to keep salespeople from getting through the gate.
Have the right mindset. Clear your head. Visualize yourself as someone who would be put through. Remember that your conversation with the decision maker is the most important call that they will get today.
Have the right tone and approach. Whether you get through the gatekeeper has a lot to do with your tone. Be direct and business-like with an expectation that you will get through the gatekeeper and connect to the decision maker. It could go something like: “This is Jeff to speak to (Decision Maker’s name). Is he/she in?”
Do not pitch the gatekeeper. By selling to the gatekeeper you are setting yourself up for “thank you, but we are not interested”. Many salespeople make this mistake but it only ends in shutting you down.
Take control of the conversation. The gatekeeper will ask certain questions to disarm you: who are you, where are you from, what are you selling, is the decision maker expecting you. Break the pattern. Pose questions to the gatekeeper such as, “I’m not sure (decision maker) is the right person to talk to, can you help me?”
Always ask for decision maker’s email. Ask the gatekeeper for the decision maker’s email address. Send the decision maker information by email. Then when you call back and the gatekeeper asks you what it is in reference to, use the follow-up to the correspondence as the reason to speak to the decision maker.
Never leave a message with the gatekeeper. Your first preference is to leave a message on voice mail for the decision maker. If that is not possible, leave your name and number with no detail (not even your company name) with the gatekeeper. Follow-up with an email to the decision maker with a subject line: Message with Receptionist (or use their name) and “a curious message”. Raise their curiosity so they will call you or take your call. Don’t give your company name or sales pitch.
Keep your goal in mind. It’s important to get through to the decision maker. Don’t give up. To reach the decision maker by phone directly, ask the gatekeeper when the best time is to reach the decision maker. Or vary your calling times – try calling before 9 am, after 5 pm or during lunch hour.
Practice, practice, practice. Take these techniques to heart, learn them, practice them and test them. Try variations until you find the one that works for you. Do it often so it is sounds natural.
Most salespeople see gatekeepers as barriers to getting appointments. The right training, approach and attitude can change all that.
Identifying pain is a key component in the sales process. There is no sale without pain. Uncovering your prospect’s pain has value to the sales process in several ways. It helps you build trust, establish a relationship and build rapport and provides insights as well.
Build trust. Ask the right questions, and you’ll build trust, uncover opportunities and cement your relationship as a trusted advisor. Ignore the pain, and you’ll become known as “a salesperson”.
Establish a relationship. To sell effectively, you must uncover customer pain points. This shows your interest in them and their business. Without doing so, you miss the opportunity to establish a mutually collaborative relationship with the customer.
Rapport. Equally important, buyers who believe that their pain is clearly understood will be more willing to share critical information throughout the buying process and will work harder to understand the solution being presented.
People buy based on emotion. People may justify a purchase intellectually but what makes them say yes is emotion. Uncovering their pain gets them to think emotionally and can make the difference between making the sale or not.
Differentiation. Without this critical information, sellers often stumble to differentiate their value when the potential customer is formulating a buying decision.
Gain customer’s perspective. When the seller doesn’t take time to uncover pain and discuss the implications of that pain early in the sales cycle, they lose the opportunity to understand what is truly important to the customer.
Relevance. Without understanding the buyer’s needs, the sales conversation usually focuses on product features and functions, which may or may not be relevant to the buyer. Unfortunately, product functions that are not tied specifically to customer pain can make the solution sound expensive and off target. At this point, the conversation quickly degrades to one of price and pricing discounts.
Pain-Solution Correlation. Without uncovering business pain, there is no means to formulate a solution that will address that pain. Without a meaningful solution, there’s no sale.
Most of us as can recall times we have been “sold.” Salespeople pushing product, being aggressive, or being unaware of, or insensitive to our needs, leading to an unpleasant sales experience. Perhaps we walk away feeling that we didn’t get what we were looking for, or walk away without buying anything. We would have been more satisfied with the outcome if a consultative sales approach was undertaken.
Whether you are pounding the pavement to get in front of prospects or on the phone to set appointments, you are familiar with the term ‘gatekeeper’. This is the person whose job it is to screen calls or visits to the decision maker. These skilled individuals make it very tough to get through to the decision maker unless you incorporate the right approach.
Identifying pain is a key component in the sales process. There is no sale without pain. Uncovering your prospect’s pain has value to the sales process in several ways. It helps you build trust, establish a relationship and build rapport and provides insights as well.
