VSA Rink Banner
Strategic Guidance to Build Your Business
Volume 6, Issue 3, January 2012

"The Business Builder" is brought to you by VSA, Inc. in collaboration with Rink Consulting. VSA, Inc., founded by Valerie Schlitt, builds and implements B2B prospecting programs for businesses and professional service firms. VSA has a team of professional telephone callers who open doors to new business opportunities for VSA clients. Linda Rink, president of Rink Consulting, specializes in B2B and consumer marketing and research. Both Wharton MBA graduates, Valerie and Linda often team together to help clients identify and reach new customers. In this newsletter, they share some of their business development insights.
B2B Cold Calling: Perceived and Real Barriers to Success
by Valerie Schlitt, President of VSA, Inc.
Valerie picture

Cold calling is one of the most versatile and effective sources of acquiring prospective customers, and can produce results for almost any firm.

Before you go ahead and launch a cold calling program, however, consider these real and perceived barriers to success.

Let's first address the biggest "perceived barrier." It is the reason why most people do not cold call. Most people equate B2B cold calling to consumer telemarketing - those bothersome, unwanted calls that interrupt our dinners. The fear of interrupting someone overwhelms them.

Let me tell you, while the similarities are obvious, the programs are very different. If your mindset remains that B2B cold calling is identical to consumer telemarketing, you will never be successful. Your callers will sound like telemarketers and the prospects you call will treat them likewise. I would advise you to stop right now. Cold calling will not work with the mental barrier you have established.

I personally regard cold calling as an opportunity to present information to individuals who otherwise would not have access to it, and to provide real solutions to actual business challenges. That's the belief successful callers have when they make cold calls. Prospects can hear it in their voices and respond positively.

That being said, there are some "real barriers" to successful cold calling and I want to address these before we go further. Not addressing these barriers can be the difference between success and failure.

  1. B2B cold calling is labor intensive, which makes it expensive. There are few economies of scale. Finding prospects through cold calling is more costly than finding prospects through referral partners or from your website. But you are connecting to companies that otherwise would not be aware of your services.

  2. As with all marketing campaigns, cold calling also requires an appetite for risk. You will not know in the beginning whether your cold calling program will be successful.

  3. Even when cold calling programs are successful, the results are inconsistent. You can generate ten excellent opportunities this month and two opportunities next month. Firms who succeed using cold calling generally make long-term commitments and view results over extended time periods. The program must also be periodically reviewed to make subtle changes in order to ensure success.

  4. Lastly, prospects who originate through cold calling typically require a great deal of cultivation and by skilled sales people. Do not mistake leads identified through cold calling for warm leads.
In short, successful cold calling requires a bigger financial investment than you may think, a willingness to take risks, a long-term view, and strong sales skills - four ingredients many companies don't have or cannot afford. If your firm cannot commit to these, cold calling is not for you.

If you can make these commitments, cold calling may be one of your best sources to uncover "hard to find" prospects before your competitors do. It may be one of your biggest competitive advantages and a sustainable source of new leads. Your investment can help you grow your business every day and you wish you would have addressed the barriers much earlier.

I have seen companies earn returns on their cold calling efforts that are many times above the investments they made.

Read the VSA blog for more cold calling tips: VSAprospectingblog.com. Photos of our calling team are now posted.

2012 Trends
by Linda Rink, President of RINK Consulting
Linda Rink Photo

One of my most-read Business Builder articles was "2010 Trends." Predicted back in 2009, trends such as "Real Time Immediacy" and "Cloud Computing" have definitely become mainstream. Let's see what industry experts predict for next year.

Here are 8 of my favorites for 2012:

Business & Tech Trends

1) Big Data
Amazingly, "more data has been created in the last three years than the previous 40,000," states Robert Hof, a contributor to Forbes.com (http://tinyurl.com/6lhe5ju). We all have to deal with information overload, but smart companies "are finding ways to turn the explosion in size, volume and complexity of data into insight and value," according to Deloitte LLP's "Tech Trends 2012 Report" (http://tinyurl.com/bw4b5px). If we can't do it in-house, I predict a rash of new consulting firms specializing in ways to help us mine "Big Data."

2) Mobile is Everywhere
Smart phones have significantly changed the way we use mobile technology - as consumers and as marketers. Says John Jantsch of DuctTapeMarketing: "Finally, mobile has become an important medium. This is in part because of smart-phone adoption and in greater part because of the shift to mobile behavior. Mobile websites, mobile offers, mobile payments and geo-location will become essential elements of the small-business local-marketing toolkit." (http://tinyurl.com/7bm8plz)
3) Social Media As Markets
Social networks have become so large that they are now considered legitimate media outlets by marketers, even capable of being segmented into target audiences. Further, John Jantsch comments: "As social networks become more important in the lives of their users and the level of social behavior continues to evolve, they will become much more than outposts. These sites will move toward wholly functioning, self-contained marketplaces."
(http://tinyurl.com/7bm8plz)


Consumer Trends

My favorite source for global consumer trends is Trendwatching. Check out their top consumer trends for 2012 at www.trendwatching.com/briefing. A sampling - two of which are mobile technology-connected:

4) "DIY Health": "Expect to see consumers take advantage of new technologies and apps to discreetly and continuously track, manage and be alerted to, any changes in their personal health."

5) "IdleSourcing": Consumers will also be more apt to share product/service reviews and other information. "Unlocked by the spread of ever smarter sensors in mobile phones, people will not only be able, but increasingly willing, to broadcast information about where and what they are doing, to help improve products and services."

6) Since the economy shows no sign of bounding back next year, hunting for bargains will become a source of status ("Dealer-Chic"); reselling or trading ("Re-Commerce") will likewise become mainstream.

Just For Fun

7) Doughnut World Tour
Says the authoritative James Beard Foundation, "These irresistible fried treats have recently resurged in popularity: our in-depth study of the Serious Eats archives revealed that doughnut-dedicated content rose by roughly eighty percent between 2010 and 2011. America is clearly wild about doughnuts." (http://tinyurl.com/6w7zwgy) So much for our New Year's diet resolutions!

8) The 2012 Color of the Year is Pantone's Tangerine Tango.
"Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy." (http://tinyurl.com/77z5n5f)

Phew, makes me sweat just thinking about it! Maybe if we all wear Tangerine Tango, the economy will finally heat up!

RINK Consulting
1420 Locust Street, Suite 31N
Philadelphia, PA 19102
215-546-5863
lrink@lindarink.com
www.lindarink.com