Comments on: Buyer centricity on a shoestring lead generation budget

By: Miles Austin

Miles Austin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:10:26 +0000

Robert, Great insight as usual. With the widespread availability and low cost (in many cases-free)of WebTools, the historical challenge of "minimal customer insight" can be substantially minimized.

Segment and Conquer is effective and quick to achieve. I would add that JOB LEVEL/TITLE is another segmentation option.

Paul's approach is terrific but I find that in the SMB space I cannot afford those extra calls at the low end.

Trigger's have been most successful for me in both SMB and Enterprise customers over the last 2 years.

If you utilize webtools like Constant Contact for your list segmentation and communication, Jigsaw for the detailed individual contact information and InsideView for the Trigger Event information you will see surprising, positive results in a short period of time.

Miles

By: Ardath Albee

Ardath Albee — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 07:05:32 +0000

Nice post, Robert. And good comments, too.

I'm glad Trish mentioned buyer personas, those are a great resource. Plus, I totally agree with her about Inbound programs.

Ultimately, telesales needs a business reason for making the call. All calls should deliver something valuable to the prospect. An additional way to build the relationship is to offer a content resource that takes a dive into the problem your solution solves. Where a cold prospect may not be willing to give you a lot of phone time, they just may be willing to receive relevant and helpful information. Plus you then have a reason to follow-up and extend the conversation based on interest if they download the piece.

Thanks for opening the door on this discussion. The old, "Are you ready to buy" calls just won't work. Disappointing that those are a majority of what I receive.

By: Umberto Milletti

Umberto Milletti — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:56:12 +0000

One of the advantages of SMB selling (as compared to enterprise selling) is that it's a target-rich environment. An efficient approach to "being smart about the customer" is to let the target find you, using technology. Define your profile for the ideal prospect (size, geo, vertical, and compelling business trigger) and let the technology feed you pre-researched targets to call. That's what Sales 2.0 technology can/should do for sales.

By: Paul McCord

Paul McCord — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:37:15 +0000

Whether trying to connect with a small business owner or the division manager of a major corporation, knowing why you're calling is critical. One of the reasons decision makers hate getting cold calls is they all sound the same–that is, every salesperson who calls is quizzing them to find a reason for having called. Decision makers find it a tremendous waste of time and ultimately just refuse to take any unsolicited calls from salespeople. Do the research, know why you're calling, don't waste your prospect's time.

By: trish bertuzzi

trish bertuzzi — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:07:53 +0000

Great post Robert. Those companies targeting the SMB space via telesales need to not only consider thoughtful outbound practices but also must build an inbound lead machine. With low dollar average deal prices, a telesales rep will be challenged to make their number through outbound alone.

When you add an effective inbound component it delivers data the telesales rep can use in the sales process ie. what is the prospect interested in, do they fit our ideal customer profile and buyer persona, what did they respond to or what pages did they look at on our site?

More than any other market segment, SMB success requires an inbound machine coupled with an outbound strategy that is effective. Thanks for raising the issue!