Leave the Hang-Ups To Us

Oh, bother!

by Amy Keuper, VP Sales

We at Initial Call specialize in representing companies with a complex sale which, by definition, is harder than the average sale.  And by “hard” we mean hard.  The ever-increasing “opt-in” mindset poses real challenges for businesses who want to expand sales beyond the scope of their current social network.

Pursuing target accounts remains a vital part of most sales operations.  Cold-calling is a tried and true method of reaching someone you believe would benefit from what you offer.  If only you can reach them, then you can solve their problem—maybe one they haven’t even defined yet. 

The problem is that we are all culturally wired to resist uninvited contact.  Looking honestly at our own thorny reaction to unsolicited communication helps clarify why sales and marketing are so difficult.  If we won’t accept someone’s call or email, how can we expect them to allow ours? 

What a fine line we walk!  We must strike the balance between rightly reaching out to new individuals to grow our business and unintentionally irritating folks who hang up on us or unsubscribe thinking, “I don’t know who you are and I didn’t sign up for this.”

Ironically, most businesses employ outbound marketing yet are themselves locked down tightly against any kind of cold-calling or email campaign.  Their phone systems are “press X for X” labyrinths without any human beings and their networks reject all email as spam.  Since a primary lead generation goal within the complex sale is to qualify accounts, not to bother anyone unnecessarily, the problem of unwelcome communication would in fact shrink if getting market intelligence were easier. 

A prospect actually gains time by investing time in a call or email to self-qualify in or out of the target pool.  He finds a solution to a need or wards off unwanted future contact.  By devoting just a few seconds to listen to the pitch, the prospect can achieve both his and the caller’s goals: determining whether it makes sense to talk further. 

Adherence to The Golden Rule would smooth the seller-buyer relationship. Thoughtful and tempered prospecting would be met with courteous and understanding replies.  Sales empathy and marketing civility—ahhhh, a dream?

Given the reality that we can’t easily change prospect behavior, scheduling highly-qualified, VP and C-level meetings is hard.  Your success hinges on breaking through company defenses with a smart message delivered by the highest level talent possible, which is where Initial Call excels.

7 Reasons Not to Manage the Complex Sale in Leads

Has one of these scenarios ever happened to you?

• A contact at one of your existing clients visits your website and downloads a document which creates a new Lead in your system. You are mortified when your marketing department sends your client an introductory email and follow-up call as if they were a new prospect.
• Two of your sales representatives independently follow up on new Leads. Because the associated company names were entered differently in your system, your representatives are unknowingly calling into the same prospect.

It's a sales manager's nightmare, but it is avoidable if you know how to tame your CRM. If you have experienced the challenges of tracking the complex sales cycle in Salesforce.com and you've been frustrated, you are not alone. The beauty of this CRM is that you can make changes to optimize the tool for your company's unique sales cycle.

Download our whitepaper: Entropy in Salesforce.com: 7 Reasons Not to Manage the Complex Sale in Leads to find out more about how to avoid these problems, keep your CRM organized, and your sales cycle running smooth. Then join in the discussion or ask questions right here on our blog.

Twitter

by Colleen McCarty, VP Talent & Organization Development

I really am feeling my age. I'm not an early adopter but I'm usually far ahead of the Average Joe, but Twitter has me stumped. Why would anyone be interested in what I have to say this moment? However, in the spirit of full disclosure, I resisted Facebook for about six months. Even wrote a blog about why I liked LinkedIn better than Facebook. Truth be told, now I love them the same but for different reasons (much like you love your children equally but each has their unique strengths).

But back to Twitter... like a third child, can I love it too? I've learned never to say “never” but I have my doubts. Do I have time for all three? Can I justify the time for all three? I decided this time I will really try Twitter before making a final decision.

In a few days I have learned:

• Twitter is fast, real fast. Send out an update or “tweet” and someone will respond. Pretty surprising given that I only have three followers. Oh, I just checked and now it's four! Now it is six!

• Twitter is about broader networks than just friends or colleagues. Perfect strangers will follow you, conversely, you can follow anyone you like. I only know two of my followers and I'm still wondering why the rest have  followed me (and am I right to feel pressure to entertain them?).

• Still working on learning the lingo. So far I've learned # (use this to make your tag/term more searchable) and @ (precedes a username), RT (retweet, similar to forwarding email) and OH (overheard) are a few I'll need to practice using.

So I'll be testing Twitter further and evaluating Twitter for work, fun and family. I'd love to know how others are using it and do you have any tips!