VSA
Strategic Guide to Build Your Business

Volume  6, Issue 6, July 2012

in this issue
:: In Some Ways, the Best Practices in Cold Calling Defy Logic
:: FIRE!, Aim, Ready...
"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.

In Some Ways, the Best Practices in Cold Calling Defy LogicValerie picture

by Valerie Schlitt,

President of VSA, Inc.

  

Contrary to popular wisdom, these tactics really do work:

  • Voice Messages  
  • Responding to "send information requests"  
  • Calling prospects 10 - 20 times  
  • Calling prospects back after they initially have no interest

In fact, we've done every one of these and produced results for our clients.

  

1) Voice Messages

  

Two of our clients recently made big sales from calls that were returned from VSA voice messages. 

   

Here's the trick. Only leave voice messages when you know you have the right decision maker. Make the message short and compelling. Have a specific reason for prospects to call you back. When you leave the number, speak slowly and clearly. Don't sound like a sales person, even though the prospects know you are. You might want to add a little "Um" or "Well" in the message to make sure you don't sound scripted.

  

2) Responding to "send information requests"

 

We have set many, many qualified appointments after sending emails with "more information." About a third of these appointments have resulted in sales.

 

Here's the trick. Only send information that is relevant to the prospect. Before you send the information, tell the prospect that you'll be following up afterwards to get some feedback. Then, differentiate yourself by sending an interesting attachment, making a unique offer. Keep the message short - about a paragraph or two. Then, be dogged about your follow-up process!

 

3) Calling 10 - 20 times

 

We have set dozens of appointments after the 25th call.

  

Here's the trick. Identify the top tier prospects you want to reach. Develop a plan to connect with these individuals by calling them on a consistent basis, even if you feel you're being intrusive. Leave voice messages periodically, but not on every call.

 

4) Calling prospects back after they initially have no interest

 

There are at least three VSA clients whose products are up for renewal every year or two.

 

There are several other VSA clients who target firms where decision makers are not ready to purchase.

 

For every prospect who first said "no," about 20% later set an appointment 6 - 12 months later.

 

Here's the trick. Try to learn as much as possible about the prospect's current provider, and when the contract is up for renewal. Or, try to learn something about the prospect's business, in order to project when they may be ready for your service. Plan a call about 2 months prior to the date when the prospect might become interested in speaking.

 

Then, be persistent in trying to get in touch, referencing your prior conversation.

 

 

What we've learned is that there are rarely silver bullets or short cuts to getting your foot in the door. If no one else is leaving messages or sending more information and you do, you can set yourself apart. If you are persistent with your follow-up, you definitely differentiate yourself.   Most often, it's the extra effort that helps you get through to decision makers and wins you sales!

VSA, Inc.
441 Station Avenue
Haddonfield, NJ 08033
856-429-5078
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FIRE!, Aim, Ready..."

by Linda Rink, Linda Rink Photo

President of Rink   

Consulting

  

Are you caught up in the "Gotta get it done" race? A proposal is due today, a project just got a green light, a new client called, a deadline has been tightened.

 

For many of us, the urge to DO often supersedes the time to plan. As we unfortunately know, however, this can come back to bite us.

 

Case in point

 

I recently worked on a research project for a fairly large international client. Because of language and other communication difficulties, I unknowingly had failed to clearly define my scope of work in the beginning. And it didn't help that my proposal had been put together very quickly. No surprise then, that I later discovered that my understanding of the project scope and my client's were not the same - and that I was facing instant and non-negotiable "scope creep" in the middle of the project.

 

Client had a deadline, and despite my attempts to explain why it was now unreasonable due to scope changes, it did not matter. The fault was all mine. By not ensuring at the project's outset - before the contract was signed - that the client's expectations and mine matched, I had set myself up for trouble.

 

Should I have known better? Of course! What was my excuse? I had to get the proposal done on time!

 

Do you have a marketing plan and do you follow it?

 

How many of you don't write a business or marketing plan every year because you just don't have the time? Then how do you know where to best spend your marketing dollars or your time? Or do you just react to opportunities as they come along?

 

Keep in mind that it's very difficult to measure the ROI of a tactic or expenditure if you have not set up your criteria for defining its success, as well as the framework and tools for measurement, before implementation. Sure, you've fired a shot, but you don't know whether or not you've hit a bull's-eye!

 

Get it out the door!

 

Launching a new service? Are you overly concerned with just getting it "out the door" as quickly as possible? I can tell you from experience that trying to "tweak" a new product or service after it's been launched can be a disaster. Once a customer is dissatisfied, the probability that they will come back is automatically much, much lower.

 

Train yourself to slow down

 

Years of work experience usually help set off internal alarms - the kind that say, "Whoa, slow down!" But sometimes the adrenalin kicks in too much, and you find yourself racing to just "get it done." Of course, that's exactly the time to take a deep breath and slow down. 

 

Go through your mental checklist of what should be done to reduce the risk of something going wrong. Perhaps a more detailed step-by-step plan is needed, or you need to gather some more information, consult with other colleagues, or double-check your assumptions.

 

When in doubt, stop and focus - before you shoot yourself in the foot. Because that's what will happen when you FIRE before you're ready.

 

Do you have stories of "firing" before you're ready? Send them to me at [email protected] and I'll share them in future Business Builders. Bonus points go to humorous ones!

RINK Consulting
1420 Locust Street, Suite31N
Philadelphia, PA 19102
215-546-5863