29/08/2010 by Stephen Law.

Will the best telemarketing in September 2010 have a crucial impact on your sales cycle? Let’s take a brief look at the factors here.

Timing – the Sales Cycle
For some products and services, starting your lead generation process in September could be crucial.  If your sales offering is complex, then it may require a ‘demo’, a ‘free trial’ or perhaps a ‘proof of concept’ approach.  If you examine the time-line from lead generation to closing business – how long will it take from start to finish?  One point that is often overlooked when launching a new product or service is Timing.  If buying decisions are to be made between November and January then it is imperative that your lead generation begins as soon as possible.  If Telemarketing is your favoured lead generation tool, then finding the best telemarketing people right now will make a key difference in hitting your sales targets.

Timing – Relationship Building
Selling a complex offering is very different from selling widgets by the bucket load.  Widget-selling often boils down to price, so you’re offering has been ‘commoditized’.  To prevent a buyer from commoditizing your offering, you need to differentiate the offering by demonstrating ‘Value’ not ‘Price’.  In nine times out of ten, selling on value requires a more personal interaction with a buyer – hence the need for ‘Relationship Building’.  The best telemarketing approach for relationship building is consultative telemarketing, but don’t forget that this takes time.  Remember to allow enough time in the sales cycle for the best telemarketing to gain traction.  Choose a highly skilled person on the telephone to help you from day1 and the process should work; but choose poor telemarketing people and you may miss the boat.

Timing – the Feedback Loop
The best telemarketing people will provide you with a constant feedback loop; moreover, they will be able to react and change to circumstances – improving the sales time-line.  Of course you cannot expect this from a call centre, but if you choose the best telemarketing people, the time saved here could prove to be the difference between success and failure. 

Conclusions on the best telemarketing for the complex sale
There’s an old saying – “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, and you can’t teach a dumb dog anything”.  Timing is critical in your sales process, so be wary of commoditizing your telemarketing – think ‘Value’ not ‘Price’.  Of course the price is important, but the value is always paramount.  When choosing the best telemarketing people for a complex sale – go for quality over quantity.  There’s little point buying a a car for a sales-person if the car doesn’t start or won’t make it to the sales meeting.  Likewise, you won’t be sending anyone to a sales meeting if you don’t choose the best telemarketing.   If you want the best telemarketing at the right price – call me – Stephen Law, Consultative Telemarketing Expert – 0870 042 1263 stephen@sl-freelance.co.uk

Posted in Lead Generation, Telemarketing | 1 Comment »

14/06/2010 by Stephen Law.

Constant Cash Flow demands continuous sales – so sales lead generation is paramount to continuity and expansion for any business.   Telemarketing is still the number 1 for lead generation for all companies who offer a complex product/service to an intelligent buyer.  So why does telemarketing work for some people and not others?  What is the difference between Telemarketing per se and Business Development?

Firstly, here are the main criteria for helping you to decide how to use Telemarketing to find new business:

1)      Low Price + High Volume = use a Telemarketing Call Centre or Internal Staff

2)      High Price + Low Volume = use Business Development Telemarketing

3)      Low Price bulk orders + Low Volume = use Business Development Telemarketing

As a Business Development person, if you call me, the first thing I would do, would be to show you the best route to market – and that is not always telemarketing.  I have a reputation in the business as a straight-talking guy who will only help you if there is a reasonable to excellent chance that I can make you money.  Many Telemarketing Agencies or Call Centres will take your money, regardless of whether you are likely to gain a Return on Investment – that’s the first difference between Telemarketing per se and Business Development Telemarketing.

So are all Business Development people like me?  Well, I’m afraid not.  If I had a pound for everyone who has called me with a sob story about how their Telemarketing went badly, I would be a very rich man.  So before you decide to pay for a telemarketing campaign, consider points 1-3 above and ask yourself which form of telemarketing could work for you?

HOW TO SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

I specialise in offering high-end Consultative Telemarketing using a Business Development methodology.  If you sell a complex product/service to an intelligent buyer it’s my forte to find your buyers and put you in front of them.   So when trying to find someone to help you consider the following in making your decision:

a)      Without the best data, any lead generation will falter.  The best Business Development Telemarketing people will have this data at their fingertips at no extra charge to you.  It’s a relative no-brainer to find a Company Director who you want to sell to, but you will often want to sell to a particular title with roles in Operations, Facilities, IT, Telephony, Event Management, and so on.

b)      A good Business Development Director will cost you £50k +++ whilst a Junior Telemarketing person will cost you £9k+.  The key difference is real life experiences.  As an analogy, would you choose a formula one driver for your racing team or a youngster who has only driven cars on his Xbox?    For Telemarketing purposes, you probably only need a good Business Development person for 1 x day per week and as they are only performing the Lead Generation role, you will be paying a fraction of what a Business Development Director would cost you. 

c)       Beware of Over-Promising and Under-Delivering.  If it sounds too good to be true – then it is probably too good to be true.  You’ll always spot a true Business Development Telemarketing person by the way they ask lots of questions and work out the Return on Investment with you before you discuss a contract. 

d)      A low-level Telemarketing person will talk about call metrics.  A Business Development Telemarketing person will talk about real objectives.  A million calls made but zero appointments provide a useless ROI.  Meeting or exceeding this year’s sales targets is the real objective.

e)      Always buy what you hear when it comes to Telemarketing.  If the person who sells you the contract is not on the phone selling for you – ask yourself why?  It takes skill, determination, persistency and the right balance of charm and humour to win business.  Never make the mistake of meeting your Telemarketing person before they have sold to you on the telephone.  A good face2face closer does not make a good telephone closer.

f)       A Telemarketing person will leave you feeling like you are in control.  A Business Development Telemarketing person will leave you feeling confident in their abilities.

If you have a business and you’re not sure whether Telemarketing is for you, give me a call.  I turn away circa 50% of people who call me – but I leave them with other ideas that will make them more money.  You can contact me on stephen@sl-freelance.co.uk or call me on 0870 042 1263. 

Posted in Freelance Telemarketing, Lead Generation, Business Development, Telemarketing | 1 Comment »

13/05/2010 by Stephen Law.

If someone tells you, that they know “everyone”, does that make them the best telemarketing person?  Are skills and experience a waste of time in telemarketing – and does it all boil down to what you know or who you know?

The key here - is that these are two opposite mindsets – one mindset which is easy to understand whilst the other mindset is clouded in mystery.  Let’s face it, if someone has years of experience and the skills to succeed at telemarketing, it’s easy to identify this when they talk to you on the telephone.  However, if someone tells you that “they know everyone that you need to be doing business with” – then are you simply taking a leap of faith in believing what they tell you?  If someone promises to you, that by knowing all the right people, they could win you £millions in business – is this the best telemarketing available or are you simply swallowing a tale so incredible that it must be true?

The only way to fathom this out is to look at this logically and objectively.  Firstly, all the best telemarketing people have access to the best data.  So whichever top telemarketing person or agency you pick – one could say that they know everyone because they have access to that data.  But having someone’s name on a database is not the same as knowing someone.  After years of telemarketing, someone with experience may well have spoken to or sold to a lot of people – but again it’s difficult to argue that you “know them”. 

The real answer to the question boils down to mathematics – which I will explain.  In life every individual knows a lot of people but one only knows a few people very well.  Generally speaking, the people we know best are our partner and our children.  Then we know our parents and siblings.  After that, things start to become less clear.  How well do we know our grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins? 

Many people have one or two very good friends that they know very well.  Then there are friends that we occasionally chat to, people we say hello to at the office, and so on.  We may say hello to the postman every day, but do we really know him?  If you attend a club of any kind, there are people you may know, but how well do you know them?  The same is true in business – you may have worked with hundreds of people, but which ones can you really remember and how many could you say that you really knew properly?

So applying the logic to business relationships – there are literally hundreds of sectors and sub-sectors that millions of people work within.  Most sales people have worked in many sectors, some have worked in very niche markets.  Yet during a person’s sales career they will only have known a small number of clients very well.  Any good Sales Director will tell you that one person can only handle so many accounts at a given time, ranging from 1 to 10 accounts.  The greater the worth of a business account to a company – the more time one person spends with one customer.  If you accept the facts here, then let’s look further at the mathematics.

Let’s take some averages.  On average, a sales person has known 5 key account people – each for a period of 3 years.  Over the sales person’s career of 30 years the sales person could have got to know very well 3 x 5 x 30 people = 450 people.  However, the first accounts that they handled might have been 30 years ago!  So even if we accept that the sales person was so remarkable that they’re still remembered 30 years later, then a good sales person knows about 450 people in the UK - which leaves about 60 million people in the UK who they don’t know at all. 

In truth, is it possible that of all these 450 people, some of them didn’t like the sales person – as they only handled the account for 3 years?  Is it possible that some of these 450 people have emigrated, retired, or completely changed their role in life?  Even if we accept that a good sales person knew 450 people very well at some stage in their career – is it possible that this has any relevance to them picking up the telephone and immediately doing a deal for you?  Let’s look at the mathematics.

Industry sector numbers are huge - from Accountancy Practices to Waste Management Corporations.  With 100s of industry sectors and 100s of sub-sectors, it is not possible that any human could possibly know someone very well in each sector.  Think about the numbers of people in any organisation, whether it is public or private sector.  At the top we have the Chief Executives, then a Board of Directors, followed by a myriad of operational directors and so on.  An SME might be run by one person, but there are thousands of organisations in the UK alone that employ 1000+ people.  It doesn’t take a mathematical genius to work out that no human being could possibly know everyone very well.

In truth, we all know a small number of people very well – and if we’re honest here, we could count that number of people on 2 hands at most.  So now we’ve looked at the mathematics of “who you know”, let’s look at the mathematics of “what you know”.

Like any profession, there are many people who have undertaken outbound cold sales calls, but there are few people who successfully continue this career.  As an analogy, there are millions of people who love to play football, but how many people ever played for their national squad?  BT, Thomson, Yell and United Artists have churned out some of the most highly qualified and successful sales people through their training programmes (I’m one of them).  Yet for every successful sales person that succeeded at these companies, there are at least 10 who failed to cut the mustard.

A high level of skill is required to contact the right person and convince them that they should consider buying a product or service.  This skill cannot be learned instantly and it takes years of practice and learning to achieve true success.  At a guesstimate, there are probably about 1000 people in the UK at any given time that could do this very well.  Yet of those 1000 people, the number who knows how to find/build a database of potential buyers is much smaller.  At a call centre or larger telemarketing agency, the jobs of database building and calling are often split between data buyers and callers.  So at any given time – we’re probably talking about only 100 people in the UK who have the skills, experience and successful track record to successfully build data and cold call.

Of the 100 top people you could turn to for telemarketing based on “what they know”, not “who they know”, how can these people succeed for you?  Well firstly, these top telemarketing people do “know” where to find the data.  They “know” how to identify the right buyers from years of experience.  Moreover, they “know” how to communicate with these people.  You’ll generally find that the cream of the top 100 telemarketing people have been a Director before and run a company themselves.  The key here is - if you’ve sat in the driving seat yourself, then you understand the pressures that a senior level executive has to face.  You know what drives your prospective customers and what they’re looking for.

I’ve sold contracts to buyers at Waitrose, the MoD, Land Securities and the list goes on and on.  Prior to the sale I had never met these people before in my life; I didn’t know their friends or families or work colleagues.  Top class selling is about identifying who you should be doing business with, making contact and building relationships.  It is not mathematically possible for anyone to know all the right people before picking up the telephone.

Of course we all know a small number of people that we could do business with – but only a small number.  Any good business person will tell you to talk to friends and family first– but at some point, you will reach the limit of trust.    The postman may trust you enough to talk to you, but would he buy from you?  If your circle of contacts is CEO’s, then they may enjoy sharing a good whisky with you, but would they really buy from you any more than from a stranger?

Every day, millions of people across the UK buy products and services from people that they don’t know.  Marketing experts spend £millions on promoting brands and building relationships with their customers.  The key point here is that you don’t have to “know” your customer personally to make the sale.  The real art in telemarketing boils down to the pitch at the end of the day.  You could call someone that you’ve known for many years and who trusts you; but if you pitch it badly - they will walk away and you might not even be friends anymore.  Pitch something well to a complete stranger and you start the relationship building process.

The key truth in “It’s who you know not what you know” - is in getting to know new people.  Yesterday’s stranger can become tomorrow’s close friend.  I don’t claim to know everyone, but I do claim that I could find the right people for you to do business with – and if you play your cards right – they may become your highest paying customer, and your new best friend.

Stephen Law, 0870 042 1263 www.sl-freelance.co.uk

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

04/05/2010 by Stephen Law.

As an SME, how do you use telemarketing targeting to make lots more sales?  Let me explain….

There are basically two main types of people used in telemarketing targeting– what the experts call the “Storm” team or the “Conscript” team.  Think of troops who join an army – one is a volunteer and the other is a conscript.  They’re both soldiers, but one wants to be there and the other has been drafted.  The outcome of battle – in this case, your marketing campaign, will vary greatly depending on which type of people you choose.

Recently, I started helping a client who knew their industry inside out and I was very impressed with their knowledge of how quality telemarketing could help them.  They’d tried different telemarketing approaches for many years and I can say that they were the first client in many years where I could definitely say they knew what they were talking about.  Generally speaking though, such people are rare and that’s where I help.

Each part of the targeting process may seem easy on first appearance.  I still giggle when I’m told “well you make so many calls and out the other end pop sales – that’s how it works isn’t it?”  OK, so most of my clients are not that naive – but most do not truly understand the full mechanics of how to create opportunities by telephone – or rather they understand much of the theory, but perhaps do not understand how to put it in to practice.  For example, I know how to swim, but I’m really not a good swimmer and I’ll never be entering for the Olympics.

Believe it or not, most campaigns are rarely as simple as they seem on paper.  If they were, then everyone would simply figure it out, make the calls and sales would pop out the other end.   In truth, there are many hurdles along the way to working out how to create sales opportunities.  The whole methodology can be split in to a set of processes, but what differentiates the expert from the novice is in the skill of the individual who uses the processes.  Let me explain…

The first process is to find the right data, then you shortlist this using filters such as geography, size of company you want to do business with, and so on.  The difference between the professional and the novice is in what one does with the data thereafter.  The novice telemarketing person makes the calls and logs the outcome.  The professional telemarketing person works on a continuous feedback loop.  Believe it or not, it’s often more important to know why someone said “No” than why someone said “Yes”.

Sometimes, my clients ask me to work out the strategy from day1.  More often, a client has spent hours and hours trying to work it out themselves first then they ask me to fulfil their plan.  The clever clients are those that get me to work it out for them.  Going back to my poor swimming abilities, if you asked me to figure out how to help the British swimming team win the Olympics then I’m a smart guy with an Honours degree, so could I do it?  Of course we both know our team would come last as I may be clever but I just don’t know what it takes to make people swim better.  But ask me how to make people interested in a buying a product or service, then I’m your man - with a 25 year track record of success.

The objective is always clear in telemarketing – to find as many people as possible who want to meet up to discuss buying my clients products/services.  To get this right is the tricky bit.  For example, I had one client whose offering sounded too good to be true.  The problem was how to portray the offering in a way that people could understand, so that they didn’t think I was pulling their leg.  Another client had an offering in a market saturated by competitors so the hard part was to find a way to talk to prospects who would even give anyone 20 seconds of their time.

The feedback loop of market intelligence is always the key.  One has to go over and over the “filters” as to why a customer might buy.  Is it because they live in a certain locality?  Is it because they work in a certain industry?  The novice telemarketing person can burn a big hole in a marketing budget and you may be left with no opportunities, no sales and no idea why everyone kept saying “No!”  So why is it that the “Storm” person keeps winning in such situations?

Whilst the “Conscript” telemarketer is counting the hours until he can go home, the “Storm” telemarketer is constantly trying to figure out how to find the right people and why they will buy.  They look for trends in what people are saying.  They constantly adapt their pitch to suit the buyer.  They constantly adapt emails and feedback as to whether the marketing collateral is working from – is the pdf brochure right?  Is the website giving the right message?  As an SME your greatest strength is to adapt rapidly.  Working with the “Storm” telemarketer, they will find you new opportunities and new ways to make people interested in your offering.

So the next person who tries to sell you “Conscript” telemarketing – think carefully before you act.  Will a conscript be looking at his watch, or looking for a gap in the enemy lines for you to make that big breakthrough?  The Art of Storm Telemarketing is to adapt, adapt and adapt again.   It is said that  “knowledge is power” – so if you really want a powerful campaign – choose your telemarketing people correctly.  A fool can dance around in circles and bring you nothing.  A Rainmaker will bring you some wins – but a Storm-Maker could completely change the way you do business.

Call Storming Stephen Law now on 0870 042 1263 – winning doesn’t have to cost you the Earth.

Posted in Freelance Telemarketing, Lead Generation, Business Development, Telemarketing | No Comments »

26/04/2010 by Stephen Law.

Let me explain the good the bad and the ugly out there in telemarketing in 2010 – so that you can engage the best telemarketing people to make your business money via lead generation.

Firstly, let’s check what to avoid at the extremely poor end of the telemarketing spectrum.  As per my prediction in January 2010, the number of Rookie telemarketing people and awful call centres seems to have spiralled out of control this year.  So my first point is to be wary of the so called “professionals” who suddenly decided to put their details on to Facebook last week and claim to have been doing this for 10, 20, 30 years.  If they started last week, then they started last week – so they’re evidently new to the business and boy does it show!

This week amongst many calls, I received a call from 2 of the worst telemarketing people in history – a Spanish woman who was totally incomprehensible and thought that shouting the same thing 3 times would make me interested?  The second was a young lad from up North who was completely incapable of answering any questions – and he just slammed the phone down when I wouldn’t give him personal data!  I’m getting an increasing number of people asking for help who have just had their fingers burnt with over-promises and under-delivery from seemingly cheap outfits and individuals.

Last month, a chap made a 600 mile trip to come and see me after experiencing the dross of so-called telemarketing companies out there.  This poor chap had been so badly let down by one person after the next that he wanted someone to do the job properly at last.  Generally speaking I don’t meet many of my clients as all business is conducted by internet/telephone, but people are so cautious now that they’re travelling to see me.  

You don’t need to spend hours in a car to meet me, you simply need to look at some basic principles to decide who can help you.  Firstly let’s split this in to 3 categories:

a)      You sell a cheap product and need to sell it in volumes, one-by-one to individuals.  Don’t hire a telemarketing person or a call centre – call me and I’ll help you with Search Engine Marketing that will boost your sales from as little as £250 per calendar month.

b)      You sell an expensive and sophisticated product to intelligent buyers – don’t waste your time with call centres, offshore people with peculiar accents or seemingly cheap people on some kind of pay-per-hour website – call me on 0870 042 1263

c)       If you’re the type of person who needs to be ripped off by someone who overpromises and under-delivers before you take my word for it – please burn a large hole in your bank balance first – then when you’re serious about making money, give me a call and you will be pleasantly surprised at gaining real results for your budget.

If you are serious about creating quality lead generation using telemarketing, take some time and read my other blogs below.  You’ll find ways to sort out the wheat from the chaff and the right questions to ask.

Performed correctly and for the right product or service, the best telemarketing will always provide you with a good return on investment.  As an expert, it’s easy for me to say this, but if you’ve never worked with a professional telemarketing person – give me a call and run through it with me until you have a good understanding, before parting with one penny.  Stephen Law +44 (0)870 042 1263 – website www.sl-freelance.co.uk

Many thanks for reading and wishing you all the best in lead generation via telemarketing.

Posted in Freelance Telemarketing, Lead Generation, Telemarketing | 1 Comment »

03/01/2010 by Stephen Law.

Hi, Stephen Law telemarketing expert saying Happy New Year to everyone.  As an award winning telemarketing and sales expert of 25 years, I’ve seen a lot of telemarketing people come and go.  The recession of 2009 appears to have increased the number of freelance telemarketing people out there along with the number of boutique telemarketing agencies.  But is it a good reason to become a professional telemarketer because you were fired from your job?

During 2009 I received numerous calls from would-be telemarketing people trying to find out how I do my job for a living or wanting to join me.  It was as if the recession had driven all the aggressive, nasty and stupid people to take this up for a living.  I even had one chap who started using very rude words when I told him politely that I did not want to tell him all my trade secrets or teach him for free!

The upshot is that you can expect a lot more choice out there in 2010 if you want to find telemarketing people, but more choice doesn’t necessarily mean better service.  This is an important concept to grasp – make sure that you are comparing like-for-like when you seek help with telemarketing.

As always, I’m still offering my inimitable brand of Consultative Telemarketing – highly focused to reach the right objectives.  I’m sorry to say the bar has lowered somewhat in your choice of my competitors for 2010, with a plethora of very basic “scatter-gun” approach individuals and agencies joining the market place.  I’m also offering a new service that I piloted in 2009, that goes beyond the realms of what any other telemarketing professional is offering in the UK.  For the very complex sale I’m employing a new concept that is working well for the guru’s helping the top 100 USA corporations.  Fortunately, I’m not yet charging the same rates for anyone using this enhanced telemarketing strategy - so grab my help here at a hugely discounted rate whilst you can.

My prediction for this year is that you’ll find a lot more choice out there when you’re seeking the best telemarketing in 2010.  I think the markets will pick up this year, but not as rapidly as some people are hoping.  I think we’ll see some of the top telemarketing people (such as me – www.sl-freelance.co.uk 0870 042 1263) losing a bit of ground to the newbie telemarketers at the start of the year.  By the end of 2010, I predict that many of the newbie telemarketers will be running back to 9-5 jobs faster than they can be sued for overpromising and under-delivering.

With the right telemarketing people helping you, a strong offering, and a good sales team, 2010 will bring out the best in telemarketing for you.  Be wary about setting your expectations too high and be ready to “do deals”.  The recession is not over yet – so if you insist on maintaining your prices at the same level and do not offer any incentives, don’t expect buyers to bite your hand off like they might have done in 2008.  If you’re wary of damaging your brand by offering any incentives – that’s a valid stance, but make sure you bear that in mind when setting your objectives. 

The same rules as ever apply out there when looking for the best telemarketing.  Makes sure you know who is making the phone calls for you – it’s all well and good speaking to a brilliant telemarketing manager – but will they be the one making the calls for you?  If you choose freelance telemarketing  (someone like me www.sl-freelance.co.uk )– you’re guaranteed that the person you work with is also making the calls for you.

Finding the best telemarketing people in 2010 still comes down to your judgement of them on the telephone when they talk to you.  If you call a telemarketing person or a telemarketing agency and you are bored or aggravated – the chances are that this is how they will behave towards your prospective clients.  So if you’ve been on the telephone for 15 minutes, the time has flown and you like what you are hearing – let them close you and you know they will close your clients.

Like many people, I want to compare like-for-like.  I get very frustrated in a supermarket if one packet of biscuits is priced per biscuit and another per gram.  So here’s a quick checklist for you to choose the best telemarketing for 2010:

1)      Are they assertive or aggressive?

2)      Did they interest you or bore you?

3)      Did they ask key questions by charming you or being too pushy?

4)      Did they close you on the next call to action or leave you wondering what the next step is?

5)      Did their explanation of how to generate opportunities leave you feeling excited or confused?

6)      Was the conversation all about metrics or objectives?

7)      Were databases, pitches, campaign emails, calls – all inclusive or an additional cost?

      Would you want that person representing your business?

This is not an exhaustive checklist for finding the best telemarketing in 2010, but if anyone you speak to scores 8/8 then shortlist them immediately. 

If possible – DO NOT MEET UP WITH ANYONE until you’ve covered the above checklist by telephone.  Remember that the best telemarketing people are going to help you on the telephone not in the field.  A face2face meeting before conducting this process could seriously provide you with a false impression of their telephone capabilities.

Finally, the best telemarketing people will do their best not to over-promise.  I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve loved me initially on the telephone, gone with someone who over-promised, then returned to me to do a proper job.  Instead – try a pilot (a short trial) on telemarketing of about 4 days work – this will be your final decider on who’s the best telemarketing person for you in 2010.

If you want to short-circuit your learning curve – call me on 0870 042 1263, I’ll give you an honest account of the best people out there and you can compare them yourself.  Bear in mind that I work for the top UK agencies, so I’ll happily recommend them for you.  Better still, come to me direct and you’ll be even happier with my direct rates – www.sl-freelance.co.uk.

Happy New Year and happy hunting.

Posted in Freelance Telemarketing, Lead Generation, Telemarketing | 1 Comment »

08/10/2009 by Stephen Law.

Let’s face it, unless you ‘win new business’, and keep ‘winning new business’, you won’t have a business.  It recently struck me how many ‘Marketing Strategists’ I know, who are able tell you ‘how to win business’ – but in truth, they come to me to ‘win new business’ for them.  So why aren’t they doing it themselves and why am I ‘winning more new business’ than those who are better qualified than me?

A couple of years ago Christmas was coming up fast.  I had only just started in earnest on SEO marketing of my services.   In the Sales Business (unless you’re selling Christmas trees) it’s the one time of year that I used to get a break.  My wife reminded me about taking an exam for a well-known marketing membership organisation.  I had planned the dissertation that I was going to write in my head, and I was all ready to start writing, when the telephone rang…..

….“I am just starting a business venture and I need help with a strategy and someone to put it in place for me” said the prospective customer.  Needless to say, that’s the way my Christmas break seems to go these days.  In other words, whilst my colleagues in Marketing Strategy with their membership qualifications and MBA’s are on holiday, I’m forever being asked to help on another project.  When you’re working flat-out on projects, it’s somewhat difficult to find the time to gain those extra letters after your name.  But in truth, would I rather be snowed under with work or have the extra letters after my name?

For me, ‘winning new business’ is a mixture of my own Specialist Lead Generation and Sales Process including Opportunity Creation, Consultative Telemarketing, Search Engine Marketing (SEO plus), Direct Mail and Email Marketing.  It’s funny really, because whilst my colleagues could probably explain these subjects better than me - they talk about ‘winning new business’ for a living but I actually undertake ‘winning new business’ for a living.  So what is the difference between talking about ‘winning new business’ and actually ‘winning new business’?

In short, if you read enough good books, you will in theory understand the process of ‘how to win new business’.  As most people know however, theory ends at the point where practice begins.  If you understand the theory of how to run a Telemarketing Campaign for example, then you know that it begins with determining the demographics of a potential buyer and ends with them signing an order.  Yet what the text books generally fail to explain in detail, regards the personal interaction involved in the process.  There’s an old saying that “People buy from People” – which sounds pretty obvious, but the saying really means “People buy from People that they can communicate with effectively and people they believe they can trust”.

Anyone can pick up a telephone and call someone from whom they wish to ‘win new business’; but few people can actually achieve the objective in a sensible time-frame and on a realistic budget.  Putting aside demographic targeting (the first important part of the process), if one simply called every potential customer on a targeted list – success would be unlikely.  Yet the text book will often tell you that if you make enough calls then you will ‘win new business’ simply by the Laws of Probability.  Again, this is where the theory of ‘how to win new business’ departs from the practice of ‘how to win new business’.  What is said (and more importantly) how it is said – will play a key role in ridiculously poor or amazingly good results.

I will try to give an example which makes a big difference when seeking to ‘win new business’ that is often discussed in Marketing Strategy, but the actual method is generally neglected.  A good marketing strategist will always tell you to “Listen First” as part of the selling process.  That’s all well and good, but if you picked up the telephone and just listened until someone said anything, most people would think you were barking mad! 

Of course, the Marketing Strategist would tell you to use the right pitch and use “open” and “closed” questions, which of course is correct - and to “Listen” to the answers.  But the one thing a Marketing Strategist will often not understand is “how does the other person know you are listening?”  Again, if you followed the text book advice – you would repeat back everything the customer tells you – but that makes you sound like an annoying 8 year old who copies everything you say.  So what is the answer? 

I’ll give you another example.  About 3 months ago, I was approached by a company led by two very intelligent chaps, both very passionate about their company.  The offering was highly complex and whilst growth was being achieved in the business, putting across the message to the right audience was proving difficult.  The company offers a piece of software that solves a major problem and is marketed at an affordable price.  I was hired to make calls to the right people and arrange meetings, but progress was slow.  I’ll explain why there was a problem and how this was overcome.

Sometimes, people forget that I provide Business Development and put me in the box of ‘The telemarketing guy’.  These chaps were wise enough to ask me, “If you could change anything to improve results – what would you do?”  I pointed out that they didn’t really sell software; they sold a ‘Consultative Methodology with a software tool”.  These chaps were even wiser, because they took my advice and suddenly the number of qualified appointments with buyers increased dramatically.

 As an external consultant, who had seen this type of mistake before (experience) I quickly spotted the problem.  So when you want to ‘win new business’, don’t always consult the text book (or someone who’s read it) – because experience will always give a better Return On Investment than theoretical advice.

The simple answer as to “how to win new business” – is to either short-cut your learning by asking for advice from an expert who does this day-in-day-out (such as me), or to simply outsource the project to someone who knows what they’re doing – call Stephen Law on 0870 042 1263 or email me at stephen@sl-freelance.co.uk.

Posted in Business Development, Telemarketing | No Comments »

13/09/2009 by Stephen Law.

People have been selling via telephone for over a century now - whilst over the last decade new routes to market including Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter has hit the headlines.  When selling a complex product or service, will these new forms of marketing really take the place of ‘selling by telephone’? 

If Marketing isn’t your forte, then it’s probably difficult to work out your best route to market. With so many options these days – do you open a shop? Do you write a website?  Do you attend webinars?  Do you join Linkedin?  The list just seems to go on and on and on.

So what is Social Media Marketing and how does it differ from classic Consultative Telemarketing?  The Dotcom boom of the late 1990s and early 21^st Century saw a massive change in the way that individuals and organisations communicated with one another.  This was via the rise of the website as a selling medium and more importantly the emergence of Google.  Google has been so successful that there are literally thousands of people aspiring to write the next big thing on the Internet and make their fortune.  The question here though is “Are people seeking to make your fortune or enticing you to make a fortune for them?”

A supposed ‘Twitter Expert’ recently engaged me in conversation.  He tried to win me over to this new medium in favour of Consultative Telemarketing.  After 15 minutes of smoke and mirrors he told me a story of how everyone was twittering about Stephen Fry stuck in a lift.  At the end of his monologue, I asked the question “Were people interested in finding out about Stephen Fry because they had never heard of his name before and wondered who he was?  Or were people twittering because they already knew his name?”  In other words, my Twitter Expert was struggling to tell me how Twitter could possibly increase awareness for a new product or moreover how on Earth it could increase sales? I have no doubt that if one paid Stephen Fry enough money to promote something that this would increase sales, but isn’t that Stephen Fry being paid to do the work rather than Twitter? Certainly Twitter is an exciting new medium – but does it make sales?

When you pick up the telephone and engage in a meaningful conversation with someone who may want your complex product or service, the process is very direct if you know what you are doing.  Similarly, anyone writing a website to be found on Google is providing a shop front on the web to sell their services.  If you understand the art of Search Engine Optimization then you can drive potential business to your door, albeit that most people will end up having a telephone conversation with you before they buy.  So for complex sales the website and the telephone work well together or you can use Consultative Telemarketing on its own to succeed.  But will Social Media Marketing bypass the website and telephone call as a means to a sale?

Reid Hoffman, founder and CEO of Linkedin was interviewed by Bloomberg last week.  He was asked about Linkedin and his connections with Facebook.  When asked about ‘The next big thing’ it was interesting to see how Mr Hoffman discussed Google as the benchmark for internet success.  More interesting from a sales perspective, was how Mr Hoffman bypassed the question as to why he didn’t see Twitter coming as a source of competition.  Even more interesting was how Mr Hoffman tried to steer clear of the conversation about making sales from Linkedin, Facebook or Twitter.

I think the key point here is that just about every global SEO expert places Google as the benchmark for Internet success or failure and even Hoffman’s Linkedin and Facebook sites still pale in to insignificance when compared with the success of Google.  From a sales perspective, if Google likes you, then you are likely to gain sales lead generation from the Internet. 

Google is so successful because it helps you find what you are looking for, and on the back of that it generates huge sums of money from advertising revenue.  But Google was a flash of inspiration, as to how to give people what they wanted and they made money as a by-product.  What many non-savvy marketing people haven’t realised is that the CEO’s of Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter are all highly envious of the sales Google are making - and they all want a slice of that pie.  But I do question whether they are really offering you a way to make sales rather than simply building their own bank balance?

Consultative Telemarketing helps you decide who to target, how to target, and finally engages in meaningful conversation with prospective buyers.  Google can lead prospects to your door, although for a complex sale, you’ll probably end up closing a deal via telephone.  Social Media Marketing in terms of Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter have more in common with the type of networking you would expect at a pub, restaurant or breakfast club – but will that really win more sales?

As a Business Development expert I’m always on the lookout for new ways to reach prospective customers.  Personally, I’ve never been a great fan of the breakfast club.  After an early start, you find yourself at a hotel eating breakfast, surrounded by an array of accountants, bank managers and solicitors all hunting for business.  But if you are selling a complex offering to a potentially niche market, the likelihood of you meeting a prospective customer is relatively small.  The organisation hosting the venue is making money on selling breakfasts and the organiser (probably a bank) is often making more sales – but are you making more sales?  So let’s take this analogy one stage further and ask the question – if you go to a giant breakfast club on the Internet – who is really making the bucks?

One of my clients said to me this week “Gosh the market is slow at the moment and I wish I could see more prospective customers, but my offering is very complex – should I do more Social Media Marketing?” My client has never picked up any work from a breakfast club.  He has picked up work from his own network of friends but he didn’t need Linkedin or Facebook to do that for him; he simply needed to pick up the telephone and call them.  There is an urban myth going around where everyone has heard of someone, who has made lots of sales by joining Linkedin. Yet when I ask everyone if they made a sale, the answer is always “No, but give it a few months and I bet I will”.  Strangely enough people have been telling me the same story for almost 5 years and I’ve won every bet!

I’m now in my mid-40s and I’ve been in Business Development, Sales and Marketing for about 25 years.  As a young man I tried all the supposed great new ideas in the 80s from MLM (Pyramid Selling) to joining the financial deregulation and selling pensions.  The one thing that all aggressive sales companies teach you straight away is to call all your family and friends.  Funnily enough, as crass as it sounds, it does work.  Facebook and Linkedin are really an extension of this idea and there’s nothing wrong with that – but do you honestly believe that putting your name somewhere on a website full of another 45 million names, that this is better than picking up the phone and calling people yourself?

At the end of the day, there is really no substitute for planning who you want to do business with, picking up the telephone, and calling them.  Facebook, Linkedin and the thousands of other directories out there are all useful sources of information.  One of the first rules of marketing is ‘differentiation’.  In marketing we talk about USP’s (Unique Selling Points or Propositions).  You have to ask yourself who you want to deal with and what you will offer them.  However cleverly Linkedin attempts to dress up the offering, do you really believe that you will manage to differentiate yourself from the other tens of millions of people in their directory?  If you seriously believe that your friends and family are going to be your customers – do you really believe they Facebook will get to them quicker than picking up the phone and calling them?

I’m not knocking Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter or whatever comes out next.  As a platform for discussion and building networks they’re great – that’s what they’re made for.  But when the CEO of Linkedin avoids talking about their value as a method of creating new business, then shouldn’t that help you to see that it’s not a platform for making sales?  If you want new business, then pick up the phone and call your prospects.  If you lack the skills – then hire someone to help you.  It may be old school – but Consultative Telemarketing is still the No.1 way to find and win new business.  If you need more help, call me on 0870 042 1263 or email me stephen@sl-freelance.co.uk.

Posted in Business Development, Telemarketing | No Comments »

21/06/2009 by Stephen Law.

This article is written for those of you thinking about using telemarketing to find new customers.  Without sales, no business can survive and prosper; but how do we find potential customers in the first place?  There are many routes to market, but this article discusses the classic use of telemarketing to achieve the objective of lead generation and sales opportunity creation. 

You may be asking yourself at this point “what is the difference between ‘lead generation’ and ‘sales opportunity creation’.  The two terms sound very similar, but the difference starts right at the beginning of the sales process.  Choosing the right approach could make all the difference to succeeding or failing in finding the right customers.  Please note - BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR - IF THE BEST TELEMARKETING PROVIDES THE BEST RETURN ON INVESTMENT, THEN THE BEST ACTUALLY COSTS LESS.

Though few people have visited a Call Centre, most people have a fairly good idea what goes on there.  Anywhere between 30 and 250 people are sat at desks, generally being fed calls by a computer queuing system - where they read scripts from screens.  This is the base end of telemarketing lead generation.  The calibre of the staff ranges from low to medium.  So in terms of lead generation, the Call Centre staff are led by those who design the campaign and write the scripts for them.  So let’s first take a look at what most people think of lead generation via a Call Centre.

Because a certain number of people are allotted to a campaign at a Call Centre and the campaign has to book these seats, getting the sales message correct at the start is crucial.  You need to remember that for a Call Centre, it is either the customer or the manager at the Call Centre who will devise and write the scripts for the callers for lead generation.  The first basic difference between lead generation and sales opportunity creation starts here. 

The Call Centre manager may not know who will be making the calls, so a script is devised to aim at the lowest common denominator.  Such a script can rarely take in to account any individual methods and must be a “one size fits all” script.  It’s not surprising that Call Centre lead generation sounds somewhat ‘robotic’.  Therefore, logically the Call Centre approach to lead generation often uses a ‘scatter-gun’ approach, on the basis that if you make enough calls you should find enough interested people.

If you think about all this carefully, you can start to see why Call Centre lead generation works for some companies but fails miserably for others.  If a Call Centre relies on the ‘throw enough mud and some will stick’ approach to lead generation, then logically they will need to buy enough data for your campaign.  If you’re selling something like mobile phones to end users, then you can see why a Call Centre lead generation approach will work in such a saturated market.  On the other hand, if you are selling Consultative Expertise then you can see why your chances of succeeding via Call Centre lead generation suddenly begin to dissipate.  In other words, if you are selling something that requires a dialogue with an intelligent buyer, you need to move away from the standard Call Centre lead generation approach and adopt the approach of sales opportunity creation.

Sales opportunity creation is a form of lead generation that takes a ‘laser-guided sniper’ approach to a campaign rather than the Call Centre ‘scatter-gun’ approach.  I use the ‘laser-guided’ analogy because this form of lead generation begins with very careful targeting.  To use the military analogy further for your sales campaign, you will generally hire a very small number of ‘special forces’ (better known as Consultative Telemarketing people) as opposed to a large number of ‘conscripts’ (Call Centre staff).  Instead of the Call Centre ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to lead generation, the Consultative Telemarketing person will create a ‘pitch’ instead of a ‘script’.  The pitch will be matched to a carefully selected database that the expert will build for you or work with you to produce.  Sales opportunity creation is a business development approach that uses a high-calibre telemarketing person.  This form of lead generation is geared towards medium to high level decision makers with larger budgets.  This approach is far more suited to new markets, new technologies, niche offerings and specialist skills provided.

To summarise, if you have a product in a saturated market place that takes little or no explanation of what your product does, then use Call Centre lead generation.  If your product or service is a complex or specialist offering, then your lead generation requires a sales opportunity creation approach - using a high-calibre consultative telemarketing person.

If you are in any doubt, I offer high-calibre consultative telemarketing for lead generation.   I’m happy to explain the difference if you need further help – call 0870 042 1263.

Posted in Lead Generation, Telemarketing | No Comments »

15/06/2009 by Stephen Law.

Choosing the right people to help you with Telemarketing can be a mission critical decision for your business.  Do you employee a team, outsource to an agency or hire a freelancer?  Without sales no business can survive, so choosing the best Telemarketing people is vitally important.  The problem is how to arrive at that decision.  I will explain how to sort out the wheat from the chaff – who are the best Telemarketing people and who is bluffing you. 

There are those of us in this world who are willing to learn from others and those of us who have to try something ourselves first before we truly understand.  Any adult knows that if you put your fingers in a fire, you will burn your fingers.  Unfortunately, I receive calls from potential customers every week, telling me how they just had their fingers burnt by not hiring the best Telemarketing people.  So for those who’ve had their fingers burnt, or for those of you who don’t need to experience pain before learning – here is how to choose the best Telemarketing.

It’s a sad fact (recognised by all the best Human Resources Directors) that about 90% of people tell lies on their CV and provide references that are not worth the paper they are written on.  In fact, legislation makes it very difficult for a former employer to say anything bad about a former employee.  Likewise, it’s so simple these days to set up a business.  So how difficult is it for a dodgy Telemarketing company to ask their friend to supply a reference from their small business?  So the first hint on finding the best Telemarketing people is to be wary about a CV and to be wary about a reference.  Remember, you’re buying someone’s telephone skills not a piece of paper – so make your judgement when they talk to you on the telephone and not based upon pieces of paper they give you.

Firstly, you need to think clearly about your objectives and what you are trying to achieve by hiring the best Telemarketing people.  Unless you are conducting market research, then surely your objective is to meet up with prospective buyers of your product or service?  This may sound obvious, but let’s see how the bluffers can fool you.

Your objective is not to make the telemarketing people wealthy or help them to employ as many people as possible.  Your objective is to provide you with a good Return on Investment by hiring the best Telemarketing people.  So if a bluffer talks about how many people they have in their team, why would you care?  If the best Telemarketing person can outperform a whole team of juniors, then be wary when someone talks about the size of their telemarketing team.  Quality is the first factor that differentiates the best telemarketing from the rest, not quantity.

Of course we all need some kind of markers to identify success, when we try to measure the best Telemarketing.  But be wary of the bluffer who starts spouting endless metrics.  If the best Telemarketing person made you one appointment that resulted in a deal worth a significant value, would you trade that for 50 appointments that resulted in no business?  If the best Telemarketing person spent hours researching that one call that was worth a significant value, would you trade that for 1000 calls that brought you no business?  So when the bluffer talks about how many calls they will make instead of discussing your objectives, let this sound an alarm bell in your head.

The final point on How to Choose the Best Telemarketing person has to boil down to charisma and charm at the end of the day.  As an expert in my field, I receive a number of phone calls each week from ‘would-be’ telemarketers seeking help and guidance.  Some are good and I try to steer in them in the right direction.  Recently I received a call from the most boring person I’ve spoken to in years, who whined on about not being able to get work – being depressing on the phone does not win business.  The best telemarketing person is someone who can grab your attention without being aggressive.  You need someone who makes you want to talk more because they’re asking you all the right questions.  To choose the best telemarketing person – always ask yourself, “would I buy from this person”?   There’s an old saying that “People Buy People”.  It doesn’t matter if your selling aircraft parts or accountancy services, people buy from people they like.

Of course if you really want to know How to Choose the Best Telemarketing person, simply call me on 0870 042 1263 – If I’m fully booked, I’ll find you the next best person to help you.

Posted in Telemarketing | 1 Comment »