Generating sales appointments and cold calling by telephone is particularly challenging during a recession. Alex Blyth offers advice on how to refine your technique
Anyone who has ever tried to arrange a sales meeting for a small, growing business knows how hard it is. Anyone who has tried doing this in the past year knows how much harder it has become. Not only do your prospective clients have smaller budgets and less time for speculative meetings but your competitors are increasingly desperate for that budget and time and so they are picking up the phone ever more frequently.
Upfront Business Development is an agency that sets new business meetings for marketing and creative agencies. “You might not know how many of your competitors have already tried to make contact with your prospect,” Keith Smith, Account Director, says. “I can tell you that one – in this economy, pretty much every single one of them. The phone lines have been ablaze with sales calls to buyers’ voicemail systems. It’s a full-time job to sit and vet all the messages from prospective suppliers.”
This level of competition may mean that good new business meetings are harder to come by than ever before but they are, of course, more important than ever before. With existing clients looking for ever better deals, or going out of business, and with costs such as utilities, transport and taxation continuing to eat into profit margins, putting in place a system that produces a steady stream of good new business meetings is fast becoming the number one priority for many growing businesses.
Hiring specialists
For many of those businesses, the solution is to hire specialists. These can take the form of an in-house sales executive or an outsourced new business agency. Many small-business owner-managers like the degree of control that comes with the in-house option but, as Stuart Walland, Business Development Manager at outsourced contact centre Converso, argues, there are many downsides to that approach.
“The advantage of using a specialist agency is that you can run pilots first to see what’s viable,” Walland says. “Outsourcing won’t add to your fixed costs, and also you can eliminate the risks associated with hiring someone. It also allows you to draw on years of proven expertise and a wealth of technology that can help analyse and fine-tune campaigns so you get the best results for your investment.”
The other side of the coin
Yet, while all this is true, outsourcing can go horribly wrong. “The results of outsourcing often disappoint,” Andy Preston, Managing Director of Outstanding Results, the sales training and coaching company, says. “I’ve spoken to many people who’ve paid out lots of money to telemarketing agencies and been unhappy with the results. Not enough appointments, travelling for ages to get to an appointment with the wrong person, and also no demonstrable sales or results on the back of the campaign!”
It is therefore essential to pick
the right agency. Go for a niche agency that specialises in your sector, rather than one of the huge telemarketing firms. Make sure they understand your business. Insist on dealing with the people who do your calling. And, most importantly of all, check that they have a record of setting up meetings that lead to new business. That means always taking up references.
Ten steps to doing it yourself
If you can find the right specialists then hiring them is usually the best option. However, they are generally expensive. You should be looking to pay at least £2000 – few agencies with the necessary skills and experience will be willing to work for less than that – and that is a lot of money for businesses just starting out on their growth curve.
So, until you reach a certain size, you will probably have to do it yourself. You need to set aside at least two hours a week to do it, and ideally more. By following these ten steps you can ensure you get the most out of that investment of time.
1 Put a strategy in place
The foundation of every successful sales campaign is a strong strategy. Begin by asking yourself which type of company is most likely to buy from you. Which sectors have the greatest need for your services or products? Where do you have the strongest selling points? Then get clarity on those selling points. What benefits will your products or services bring buyers in those sectors?
2 Good leads
Salespeople depend on leads. So invest in an accurate, up-to-date list of companies. Get your office junior to phone up and find out to whom you should be speaking.
3 Preparation
Once you have defined your strategy, prepare yourself to start calling. Clear a block of time in your diary and ensure you will have no interruptions. You need to focus on getting this right. Have a crib sheet in front of you. This isn’t a script – they’re the enemy of good telephone sales – but it should include key facts on your company, and the key selling points you want to convey. Finally, make sure you have an up-to-date diary to hand. Then take a deep breath, pick up the phone and dial.
4 Getting through to the decision makers
After all that build-up, you’ll probably get through to a voicemail. Put the phone down. The people you’re calling receive on average of a call every three minutes. They’re not going to respond to a voicemail, so don’t waste your time leaving messages. Move on to the next lead.
The first obstacle you need to overcome is likely to be the gatekeeper – a PA or team assistant who is there to screen the decision maker’s calls. When confronted with one, simply ask to speak to the decision maker by name. Don’t sound apologetic, intimidated, rude or aggressive. Simply sound confident, as if you call this person all the time and expect to be put through. Imagine you’re calling a friend.
5 Introduction
Studies have shown that on a cold call you have around seven seconds to grab the buyer’s attention before they tune out and look for ways to end the call. So your introduction needs to be concise and to the point. Simply state who you are, where you’re calling from, and what your company does.
6 Developing the conversation
The next step is to build a rapport with the buyer. This is the most difficult one. It is an incredibly hard thing to do over the phone but bear in mind that this new business call should involve you speaking for around 20 per cent of the time and the buyer for around 80 per cent. So, begin by asking questions. Ask questions that require more than a one-word answer.
7 Active listening
Once they start answering your questions, you need to demonstrate comprehension and interest. You demonstrate comprehension by repeating back to them what they’ve said. Don’t parrot them, just paraphrase the key points. You demonstrate interest by asking further, deeper questions. Pick up on something interesting that they’ve said and ask more about it.
8 Matching needs to experience
Your questions should also gradually direct the conversation to a point where you identify a need for your services or product. Once you have found it, begin to talk more. Explain how what you have to offer can help them.
9 Overcoming objections
Remember that they may come up with a valid objection, such as the fact that they do everything in-house or have just bought a competitor’s product. In these cases, don’t waste any more of anyone’s time – end the conversation politely and move on to the next lead.
However, you will come up against many objections that are not valid. They may tell you they don’t have enough time to meet you or that they would prefer to see a brochure first. You need to work out which are valid and which are not. Then come up with your own techniques for countering the invalid ones.
10 Listen, don’t pitch
Finally, Joanna Swash, Sales & Marketing Director at remote PA providers Moneypenny, offers this advice on how to make the most out of the meetings you do arrange. “When you get to the meeting stage,” she says, “I would say the golden rule is, ‘Don’t give them a pitch.’ This might seem counter-intuitive. After all, you want to get the business. But I’ve found that the best thing to do is simply to listen. Find out what their problems and pain points are and then explain how you’ll be able to solve these specific issues.”
The good news
When you consider how much there is to get right it becomes easier to see why so many companies choose to bring in the specialists. However, by following these steps, you will be able to grow your business.
Paul Bridge, Director of Red Setter, an agency that finds new business for marketing and creative agencies, concludes with this encouraging observation. “The economic climate and people’s time constraints mean that new business meetings have become harder to set,” he says, “but there is an upside to this. Decision makers now tend to meet potential new suppliers only when they have a possible project in mind. We have found that the conversion rates from meetings to new business for our clients are higher than ever before. That’s definitely good news!”