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 »

26/02/2009 by Stephen Law.

Is it best to spend your marketing budget on Telemarketing or Internet Marketing?  This is a question faced by many entrepreneurs and marketing managers.  I will explore the differences between the two routes to market and help you to make that decision.

Ten years ago, a lot of business people became very excited about the Internet.  The Internet was hailed as the new medium for promoting a business and so-called technical gurus were lining up, telling everyone it was the end of other forms of marketing such as Telemarketing and Direct Mail.  Shareholders became so excited, that we ended up with the dot.com (now often referred to as the dot.CON!) boom.  The problem was that people started believing “techie talk” instead of applying “marketing knowledge”.   From a techie’s perspective the Internet provided all the answers, but a true marketer understands terms like “market saturation”and the real gurus of marketing could see that this was just another route to market.

So why didn’t the Internet replace Telemarketing and all other forms of marketing?  The simple answer is that the Internet cannot directly replace certain human interactions and if everyone has a website then a website is no longer something special.  To give an analogy, the Audi TT was one of the most exciting cars of the same decade as the Internet boom.  But would buying a 10 year old Audi TT produce the same thrill in your neighbourhood, as buying one of the orginal models hot off the production line?  Of course it wouldn’t, because there is now a plethora of Audi TT’s and Audi TT look alikes out there.  Professional Telemarketing was bringing in new business 10 years ago and is bringing in new business today.  Yet a good website 10 years ago was a big fish in a small pond.  Today a good website is simply a tiny fish in a giant ocean full of thousands, maybe millions of similar fish!

I’m not suggesting for one moment that a website should not form part of your marketing strategy.  What I’m saying is that the thrill of having the only website selling a particular product or service has gone.  Gone are the days of being able to produce a good website and finding customers flocking to your door.  Yet Telemarketing has been around since the telephone was invented.  The key issue here is that Internet Marketing now requires all the skills and focus required to succeed; all the skills and focus that Telemarketing Professionals have been using for decades.  The problem with Internet Marketing is that no one truly understands what is going on, wheras Telemarketing is a tried and tested method of gaining new business.

I recently spoke to a CEO of a major Association in the UK.  We had a long conversation about Internet Marketing V Telemarketing.  He told me that over the last 12 months, he interviewed the top brains from a number of Internet Marketing agencies and university professors.  The most striking point was that none of them could agree, upon the best way to bring in new business via the Internet.  Some argued that links were the most important aspect.  Others stated that search engine optimisation was the key.  Yet in tests, none of these experts were able to improve his website performance and some even made it worse.  In comparison, the Association still managed to steadily increase business by simply picking up the telephone and talking to people.  So what is the difference between Internet Marketing and Telemarketing?

I still remember the first time I went to a website, where a person popped up on the screen and started talking to me.  It was fun, it was creative and it was exciting.  That was ten years ago, but now it’s just downright annoying!  I quickly close a browser that annoys me, along with millions of other Internet users.  The point here is that website designers are seeking personal interaction, but a video of someone talking is not interaction at all.  This reminds me of those appalling offshore call centres who pretend they have been trained in Telemarketing.  They are like robots asking the same questions and not listening to a word that you say - that’s not interaction.  True Telemarketing works because people interact with one another and have a conversation.  Telemarketing offers the ability to ask questions directly and ineract with the answers provided.  In comparison the Internet is cold and inhuman.  For many people, the Internet is about as stimulating as talking to a telephone system that asks you to dial 1 for Accounts, dial 2 for Human Resources, and on and on and on - until you are bored to sleep.

True Telemarketing is about researching who you want to do business with.  Then you build a database of prospective buyers.  You form a suitable pitch.  You call the prospects and interact with them,. You narrow down those with a need and those who do not have a need.  You ask pertinent questions.  You treat the potential buyer like a human being, throw in a little humour and charm, and you compare personal experiences.  It’s no surprise that appointments and sales pop out the other end of the system.  Show me an Internet site that can communicate in this way, and I’ll admit that the days of Telemarketing are over.  The techonology for Internet Marketing to interact in the same way as a human being simply isn’t there yet and is unlikely to be available for decades.

Internet Marketing should be an essential part of your marketing mix.  A good website is necessary as your shop window and as a means of advertising your offering.  Probably the most important aspect of a good website, is good content and easy navigation.  If your prospective customer is interested and can find their way around a site easily - then you are more likely to do business with them.  Just don’t be fooled in to thinking that a good website is all you need.  If a market leader is spending tens of thousands of pounds a year on Internet Marketing, why do you think your £10k website will be noticed?  The telephone is a universal leveller.  Hiring a Telemarketing Professional can put you on a level playing field with a multinational corporation.

Is Search Engine Optimisation important - yes!  Will pay-per-click help your marketing - yes!  All aspects of Internet Marketing, done correctly, should bring you the right results.  The problem is that those organisations with the greatest buying power are able to influence the Internet, in just the same way that other forms of advertising generally win with a bigger budget.  If you are the market leader and you have an enormous budget, then I’m not surprised that you are dominating the Internet.  If you are not the market leader, then don’t have a head-on battle with a whole regiment of giants - you’ll just get squashed!  Think smart and use a strategy that levels the playing field.  Professional Telemarketing can put you on that level playing field.

On a final note, let’s explore one darned good piece of logic, as to why Telemarketing is often more effective than Internet Marketing, when seeking new business.  Of all the calls I receive each week, 30% of interest in Professional Telemarketing comes from Internet Marketing companies.  I’m always happy to help a good Internet Marketing company with an interesting offering.  But it does tend to beg the question, if Internet Marketing is the best way to win new business, why are Internet Marketing companies asking for me to conduct Telemarketing for them?

If you are looking for new business - why not call me today on 0870 042 1263.

Posted in Business Development, Telemarketing | No Comments »

24/08/2008 by Stephen Law.

I will explain how ‘Business Development Telemarketing’ differs from the service you might expect from a Call Centre. If you do not have a business development background, you are probably wondering what the difference is, so let me explain.

Business Development covers a very broad spectrum of techniques. The art of business is often compared to the art of war and the terms used - like ‘campaign’ or ‘guerrilla marketing’, etc display the similar theoretical approaches used. Whilst some people claim to be business development experts - I sometimes wonder if they really understand the term.

A true business development expert has a very rounded business career, spanning across the full areas of any enterprise and including - Administration, Finance, Legal, Marketing and Operational roles. Business Development takes an ‘eagle-eye ‘view’ of the business and is often akin to a CEO, MD, General Manager or Operations Director. The main difference is that the Business Development Director generally comes from a strong sales background.

In truth, the number of real Business Development experts (like yours truly) are small in number. Most so-called business development people have either very little knowledge of all the facets of running a business, or they are really sales people giving themselves a grand title.

So what do we mean by ‘Business Development Telemarketing’? Well, firstly and foremost this applies to someone who understands the pressures and responsibilities of a senior manager or business director - because they have held that role personally. Secondly, this applies to someone who has a broad business background of responsibilities. Thirdly, it applies to someone with great sales acumen. Finally, (and please don’t just assume that all sales people are good telemarketing people) that they are darned good at telemarketing.

When we talk about telemarketing, we are referring to the high-end of telemarketing, not one of those unfortunates stuck in an offshore call centre. High-end ‘business development telemarketing’ utilises the brain and many years of sales experience as opposed to reading some form of inane script from a computer screen. It utilises a ‘pitch’ rather than a ’script’ - a pitch is a ‘constructed answer’ depending on the conversation, whilst a ’script’ is always the same.

The unfortunate call centre person is often bugging Jo Public at inconvenient times to purchase something - calling an individual is known as Business2Consumer or B2C. Nine times out of ten, ‘Business Development Telemarketing’ is about businesses communicating with other businesses - Business2Business or B2B.

‘Business Development Telemarketing’ generally uses a style known as ‘Consultative Telemarketing‘. In simple terms, this means being able to communicate with intelligent and articulate people at their level. ‘Business Development Telemarketing’ allows your enterprise to reach senior managers and directors - via generating that all-important first meeting, gaining an invite to tender and building a business relationship.

Call Centres provide both ‘inbound’ and ‘outbound’ telemarketing, whilst ‘Business Development Telemarketing’ is all outbound work. ‘Inbound’ refers to someone sat waiting for a call, whilst ‘outbound’ refers to pro-actively hunting for new business. For someone to be sat in a call centre waiting for calls, to describe themselves as a telemarketing expert, is a bit like a 12-year-old kid telling you he’s a footballer the same as David Beckham. They both play football, but that’s about where the similarity ends. And it would seem, just like the 12 year old footballer, most people in the telemarketing industry haven’t got a clue what it means to be a ‘Business Development Telemarketing’ person.

‘Business Development Telemarketing’ is all about quality not quantity. Over the last week, I have been plagued by a lady from a call centre evidently bashing away through the numbers; though despite informing her I’m not the Decision Maker for what’s she’s selling I get the same old script every week.

Unfortunately, many of my clients are also confused by ‘Business Development Telemarketing’, at first believing that 1000s of companies need to be on a list to do business with. Fortunately, I’m generally blessed with intelligent customers and they can see that it is better to be meeting up with a handful of buyers who are serious about spending their budget, than creating some ridiculously long list of contacts that goes nowhere.

It is unlikely that you would ask the man at the fish and chip shop to represent you in court. He probably cooks a mean piece of battered cod, but I don’t think you’d feel confident of him talking to a judge or cross-examining any witnesses. Likewise, when you choose ‘Business Development Telemarketing’, you will be represented in a first-class professional manner rather than by a script-reading tele-monkey from a call centre.

So ‘Business Development Telemarketing’ is not about crunching the numbers - it’s all about a positive reflection of your organisation’s values. Focus is always the mark of ‘Business Development Telemarketing’, to provide you with consistently high-calibre results.

‘Business Development Telemarketing’ begins with an in-depth brief and agreement on strategy, tactics and marketing collateral. Based on the agreed approach, a campaign begins - but here’s another key difference between ‘Business Development Telemarketing’ and a Call Centre approach. Once up and running, a call centre has written a script for people to follow (for which you were probably charged an arm and a leg). In ‘Business Development Telemarketing’, feedback and analysis are ongoing. Whilst one would be likely to begin with an excellent pitch, this is then adapted as the campaign progresses to reach maximum efficiency.

So if you require to new business, and your prospective customers are senior management or directors - choose ‘Business Development Telemarketing’ as your weapon of choice. Contact SL-Freelance - for the best ‘Business Development Telemarketing’.

Posted in Business Development, Telemarketing | No Comments »