How to Handle Gate-Keepers

Phone callThe first step is to define the objective of the call?

1. To set appointment
2. email a brochure and set an appointment for another date.

Some phone trainers will encourage you to spend a little time as possible talking to gate-keepers or screeners. Doing this will cause you to miss many opportunities. The smart approach is to use the gate-keeper as a resource to get to the decision maker.

Many times the gatekeeper is the decision maker and has lots of valuable information. This is your key person that you must work with them to develop a rapport.
On your first call to a prospect. Develop a three step process:

[Read more…]

Should You Leave Voicemail?

Should You Leave Voicemail?

Phone GirlYes! But you need to lower your expectations.

If you think about your prospects persona, it makes sense that someone today that is overworked and underpaid is actually going to go through the pain to return your voicemail?

Unless the prospect has an immediate and urgent need for your product/service at the exact moment that they listen to your voicemail. It’ more than likely that they will not call you back.

You should have a persona of this prospect as their pains, pleasures, problem’s and motivations. They should already know what makes your product/service unique or different from the competition. [Read more…]

Why is Lead Generation So Hard?

Align your sales message with your customers beliefs.

The great disconnect between marketing and sales. The lead hasn’t been qualified. It came from social media!

[Read more…]

Lead Generation – For More Sales

This means those critical first calls to find new business take place on a regular schedule.

Recent surveys have concluded that one of the least favorite tasks of sales people is the time consuming and awkward cold calling.

This is the process:

When you employ a lead generation specialist that sets qualified leads to keep your valuable sales people in the field where they belong….to close the sale. [Read more…]

Marketing Lists

Bridge the gap between Telephone Marketing and  Sales

Bridge the gap between Telephone Marketing and Sales

The first step in selecting the perfect list, you need to define your customer profile and most likely attributes.

The real key to unlocking the potential of list marketing is to define your target audience with as many attributes as you can.

This ensures that your marketing offers only go to those people who are most likely to buy your product.

The most common mistake that most list marketers make is sending offers to a poorly defined target audience.

Once you’ve used a combination of these parameters to define your audience, it’s time to take that information to a list owner, list manager, or list broker.

 

List Segments
You can’t have a list marketing program if you don’t have lists. It’s as simple as that. But before you go grab a list, you need to know that there are three kinds of lists, each is different, and it’s up to you to choose the right list for your brand. [Read more…]

Sales Leads

PostcardSales Leads

Finally a program that generates revenue quickly every month and every year when executed with the following direct mail marketing strategy.

Getting the lead and the appointment…it’s what lead generation is all about.

This program that combines direct mail with prospecting call campaigns to reach prospects one-on-one for increased response.

This is something I perfected through the years working with Conach Marketing Group an Advertising Agency in the mid-Michigan area. [Read more…]

Selling to Clients

meetingSelling the Recommendations

Every sales person or marketing consultant must  discuss insights gained and recommendations after analyzing your client business.

This is when you give your expert advice and insights into solving the clients problem.

How you summarize and represent information is important in getting the client to “buy” your recommendations.

Consider the following tips as you plan to discuss your recommendations: [Read more…]

Predictive Analytics for Sales Gen

Word cloud for Predictive analyticsImagine the power to predict the future market conditions and to know your customers wants and needs before your competition.

Predictive analytics can predict behaviors such as what customers are likely to purchase, who is likely to respond to marketing and sales events, and customer behavior.

Predictive analytics empowers real business to value  those companies that
know how to find it, and this is only an introduction to predictive analytics for sales and marketing folks like us.

Predictive analytics is based on the belief that the more insight you have, the better your decisions will be. Business decision makers and analysts are no different than insurance sales people, which is evident by the industries and technologies devoted to data capture, analysis, modeling, and like the big casinos and insurance companies.

Predictive analytics is different from many technologies because its impact is quantifiable. You can quantify the money you save because predictive analytics improves business processes and increases sales and marketing effectiveness.

[Read more…]

Why cold calling is NOT a numbers game

Phone GirlWhat is cold calling?

Cold calling is what you do to meet your weekly sales quota with new prospects and this is not an optional skill. Without doing it you will not hit your sales quota for the week.

The biggest mistake that new sales people do when they first start cold calling happens during the first 20 seconds of a cold call and that is talk about your products and your company. Remember this isn’t about you it’s about the needs of your prospect. When you do that, you’re making the call about me.

What you need to be successful in cold calling.

Do you really need a script? Yes you really need one. Engaging a prospect in 20 seconds, disarming their flight mechanism, is extremely difficult. That’s why so few salespeople can do it. [Read more…]

LinkedIn Lead Generation Secrets

Linkedin.txt

Start a Group in LinkedIn

One of the best ways of building a network of targeted decision makers in your market is to stat your own LinkedIn group.

You simply start a new group in your LinkedIn account and start creating compelling questions from within your industry niche.

The next step is to compel members with engaging conversation related to their passion one time per week by email.

This market goes directly to their email inbox.

This blog is about generating leads with LinkedIn since leads are the lifeblood of any business.

You need to add value to your group to keep them engaged with information that is important or relevant. [Read more…]