I'm Not Making The Cold Calls!

At a holiday party, a well-dressed, articulate woman and I engaged in conversation. She said she was a former account executive for a top marketing company and I told her my company makes prospecting cold calls and sets sales appointments for a variety of companies.

She looked at me and said, "I get it. What a great idea. When I was a sales rep there was no way I was going to make cold calls, in person or on the phone!" She went on to say that she relied on internal leads from an inside sales appointment group and referrals.

When I asked if she could make more money by prospecting herself she said, "absolutely, but I did well enough. I didn't get rich, but did OK."

Her former company, that wanted the sales force to prospect, but didn't enforce it, is now out of business. Maybe too many sales people were happy to do just enough to be OK.

The Real Cost of a Sales Appointment

Using an outside sales appointment setting group is expensive, or is it?

At first glance, with fees upward of 30 bucks an hour, it seems real expensive and maybe even cost prohibitive. A second look will show that this might be the best investment you ever made.

Let's assume that you've been enlightened with the idea that using an appointment setter(s) to make your sales reps more productive is the right thing to do. Let's further assume that you've at least thought of using an outsourcing firm to perform this task for you. In-house or outsource? Which one makes more sense?

An inside sales appointment setter might make you feel better because you will see him every day, toiling away at his desk dialing and smiling. It only costs $8-$10 an hour with a few spiffs thrown in for good measure. The appointments he schedules are fair at best but you think he's getting better.

What about the other costs though? The desk space, phone and computer line, taxes, insurance and training. What happens when the appointment setter doesn't show up one day for an important calling project and there is no one to take his place and he doesn't show up the next day or the day after that? Now you have the cost of recruitment and training on your shoulders again.

If you are working the in-house appointment center right, you also need to hire someone to compile sales and call reports and gauge effectiveness of different campaigns. That reporting is one of the most important tools you have to know that you are calling on the right prospects with the right message at the right time.

The right outsourced sales appointment setting firm will perform as an extension of your sales group, dialing more and setting more appointments than your inside callers. They are well trained, professional, and articulate and they come along with a support group that will furnish you with meaningful reports that tell you a lot about your market and sales effort. Your sales reps productivity will double!

The right outsourced sales appointment setting firm will streamline your sales process and take away the management, training and recruitment hassles while providing you with a steady stream of highly qualified appointments with prospects who will buy from you.

If you are thinking of using in-house sales appointment setters, think long and hard. Is it cheaper? In the short term: maybe. Long term it will cost you more than you ever imagined and could in fact, derail your sales future.

The Fallacy of Pay for Performance Appointment Setting

by Brian Grinonneau

If a deal seems too good to be true, you can bet it is.

When searching for a sales appointment setting firm, some clients are tempted by the pay for performance model. It is intriguing. Have the appointment setting/ telemarketing firm only receive pay if appointments are made. It seems risk free. It is not.

Most pay for performance models are hatched in offshore call centers. The problem, aside from a language barrier, is these performance based companies push too hard, don’t disqualify poor prospects, use sub-par callers, waste a lot of your time and leave an indelible ugly mark on your company image.

A pay for performance telemarketing company oft-times is poorly equipped to put your best business foot forward. It makes haphazard calls from a noisy room with no real structure in place. The only goal is to get lots of appointments with no regard for quality or planning. The caller who is working on your account today may not be tomorrow and on day three it is someone different again perhaps with no knowledge of the intricacies of your project.

To achieve success when outsourcing your sales appointment setting strategy, you have to select a firm that has a solid management team with a strong sales background. This team will be responsible for putting you in front of the accounts you want most, but also in helping you better understand your market. Leading call centers will know the best prospects on whom to call, why they buy and how to set and appointment with them. The right appointment setting company should be an important, natural extension of your sales department focused on your ROI.

The best way to find the right telemarketing firm is to perform due diligence by asking the following questions:

May I see the bios of your management team?
What is included in your service?
How are your calling agents compensated?
Will I have a caller or two assigned exclusively to my project?
How do you monitor progress on my project?
How do you report results and market trends to me?
How often will you communicate with me and by what form?
May I speak with and confer with the callers assigned to me?

Marketing is an ongoing testing process and a telemarketing center is an important part of it. A call center's ability to be proactive, change direction when needed, and carefully track the strategy will give you a clearer view of your successes.

When you next consider a telemarketing company know that your best results will come from a company that has solid management, meaningful reporting and educated, well-paid callers. Don’t be tempted by the seemingly low priced offerings of pay for performance plans. They will cost you more than you could ever imagine.

Why Should I Meet With You?

If you want a prospect to meet with you, there better be a good reason--a compelling can hardly live without knowing more reason.

Today’s business world flies at break-neck pace making time the most precious commodity and if a prospective customer is giving up some, he has to get something of greater or equal value in return.

What do you have to give? What is your value proposition? If you don’t know, it’s time to define it.

A prospect will spend time with you if he perceives you have something that will in some way(s), make his life better. You won’t get in the door satisfying a want or need. He can find that satisfaction anywhere. You aren’t the only shop on the block. You do have something that is unique that may entice your prospect to meet though. Figuring it out is the cornerstone of your approach.

Here is a typical approach used by more sales reps than you’d care to imagine:

Good Morning, This is John with XYZ Widget Company and we help our clients streamline production by using our innovative products.

What does that mean exactly? Nothing! Like the blind squirrel finding the acorn, an occasional appointment can be had with this below average attempt, but it sure won’t fill a sales pipeline.

To really attract attention, give examples of what your product does for named clients and how they feel using it. Be specific. Talk about cutting expense, adding more dollars to the bottom line and customer experience. For instance:

Good Morning, This is John with XYZ Widget Company and we have a process that has helped ABC, DEF and GHI companies increase sales by more than 30%. They also cut labor expense by 20% and the managers, like you, received nice cash bonuses and were able to stay home weekends.

Be specific. If you want a prospect to spend valuable time with you, give him a reason—a real reason to do so.

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The Two R's Of Appointment Setting

You have to get two basic steps right to successfully set a sales appointment. You have to call the right prospect and deliver the right message.

Brilliant, huh?

You might be surprised how difficult it is.

Most business owners, big and small, Fortune 500 and entrepreneur, spend the majority of their energy calling the wrong prospects. People who will never do anything but waste the sales reps’ time. This isn’t an intentional strategy, but one born of poor planning and sometimes outdated management thinking.

Any given company has prospects that fall into a scant few SIC codes or categories. A superior sales organization takes the time necessary to identify the prospect most likely to buy from them. Not the prospect whose need can be filled or want sated, but the prospect that does buy the service or product the company sells.

Want to drive more sales? Work on your list of prospects. Throw out those that have been in your database too long. Be liberal in tossing to the curb those that don’t fit your narrow profile.

Once you’ve identified a list of prospects that deserve to be called, you need to craft a smart introduction script. That script will keep you from deviating from the main points you need to make and with very little practice will sound as natural as if you are talking to a friend.

Cover the basics. Begin with your name and company name.

This is Brian Grinonneau with the appointment setting firm MaSM.

State the purpose of your call and develop some interest.

We’ve set high-level, qualified sales appointments for ABC and DEF companies with the accounts they wanted most resulting in a good deal of new business being closed.

Ask for an appointment.

If you are considering any new options in your sales strategies I would like the chance to introduce myself and my company to you and if there is anything you hear that you like maybe you would think of us in the future.

Would you have time in the next week?

Schedule the appointment.

Your script is used to set an appointment, period. You are generating enough interest in your offer for the prospect to take some of his most valuable commodity, time, to meet with you. Take your time and develop the script with precision. Make sure that every word is right and conveys the meaning you want. The results will be worth the time invested.

If your prospecting is off kilter and your sales pipeline isn’t full make sure that you are calling the right prospects with the right message. Build the list. Develop the words. Work a system. Smile and dial. Set more sales appointments and close more deals.