by Catherine Brown, President, Initial Call

Is “outsourcing” a bad word? Admittedly, the idea can have a negative connotation, but in B2B sales, seeking expert outside help for key professional services is becoming more and more acceptable. I experience this personally not only as we help other businesses decide whether to outsource their sales work and but also in the running of my own business. For example, with tax season coming up quickly, I am reminded how much I enjoy outsourcing accounting. Although I appreciate my competent Certified Public Accountant throughout the year, I am especially grateful for her services in April. Why? Because although I could do my business taxes myself, I am freed from a tremendous burden in time and management energy by trusting this to a professional. Recruiting is a similar function. Some companies hire only through HR, but others utilize a competent contract recruiter to help. The inside sales role is similar for sales executives. When deciding how to build or grow your organization, ask yourself, “Do I want to run this process myself or am I willing to delegate?” Evaluate what is best for your business model as well as for your personality. If you lack the bandwidth to find, hire, and actively manage resources, then outsourcing may be best for you. To make a final decision, consider two more key points - Training and Budget. 

Regarding training, do you have a product or service that contract labor can be trained to learn? Even if your product or sales qualification process is complex, the answer to this question is usually “yes.” Of course trusting someone else with your messaging is a big hurdle. Remember that, in reality, you must do that very thing if you hire an employee. There is no other way to grow. Rest assured, if you have a definition of what a “qualified opportunity” means for your company, it’s likely that you can provide the information that an experienced contractor needs to be successful in finding sales for you. A good vendor will have an established project launch process to guide you.

The other important consideration is budget for the work relative to your offering price. Analyze your cost of sale. Determine what your budget would be if you were to hire someone for the role then research what that dollar amount buys when outsourced. Contractor prices vary, depending on the level of resource appropriate for your pitch. The vendor price may appear either very affordable or very expensive at first glance. You must dig deeper and consider what’s included then compare the hidden costs of employees. From the intangibles such as lost time when a person doesn’t work out to the add-on costs of taxes and benefits, employees can be expensive too. Contracting the right level of inside sales talent tends to cost about the same as hiring when you analyze the whole sales cycle, from the process of building a target list to qualifying opportunities. 

Elements of your sales cycle may dictate in-house operations. For example, does the same person who cold-calls also do an on-the-spot in-depth demo? Thinking about your management style, you may simply enjoy building inside sales teams, training people to cold call, and overseeing performance. . If you want to listen to cold calls in person and see your team around the water cooler, you will likely be more satisfied with a team of people in your physical location. If you are a person who needs high control over your whole sales organization, you may be dissatisfied with outsourcing, no matter how good the vendor. Embrace that you want to own all sales operations--even the gory details! Let’s say that the above does NOT describe you. You simply want good sales opportunities but you don’t have to be intimately involved with every detail of acquiring these opportunities. If you lack the bandwidth to find, hire, and actively manage resources, then outsourcing may best for you. 

Determining whether to outsource or hire requires careful thought as to what is better for your business in addition to your own preferences. We talk more on our blog about Eliminating the Risks of Telesales if you’d like to see more suggestions. I’d also welcome the opportunity to discuss our findings about true costs of outsourcing if you want to contact me to talk further. cbrown@initialcall.com

by Colleen McCarty, VP Talent & Organization

Google the term “annoying business phrases” and you will find plenty of reading material so I’m not sure I need to add more to the canon.  While figurative language is colorful and helps communicate meaning, it can be overused to the point it ceases to have meaning or be interesting.  Recently, I ran across two phrases that I’d never heard before so they stood out for me.

In one of our earlier blogs was the following quote:

Speaking of the keynote address, Jason S. from Seattle Tweeted, “...Marc melted my face off!”   

I must confess I’m not sure what “melted my face off” means.  I googled it and I still don’t know.  Is it me?  Do lots of people know that term or is it too bleeding edge?  If so, is it good business to using bleeding edge terms in business? Beyond that, is the use of pop culture phrases professional? Unless your target audience is only the hippest clients, are these phrases getting business for you?

For my second example, I recently I received an email from a previously unheard of vendor that started with:

Hi Colleen, Can we circle?

Now that just annoyed me.  I can figure out what “can we circle” means, and the answer is NO.  No, we cannot circle as that just does not sound like a good use of my time, fun, or even appealing.  So NO, we cannot circle.  I don’t know you and I’ve never heard of your product so I’m hitting the email delete button now.  I’m pretty sure my hitting the delete button was not the sender’s goal.

Do our attempts to be fresh and relevant inadvertently have the opposite effect? Do we risk turning our audience off by using phrases they don’t understand or that sound unprofessional?  Or have they worked for you?  I’d love to hear your experiences.

by Catherine Brown, President

Over the Christmas holidays, I was catching up on some of the discussions from the LinkedIn groups that I follow, including the B2B Lead Generation Round Table. Chris Knipper at Kuno Creative posted an article titled, “Is Direct Mail Marketing Dead? Not If You Do It Right.” This topic piqued my interest, as I’ve been tracking Initial Call’s own direct mail successes this last quarter.

 In a world of instant gratification, direct mail is still an art. Letters still work in reaching people, precisely because direct mail is such an old concept, it almost seems new again. “Snail mail” gets attention in a world of e-mail marketing. I love direct mail because it gives the opportunity to do many things: to demonstrate that you’ve specifically chosen to reach out to X company because you have reason to believe they’d be a good fit for your services; to provide a targeted case study with quantitative, measurable results that don’t look sales-y; and finally, now you have a reason to call them since you’ve put a call to action within your letter.

I believe that mass mailings are hard to do well because lists always involve bad names. Sending to the wrong name and title at a company undermines the personal touch you are striving to have. I like to send small batches of letters at a time, where we choose an industry that we want to target because of our success story therein. Then we send personal letters that reflect that we have good reason to be a fit to work with a particular company, including a case study. Finally, we call and set up an appointment to speak further. The final step is essential, as even an interested party may be just busy and not get around to calling you even if they mean to call you. Make it easy for them by telling a strong story about why they should speak with you with quantifiable results, and follow up to schedule a time to speak further.

by Amy Keuper, VP Sales

CRM systems are the heart of most inside sales operations. Many of Initial Call’s clients use Salesforce.com, so we are passionate about best practices. Hence my recent trip to Salesforce.com’s 2009 conference, dubbed Dreamforce. This “Global Gathering” occurs every fall and serves to unite partners, prospects, and users around Salesforce.com’s vision.

The event is surreal and dream-like on many levels--complete with an ethereal sky motif perfectly suited to cloud computing. Giant inflated Mylar cloud balloons are tethered to a fleet of Mini-Coopers outside the event center. Inside, the theme continues everywhere you look.  In tangible and intangible ways, Salesforce.com taps into common human thoughts, emotions and desires. Since sales and customer relations are both objective and subjective, let’s take note of how Salesforce.com makes Dreamforce attendees feel--and the powerful lessons we can all apply from it.  

“I’m special!”  
Somehow Salesforce.com masterfully affirms each attendee as valuable while simultaneously feeding the power of the crowd mentality. Like junior high students, we all deep down want to be “in” with the popular crowd. And Salesforce.com made sure the cool kids were at Dreamforce. Any prospects on the fence about purchasing or renewing the tool were swayed by the big business names endorsing the solution. On the BART train to the airport, I connected with a fellow attendee and current user who is up for renewal. He confessed that he had been considering other CRM tools but that his Dreamforce experience convinced him to stay. 

While not so subconsciously assuring attendees that “everyone who is anyone” is using Salesforce.com, our host also offered several activities aimed at highlighting individuals.  Breakout sessions and lunch roundtables were tailored to each attendee’s interest track or company role. Customized conference schedules negated the herd mentality that could have easily prevailed. I had my photo taken with the Saas-y mascot, and Salesforce.com posted my and others’ photos for viewing in the hallway. All attendees got eco-friendly tote bags.  Live Twitter feeds displayed continuously to multiple jumbo screens throughout the facility.  Speaking of the keynote address, Jason S. from Seattle Tweeted, “...Marc melted my face off!”   

Have you found a way to develop a sense of community and belonging among your clients without losing a personal touch?  Salesforce.com modeled how to expertly strike this balance. How will you mix social media, mass communication with direct interactions to make your clients feel valued?     

“I’m Powerful!”
Dreamforce had plenty of hype, but the core message of making CRM accessible to everyone--not just “the big guys”--still rang through loud and clear. Salesforce’s original mission was to democratize databases. Dreamforce delivers on this mission with hands-on training and information sessions to empower users. Salesforce.com says, “You can build it.  You can customize it. You can manage it. We will help you.” Salesforce.com takes the complex and makes it relatively simple and user-friendly. Their openness has not cost them business but has instead earned allegiance and yielded growth.  

Surely your business exists to serve your customers and meet a need--to make them better, faster, or more economical in some way. Reflect on how Salesforce.com “opened their kimono” and de-mystified the how-to of customizing and creating applications. Examine whether there is any part of your service or product offering that is unnecessarily confusing or overly complicated--somehow inaccessible. Salesforce.com shows how eliminating customer fear and impotence will build loyalty.  

“I’m on vacation!”
Clearly the CRM system conference is work-related, but holding the event in the destination city of San Francisco lends a getaway feel to the week. The conference atmosphere and amenities are first class and fun, with everything from bean bag lounges to tofu lunch choices to DJs spinning hot dance tunes in the atrium.   

Few of us are likely to hold events on the Dreamforce scale (19,000 attendees), but we should consider whether our clients ever feel like our interactions with them are “all business” in a negative way. We can’t escape our work obligations and must always be professional, but we should strive to provide levity for our clients where we can. As often as possible, be a blessing rather than a burden to your client. They should see your dealings as a privilege and a help rather than drudgery. At this time of year, make sure your holiday greetings exude sincerity and gratitude.  

Wake Up Call  

So, in our dreams, sugarplum fairies dance in our heads. Reality is relative and we can be or do anything. In real life, well, there are limits.  

Conference gifts included Marc Benioff’s new book, Behind the Cloud. In it, Salesforce.com’s CEO weaves the company’s story into 110 tips to grow your business.  What becomes clear during the read is that Salesforce.com is unique--birthed and grown within a bubble of high-level Bay Area power players and with rare financial resources.  While Benioff paints a quaint picture of the early days when his team worked in Hawaiian shirts from his living room, he later relates how just two years into their founding they were spending between $2 and $3 million per month on advertising. (pg. 45)  

So, we can’t all be Salesforce.com. I don’t take regular six-month sabbaticals to India or bounce ideas of my good buddy Michael Dell. But dreams do inspire. Having been part of Dreamforce, I am motivated to ensure all our clients feel valued, empowered and in a small way even swept away by the service we provide.

by Colleen McCarty, VP Talent & Organization

Remember the days when it was nothing to fly cross country for a 3-hour meeting? Sure, you tried to meet up with other colleagues or customers to fill up your day, but sometimes you went just for the one meeting. So yes, the ability to conduct business over conference calls is one of my favorite technological advances. I’m thankful that business culture has embraced the idea – or – perhaps conference calls are one silver lining of recessions!

However, there are times when I have to remind myself how much I love conference calls because they aren’t always pleasant:

• Barking dogs and crying kids. Bad enough but even when someone screams “be quiet” into your ear. Ouch.
• Participants who use the freedom of conference calls as an excuse to travel somewhere else, traffic noises, dead zones, and cops (in states with Bluetooth laws).
• Hold vs. Mute. If you need a minute to answer the door, put your phone on mute. Using hold frequently treats everyone else to your annoying Muzak service.

Here are some tips we can all benefit from:

Leading the Meeting:

• Do set up the meeting in advance and communicate the dial in number, passcodes, agenda, and any other information.
• Do manage the call as a real meeting. Prepare an agenda, take notes and send a wrap up email - especially if you want people to complete follow up actions.
• Do start the meeting on time. Determine who is present and don’t punish those who arrived on time by starting the call over or repeating what’s already been said. Make the latecomers figure out where you are on the agenda.
• Do close the meeting formally, thanking everybody for participating. Summarize next steps and send out to-do’s generated in the call.

Attending the Meeting:

• Do use the right phone in a quiet, undisturbed room. Don’t attend a call while taking a walk or driving (even if you are a passenger in a cab). It may be more convenient for you but it is disruptive (and annoying) for everyone else.
• Do join the call on time and if you are late, don’t monopolize the meeting by making excuses for why you are late. Simply announce yourself and listen to determine where the call is on the agenda.
• Do use the mute button appropriately and only when necessary. Then remember when you did mute the phone so you don’t cause everyone to wait while you fumble for the mute button.

For additional tips read Conference Call Etiquette – 15 Dos and Don’ts of Multi-Way Phone Conversations.

by Amy Keuper, VP Sales

Why does Initial Call not contract on a pay-for-performance basis? It might be easier to sell our services this way, but we moved away from this model because we have seen that commission-only terms do not form the foundation for a long term, win-win relationship.

When companies are shopping for contracted inside sales support, they face two major trust hurdles. #1, what firm is good enough to represent our company and our complex offering? #2, how can we eliminate all other risk when contracting?

Initial Call wins on point one, but vendors who offer commission-only terms or who make meeting guarantees beat Initial Call--at first glance--on point two. Since it is natural to want to avoid risk, our prospects are likely to have concerns when weighing our model against a “sure thing” vendor.

Buyer Beware. Commission-only terms may feel safer but are really not inherently less risk. Consider these points:

1. If you yourself do not have extensive metrics about what it takes to schedule qualified meetings from scratch, how can anyone else make a guarantee around such? Each client offering is unique, and we do not see consistent metrics in any one vertical. Anyone who says that “we will get you X meetings by X date” or “meetings with X title cost $X” is over-simplifying.
2. Promises may get you to buy, but then you will be stuck if there is a delivery problem. Be wary: actual sales meetings may be sub-par or take much longer to schedule than pledged, costing valuable time you cannot get back.
3. If a vendor compensates their employees or contractors on a commission-only model, it is likely that they have a high-level of turnover. Meeting commissions are one part of our compensation, but we eliminate volatility and hence retain the level of talent essential to our services.

We understand that prospects want their contractor to “have skin in the game” and may think that pay-for-performance or profit-sharing is the only way to do this. We have been providing complete inside sales management for over 7 years now. We know enough to know what we don’t know—and can’t know--about a new client. So we avoid making promises we can’t keep. However, we do have a two-part solution to ensure our clients see ROI from their relationship with us.

First, we engage with new clients in a Discovery Pilot, the primary aim of which is to uncover comprehensive information about the first 1/3 of their sales cycle. A solid pilot sets the stage for future performance and a win-win partnership. At the end of a 12-week testing period, our clients have their CRM customized, a complete sales playbook, and metrics around qualified sales appointments set.

Secondly, we offer a no-penalty termination clause. At any time, if you are not satisfied with our services, you can end the engagement immediately.

The one thing we do guarantee is that we treat you and your project like one of our own.

by Catherine Brown, President Initial Call

This week I read an article on the art of speaking well when selling. I thought I’d pass this along, as there are some helpful tips to keep in mind when selling in person. (See Marshall  W. Northcott's blog article, The Art of Conversation.)  The article made me think about the huge advantages that a person has when selling in person versus on the telephone. At Initial Call, we do almost all of our selling on the phone. When someone speaks on the phone, they are disadvantaged by not being able to watch body language; it is also easy to overlook or misinterpret the “tone.”

One of the most valuable lessons that I have learned in selling (and have to keep reminding myself!) is this:  it is okay to be quiet. When cold callers get nervous, they often fill in the gaps and jump in and speak before their prospect can speak. When soliciting an answer, wait a few seconds before answering. I’ve even been known to count to 10 in my head while waiting. This will seem like an eternity on the telephone when you are wondering if someone is going to hang up on you, but you will often have the opposite response that you expect. By giving the prospect an opportunity to think about your question or ask you a question, you will likely engage in a more productive conversation.

by Amy Keuper, VP Sales

The concept of controlling the sales cycle is simple to grasp in theory yet elusive in real life, especially in the Complex Sale where 1) your primary Buyer needs to coordinate with others in the prospect organization and 2) they really do need time to make a deal happen.  No single-purchaser, click-to-buy easy close here.

The Complex Sale, like Gilligan’s cruise, can easily deteriorate from a straightforward 3-hour tour into a storm-tossed wreck.  Here are two tactics which will keep you at the helm of your sales relationship:

1. Tell your Buyer what your sales process is--who helps evaluate your solution and how long it will take.  Your language might look something like this, “We have found that, typically, the key roles for evaluating [our fabulous offering] are CEO, CFO and COO—and that it usually takes about three weeks to confirm that we are a fit.  We have come to you as a key Decision Maker and are reaching out to X and X as well.  We can schedule a group meeting to discuss the merits together or loop back to you next week…”
   
   With this phrasing, you have spelled out not only the timeframe within which you hope to receive a preliminary “yes” or “no” but have also acknowledged the reality that multiple Buyers are involved.  You have set the stage that you will be contacting others which might motivate this contact to become your Champion.  At the very least, this one contact now lacks the power to stall the process. 
   
   
2. Next, determine what is stalling your prospect: a genuine lack of interest or the weakness of human nature.  If your prospect truly has no interest at this time—for whatever reason, you are unlikely to move the account forward no matter what you do.  However, some prospects are open to you and your offering, but simple procrastination and the “tyranny of the urgent” may prevent them from acting.

If you don’t have clear “no-go” signs, you will need to nurture your prospect along in specific ways.  Break down the tasks you currently do after a prospect commits to moving forward and see if you can move some of those milestones earlier in your sales cycle.  In essence, create Baby Steps which lead your prospect to “yes.”  This idea works especially well when the services you do for your client (typically after you close) only reinforce the rightness of your solution.  Do you see any ways to separate and sequence your sales process?  Do you gather requirements or run numbers?   Consider giving away more analysis or consulting so that perhaps some heretofore “post-close” steps will actually help finalize your sale for you. 

In other words, make it very easy to buy.  A story to illustrate:

I had wanted to refinance my house for months and had made some calls and web inquiries to vendors.  I had two Good Faith Estimates sitting in my in-box…for weeks.  Then I got a call from the loan officer who ultimately earned my business.  Before I realized it, we were walking through the necessary info in a phone interview—no burdensome forms.  He did some quick calculations and asked if his numbers were as good as or better than the other quotes I had.  They were.  Then, he closed the sale without me ever having to say a word.  “What I am going to do now is overnight a package that will be on your doorstep by 8:00 a.m.  All you have to do is sign the top paper and return it in the postage-paid envelope.  If you want to send some or all of the other forms, great—but don’t let that hold you up.  We can get those by email or fax later.  We will get you locked in and from that point your rate can only go down—not up.”

This master closer didn’t let me say that I needed to think about it, or else his quote would have languished in my in-box along with the others.  He took charge and took a risk by mailing me a package, but with that action he created a simple Baby Step for me.  Everyone else was waiting for me to say “Yes, I pledge to working with you,” before taking any action.  Having been through the home-purchasing process more than once in the past, I got stalled in making a decision because I knew I would then have to gather and copy countless forms and mail them in—after finding or buying a jumbo envelope and going to stand in line at the post office and paying postage for my jumbo package on top of all that.  It all felt too annoying and troublesome to deal with, so I kept stalling.

Clearly I was interested in refinancing or I wouldn’t have contacted several lenders.  By taking an action step that others saw as post close, this loan officer cemented my business.  Your prospects are the same as I was; they have an interest in your offering or they wouldn’t be taking your call.  Now—don’t wait for your prospect to say “yes” or “no.”  Don’t make those the only choices.  Don’t make it hard to move forward.  Instead, walk them through your sales steps, positioning each task as “providing them what they need to make an informed decision.” 

By definition, there are many ways that The Complex Sale can’t be simplified; however, it can be streamlined and accelerated.  And you can be in control of more elements of the timetable than you may assume.  Map a course and then help the “maybes” become “yeses” by steering your prospect through waypoints that you define—ones that have been there all along.  Share any sales process steps that you can--prior to closing the sale--and you will guide into your harbor those prospects who otherwise would have likely drifted out to sea.

by Colleen McCarty, VP Talent & Organization Development &
Amy Keuper, VP Sales

We are frequently asked how projects are staffed at Initial Call. Initial Call has a robust recruiting and staffing infrastructure to ensure the best possible fit between our clients and our contractors. Here is an overview of our processes.

We recruit Sales Managers who have a strong background in Sales and Lead Generation, averaging over 10 years’ experience. Initial Call retains a high level of talent because we attract individuals who are now at a point in their career in which part-time work is the best fit. The average tenure for Sales Managers at Initial Call is two years. Each Sales Manager has specific skills but is prized primarily for an ability to learn quickly and adapt in order to represent a wide variety of client offerings.  

Initial Call is ever-growing and therefore adding new individuals to our pool. Client Teams are carefully selected to include proven veterans who can mentor newer Sales Managers. To be successful, Initial Call Sales Managers must:

• show an ability to work smartly and think like the client
• set well-qualified appointments within the hours-to-appointment ratio average of the individual client,
• respond promptly to voice and e-mail,
• take well-crafted notes within the CRM, and
• adapt according to the changing needs of the client.

When assembling project teams, we match our Sales Managers’ individual strengths and preferences (background and available work hours) with client needs. We consider:

• total project weekly man hours
• any significant time zone parameters
• which CRM will be used on the project
• skill sets needed to achieve the clients goals, and
• the complexity of messaging and appointment qualifiers.

Initial Call’s primary value proposition is that we provide complete inside sales management for companies who do not want to or are not currently prepared to build their own inside sales department. We absorb 100% of the Human Resources burden to provide a turn-key launch experience for our clients. In the rare case that we determine a Sales Manager we have placed on a team is not a fit, we act proactively and rapidly—and at our own expense--with whatever remedies or substitutions are necessary.

Initial Call’s commitment to superior performance frees our clients from the chore of finding, hiring, training and managing people. Our clients are then free to focus on their core competency---growing their business.

We are often asked this question while speaking with potential clients. Or said another way, people ask “Will you confirm and qualify X information and then let our sales reps call and schedule a sales appointment?” Initial Call has performed this kind of contract work in the past but more recently, we have come to a new answer: don’t do it. 

If you sell something really simple, and it’s not hard to find the Buyer’s name within a mid-sized company, it may be a reasonable use of money to pay a firm to confirm your prospects’ contact information and basic qualifying information. However, if what you sell is difficult to explain, requires heavy qualification, and the Buyer is deep within the company, it could well take our Sales Manager 50 different activities to get this person on the phone. If we have the potential Buyer on the phone and confirm that they are the right person with whom you should be talking, we want to schedule a sales appointment right then and there.   Nine times out of 10, when we forward researched information about a Buyer to a client, the client later struggles to get that Buyer on the phone again.  It usually doesn’t make sense for our clients’ expensive sales reps to spend time trying to chase down people we can reach for them. 

Beyond Default Settings: Best Practices for Managing Leads within Salesforce.com when you have a Complex Sale

Promote Initial Call's VP of Sales, Amy Keuper's, idea for a session covering the topic of Leads and the Complex Sale at the next Dreamforce Conference in San Francisco this November: http://dreamforce.ideas.salesforce.com/people/amykeuper/articles

Trying to track sales and qualification efforts without a protocol for immediately converting Leads can drive your organization into a workflow which does not fit your sales process if you have a long sales cycle.

We at Initial Call, Inc. provide contracted inside sales management. We maintain that, in the case of a Complex Sale (multiple Buyers, protracted education phase, expensive and/or complicated offering), the Leads tab should ideally function as an in-box—not a work platform.

Managing sales from within the Leads tab creates several specific challenges:

1. Leads are related to and tracked as individual people—not to the company they work for. You won’t have a master view of the target account unless you create an Account.
2. The “Company” field within a Lead record is freely keyed—not standardized. This causes multiple incorrect iterations of account names.
3. “New” Leads may not be new. Your sales team could “cold-call” someone you already have a relationship with.
4. Working in Leads causes duplication of effort. Two of your representatives can easily be, simultaneously but unknowingly, assigned different Leads at the same company.
5. Working in Leads can create conflict of ownership. Assigning Leads by territory or some other objective field is not error-proof due to factors such as HDQ/branch office location differences, parent/child relationships, etc.
6. Good salespeople are often not detail-oriented. Orders to “Find Duplicates” may not be followed.
7. Duplicate Leads skew reports about how many actual unique sales leads exist. An individual may appear in a database multiple times and be counted as a Lead many times over.

Leave with a plan to use Leads in a way that works for the Complex Sale.

Click here to promote our idea! http://dreamforce.ideas.salesforce.com/people/amykeuper/articles

Catherine spent some time last month chatting with Britton Manasco of Manasco Marketing Group in Austin, TX. Britton produces a thought leadership strategy blog at Illuminating the Future and has contributed to many business and marketing journals and magazines. Below is a transcript of Catherine and Britton's conversation. 

Catherine:  Thanks for speaking with me today, Britton.  As you know, our newsletter is tailored to people who are responsible for sales and marketing in their organization. In my article this month, I wrote about how the Internet has changed lead generation.  Do you agree with my premise: that sales and marketing professionals need to think differently about the way people buy today versus a few years ago? 

Britton:  Yes. It’s true that the Internet has made it much easier for people to gather insight and perspective that will help them in considering the issues they have to address, as well as the potential solutions that might be available to them. The Internet helps them identify the trusted authorities on a particular issue and get a handle on what others like them have experienced and achieved. Good marketing, in this sense, sets the stage for a credible sales conversation – a business conversation. 

Catherine:  So, what are some of the things your clients are doing to provide the knowledge that buyers are looking for about their products?

Britton:  I call this idea “marketing assets” or “content assets.” It’s my view that anything you produce should be thought of as a tool to help guide the buyer through a decision and through actions that will make them successful. What I found in the past (that is still a problem even now) is companies tend to create content or material that is very much inward-looking or introspective in nature. Companies talk about themselves, their products, their features and functions.       Sellers often aren’t locking on to the fact that their buyers really want to hear about themselves and others like them. They want to know, first off, that the seller really understands the problems and challenges that they face.                  

Sellers, as I see it, largely differentiate themselves with buyers based on the thoroughness of their diagnosis of a buyer’s pain or problem. However, you are far more likely to set up smart meetings and have these successful diagnostic conversations if you have already established trust and credibility. That’s a key objective of marketing assets such as white papers, case studies and webinar presentations. So, marketing assets should reflect the problems and challenges and issues that the prospective buyer is facing. That’s how you engage them. Otherwise, they’re not going to see the seller as credible or as a trusted authority. They won’t be provoked or enticed to meet with you in the first place.

Catherine:  One of the terms that I’ve heard people use to describe how sellers should want to come across in their written materials is as a “thought leader.” How do you recommend someone show this in their marketing and sales assets?

Britton:  You demonstrate thought leadership by showing that you have a perspective on where things are headed.  To the extent we’re engaged in a complex sale involving a high-risk, high-impact investment, the buyer is looking for someone they can trust and that they can commit themselves to for some period of time.                  

So they are naturally gravitating to what I would call “thought leaders” or “trusted authorities.”  You need to have research that demonstrates what’s happening out in the marketplace and be able to show what successes you’ve had with other companies like them.                  

This needs to be documented and demonstrated to build credibility.  You must articulate the key trends out in the marketplace, the business challenges that your prospect may be facing and the potential solutions they might invest in. You position yourself as an advisor – and provide reliable guidance.   

Catherine: What else should companies do?  

Britton: Companies need to be thinking about production, packaging and presentation. First, they must produce relevant and compelling content and research – marketing assets that draw prospects into your gravitational field.  Then, you must package those assets.  When I say “package” it, I mean package it as a white paper, a case study, a videocast, or a presentation at a conference or for a webinar.

Marketers can take their initial content and package it in any or all of the above.  In fact, that’s how you magnify the value of that initial content and ensure you’re getting a better result from your initial investment. You need to find more ways to package it.                  

And then,  finally, presenting the material is a critical issue. You may present information by sending it out to your house list, in an email or through a newsletter.  You can present it through social media like LinkedIn and Twitter.  You can run a PR campaign or you run a press release promoting the content you’ve created. You can present it in an event. You can do all of the above. 

Catherine: This sounds like a lot to do. 

Britton:  I realize that all of this can sound intimidating for some companies but it’s important to recognize that there are ways to enter into this gradually and make small investments in content that have a big impact.                  

A lot of the media, for instance, allow you to present your ideas in the marketplace inexpensively or free.  Your time isn’t free, but the media to deliver it is.  This can be an incredible advantage for smaller companies. They can’t compete on the level of buying ads or big trade booths, but they can compete as thought leaders.                  

Companies can elevate their image in a grand fashion and differentiate themselves from much bigger companies.  They can even come off as far more credible by making minor investments in excellent content.                  

This is a great time for smaller companies to be looking at how they’re going to position themselves in the marketplace, differentiate themselves from bigger players, build credibility with the client base they’re trying to build, and accelerate their whole sales process.       

Catherine:   Okay, great.  My next question relates to your blog.  You mention the term “high-performance content factory.”  Tell us more about that.

Britton: Yes, companies shouldn’t be intimidated by this idea.  They don’t have to invest enormous resources in developing content or hiring big PR firms to go out and represent them in the marketplace to create a content factory.                  

Business leaders do have to make some investments though.  They have to produce articles and presentations that represent some of their best thinking.  It may be something as small as producing one white paper per quarter…something that represents a provocative point of view on a key issue.                  

And then, once that white paper’s produced, they can go out and take that content and reformat it, repackage it in different ways.  If they have case studies, they can repackage this material all over as articles, as blog posts, as newsletter pieces, as presentation material, as examples for webinars. Sales people will use these stories to illustrate their points and strengthen their business cases. 

Companies can do a lot of this very inexpensively. 

Catherine:   Is there a rule of thumb about how many times something can be used?

Britton:  No. As long as it’s working, you can keep presenting it in different ways.  Take a white paper: you can just keep refashioning the main elements of that white paper in different ways for different articles for different presentations.  Just as long as the prospects are still interested in it, you can continue to present it.                  

Quite often, by refashioning it for different audiences, you create new interests.  By making it more relevant to them, you raise your results.                  

I have a simple equation for this.  I say, “Relevance times Reach equals Results.”  This means that the less relevant your material is to an audience, the more outreach will be necessary to get the results you’re trying to achieve.                  

The more relevant your content to an audience, the less outreach will be necessary.  It’s my view that the reach part of it is a far more demanding investment than the initial investment in relevant content.  What you want to do is make that equation work for you.  You need both: you need outreach and you need relevant content.                  

But too few companies actually invest adequately in relevant content.  And, thus, end up working themselves to death to get the results they want to achieve.

Catherine:   Okay, so my last question: can you give examples of companies or web sites that you would direct people to in order to demonstrate that they presented their marketing assets very well? 

Britton:    There’s a company out there that’s very hot right now.  You may be familiar with them.  They’re competing with SalesForce.com; the company is called Infusionsoft.  They have done a very nice job of building a portfolio of great content assets: white papers, case studies, think pieces of varying kinds.  They’ve got customers who just love them and they turn that enthusiasm into great stories and case studies. This information further fuels their growth engine.  I think they’re doing well in presenting themselves as thought leaders in the marketplace.

Catherine:   Great, I’ll check out that example.  Britton, thanks for helping us identify some of the key steps to create reusable customer-oriented materials that help drive sales. 

Miss our webinar: 7 Reasons Not to Manage the Compex Sale in Leads? You can see and hear the presentation at the following links:

View the PowerPoint slide deck here

Listen to the webinar audio and view the presentation here

Please take a minute to endorse Amy’s idea for a Dreamforce breakout session.  It only takes a few clicks!

Promote Amy’s idea for a session covering this topic of Leads and the Complex Sale at the next Dreamforce Conference in San Francisco this November: http://dreamforce.ideas.salesforce.com/people/amykeuper/articles

If you have any questions, comments or feedback regarding our webinar or Initial Call you can contact us at bvishanoff@initialcall.com.

by Colleen McCarty, VP Organization & Talent

What is your organization's policy toward Facebook, Twitter and other Social Media? Lately it seems I'm hearing more stories about Social Media mishaps: 

• A friend who works for a major rental car agency saw a video posted to Facebook by two employees left alone in the branch. The video clearly shows that they were in their place of business, goofing off and vocally wondering if their boss would see this (yes, since they were Facebook "friends" with their boss and their boss’ boss). 
• A North Carolina judge became Facebook "Friends" with an attorney. Not unusual, except this attorney  happened to be the attorney for the client on the judges’ current case. Via Facebook they posted several messages referring to various aspects of the case. Hmmm, even a layperson can see the problem here. You can read more here.

Perhaps the stories above have you shaking your head and recalling the motto that "common sense isn't so common" but still wondering what do they have to do with you?

Well consider the example of the public relations executive who tweeted:    

"True confession but I'm in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say 'I would die if I had to live here.'"

The executive was in town for business with his client FedEx. FedEx employees saw the post and were not pleased with the public disparagement of their hometown of Memphis. Not pleased to the point where they wrote a scathing letter in response which you can read here. 

Since Sales is all about networking, we frequently "friend", "link" and "follow" our clients and prospects. And while the venue seems casual, your team is frequently representing your organization in a public, or semi-public forum. Are you comfortable with what is being said? Rex Stephens offers some good suggestions here. Use these suggestions as a starting point for talking with your team. The challenge is to use social media to strengthen client relationships and increase sales without getting into hot water or worse!

by Catherine Brown, President

 Many thanks to my friend, Jay Horne and his friend - the amazing trainer Giovanni Gallucci - for their class that came to Oklahoma City on April 21.  Extreme Social Marketing was not just about social media theory; I am proud to say that I learned a few things that I began using immediately.  

One of my new skills is searching for topics on Twitter so you can connect with people who may be asking about things that interest you.  (Go to search.twitter.com and type in your key words.  It's a little more confusing if you want to search by a geographical area but if you want to email me at cbrown@initialcall.com, I'll tell you more.)  This is pretty great.  I've been answering people's messages and expanding my network with this search ability.  Another lesson I took away from the seminar is how to use the website ping.fm.  Creating a ping account was very easy (really!), and with this, you can do all of your status updates at one time.  So, I can write one message, and it will automatically update LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter all at once without my logging in to those sites.  While it's not particularly onerous to log in to only three sites today, I can see that ping would be particulary great for people who use YouTube, Flickr, and even more social media sites on a regular basis.  If you are lucky enough to have one of these classes come to your area, I encourage you to attend.  If not, email me and I'll tell you the short cuts that I learned.

Check out the the website to see if an Extreme Social Marketing workshop is coming to your area.

by Amy Keuper, VP Sales

We at Initial Call specialize in representing companies with a complex sale which, by definition, is harder than the average sale.  And by “hard” we mean hard.  The ever-increasing “opt-in” mindset poses real challenges for businesses who want to expand sales beyond the scope of their current social network.

Pursuing target accounts remains a vital part of most sales operations.  Cold-calling is a tried and true method of reaching someone you believe would benefit from what you offer.  If only you can reach them, then you can solve their problem—maybe one they haven’t even defined yet. 

The problem is that we are all culturally wired to resist uninvited contact.  Looking honestly at our own thorny reaction to unsolicited communication helps clarify why sales and marketing are so difficult.  If we won’t accept someone’s call or email, how can we expect them to allow ours? 

What a fine line we walk!  We must strike the balance between rightly reaching out to new individuals to grow our business and unintentionally irritating folks who hang up on us or unsubscribe thinking, “I don’t know who you are and I didn’t sign up for this.”

Ironically, most businesses employ outbound marketing yet are themselves locked down tightly against any kind of cold-calling or email campaign.  Their phone systems are “press X for X” labyrinths without any human beings and their networks reject all email as spam.  Since a primary lead generation goal within the complex sale is to qualify accounts, not to bother anyone unnecessarily, the problem of unwelcome communication would in fact shrink if getting market intelligence were easier. 

A prospect actually gains time by investing time in a call or email to self-qualify in or out of the target pool.  He finds a solution to a need or wards off unwanted future contact.  By devoting just a few seconds to listen to the pitch, the prospect can achieve both his and the caller’s goals: determining whether it makes sense to talk further. 

Adherence to The Golden Rule would smooth the seller-buyer relationship. Thoughtful and tempered prospecting would be met with courteous and understanding replies.  Sales empathy and marketing civility—ahhhh, a dream?

Given the reality that we can’t easily change prospect behavior, scheduling highly-qualified, VP and C-level meetings is hard.  Your success hinges on breaking through company defenses with a smart message delivered by the highest level talent possible, which is where Initial Call excels.

by Catherine Brown, President Initial Call

Has one of these scenarios ever happened to you?

A contact at one of your existing clients visits your website and downloads a document which creates a new Lead in your system. You are mortified when your marketing department sends your client an introductory email and follow-up call as if they were a new prospect.

Two of your sales representatives independently follow up on new Leads. Because the associated company names were entered differently in your system, your representatives are unknowingly calling into the same prospect.

It's a sales manager's nightmare, but it is avoidable if you know how to tame your CRM. If you have experienced the challenges of tracking the complex sales cycle in Salesforce.com and you've been frustrated, you are not alone. The beauty of this CRM is that you can make changes to optimize the tool for your company's unique sales cycle.

Download our whitepaper: Entropy in Salesforce.com: 7 Reasons Not to Manage the Complex Sale in Leads to find out more about how to avoid these problems, keep your CRM organized, and your sales cycle running smooth. Then join in the discussion or ask questions right here on our blog.

by Colleen McCarty, VP Talent & Organization Development

I really am feeling my age. I'm not an early adopter but I'm usually far ahead of the Average Joe, but Twitter has me stumped. Why would anyone be interested in what I have to say this moment? However, in the spirit of full disclosure, I resisted Facebook for about six months. Even wrote a blog post about why I liked LinkedIn better than Facebook. Truth be told, now I love them the same but for different reasons (much like you love your children equally but each has their unique strengths).

But back to Twitter... like a third child, can I love it too? I've learned never to say “never” but I have my doubts. Do I have time for all three? Can I justify the time for all three? I decided this time I will really try Twitter before making a final decision.

In a few days I have learned:

1. Twitter is fast, real fast. Send out an update or “tweet” and someone will respond. Pretty surprising given that I only have three followers. Oh, I just checked and now it's four! Now it is six!

2. Twitter is about broader networks than just friends or colleagues. Perfect strangers will follow you, conversely, you can follow anyone you like. I only know two of my followers and I'm still wondering why the rest have  followed me (and am I right to feel pressure to entertain them?).

3. Still working on learning the lingo. So far I've learned # (use this to make your tag/term more searchable) and @ (precedes a username), RT (retweet, similar to forwarding email) and OH (overheard) are a few I'll need to practice using.

So I'll be testing Twitter further and evaluating Twitter for work, fun and family. I'd love to know how others are using it and do you have any tips!

We received a lot of feedback when this article appeared in our newsletter, Initial Thoughts, last week. In case you missed it, we've republished it here. Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

by Amy Keuper, VP Sales

Do you know what your real lead cost is?  This deceptively simple question can challenge your preconceived notions about how to evaluate marketing programs and sales partners.  It is common to weigh the cost of a campaign activity or a vendor's service in isolation, but the only way to accurately calculate a true meeting cost is to capture and compare all of your expenditures, from technical tools to the labor it takes to represent what you sell. 

Wise marketing and sales organizations want to have the lowest lead cost possible, so the price of outbound calling is a natural concern. When we are discussing our services with prospective clients, we are often asked what our meetings cost.  This number varies among clients and is determined by two things: the nature of what our client sells and the title of the decision maker.  Historically, our clients' average meeting cost has ranged from $800-$3,000.  Given the complexity of our prospect's sale, we can usually provide a ballpark meeting cost.  We have found that no matter what number we share with a prospect, once this question is on the table, the conversation takes an interesting turn.  Some potential clients find the estimated appointment price very reasonable while others balk. 

When we speak at Initial Call about "average meeting costs," keep in mind that almost all of our work is cold-calling.  So, the price of our meeting will reflect what it takes to qualify a target from scratch without marketing support--essentially the time it takes to navigate to the right buyer and uncover whether the target company is a fit.  A prospective client who is taken aback at the price of our sales appointment may be thinking that other means of finding opportunities are less expensive.  While that could be true, assessing the real cost of a lead requires one to consider ALL expenses included in generating and qualifying leads.
 
In the complex sale, we believe that most companies will find that their lead cost simply averages "$x,xx" regardless of the various activities employed to bring in prospects.  This means that if your cold-calling meeting price is $1,800, your lead cost for qualified inbound leads will be comparable if you consider the marketing activities that you employ on a regular basis: website optimization, email campaigns, direct mailings, trade show exhibits, etc.  Even if you do not have inside sales help today but your outside reps are cold calling, that lack of support is costing you something.  Probably something big. 

Obviously, certain activities may make more sense for your business than others.  For instance, you might never use direct mail or attend trade shows.  What we are saying is that it is unlikely that you will find a magic bullet--just one vehicle for generating business that costs exponentially less than another.  A company with a specialized software solution whose outbound-calling meeting cost is $2,000 will probably have to spend in total the same amount of money on other activities to generate one lead.  Their lead cost averages $2,000-no matter what methods they employ.

Naturally, everyone wishes that the cost of winning new business were lower, but truly driving down the net cost of a sale is very difficult.  Initial Call's theory is that most company offerings will ultimately settle at a relatively stable cost-per-lead.  Real reductions in the actual dollar figure, if any, are likely to be incremental.  What can vary within the lead cost is the outlay on any one particular activity.  For example, if we are able to call warm leads, the price of our meeting will be lower, but creating warm leads means investing in marketing somewhere else.  Once your business is established, rarely is the option to simply spend considerably less overall.  The question is, in reality, where to spend the money. 

Outbound calling isn't right for every sales organization, but it makes sense when you sell to a narrow audience and want to pursue target accounts.  As you evaluate the price of contracted inside sales support, be sure to weigh the real comprehensive costs of all other options for bringing prospects into your pipeline.

by Catherine Brown, President Initial Call

This last week I participated in our Initial Call Sales Manger training via conference call.   Although we were discussing specific strategies for getting into large companies, the conversation turned to individuals sharing with one another about recent phone calls they had while prospecting for clients.  Listening to the examples that our Sales Managers gave of recent conversations they had while prospecting prompted me to ask myself the question, “What makes someone good at this job?”  Put another way, “Why are some sales people better than others at generating good meetings?” 

There are, of course, many answers to these questions.  There are a whole host of qualities necessary to be good at generating sales leads.  Tenacity, courage, limited fear of rejection, professionalism, the ability to communicate succinctly what you are selling…These are all important qualities.  However, I have concluded that an often overlooked quality that is important for success in producing high quality sales leads is personal warmth. 

A dictionary defines “warmth” as  friendliness, kindness or affection. 

I am not sure you can really teach someone to be warm.  I think true warmth is inherent in some people.  Sure, you can make small suggestions here and there so people sound nice,  but it is difficult to maintain a personality on the phone that’s not really true to who you are.  If you are warm, your prospects sense that you are open and listening. Warmth communicates sincerity.  No one likes to feel “sold” on the phone, and a person who communicates warmly usually finds out what they want to know from the prospect on the phone just by being nice.  The warm inside sales rep can turn a cold call into a discussion while they are busy being themselves. 

Jim Logan and Ford Harding both have written articles talking about other implications of how good inside sales people do their jobs through listening and good manners.  I appreciate being reminded that character qualities matter in those whom we hire, and both of these articles speak to this topic in different ways.  I hope you are encouraged to keep these qualities in mind while doing your job of selling,  managing, and prospecting for business.   

by Catherine Brown, President Initial Call

As the year has progressed, I have added more and more newsletters and blogs I want to read to my list of “to dos.”  I find that there are quite a few good sales and marketing consultants whose regular communication I like to follow.   I recently reread Mary Sullivan’s article Maintaining Sales Momentum in a Recession- or Whatever This Is.  Her five principles are timeless and timely:

a.            Narrow your target markets

b.       Rethink pricing

c.       Fine tune your messaging

d.       Engage your customers

e.       Focus on existing customers

If we could do these all the time!  I have had recent success with number 1 that I thought I’d share.  Since September 2008, we have been reaching out to companies to whom we have spoken over the last year and a half or so, writing individual letters, notes, and calling them individually.  I have been reminded (and admittedly a little amazed at) what a focused approach really does. We are taking our own advice and it works!  Initial Call has recently begun work with a couple of companies that we have talked to for a long time.  Timing is everything. It wasn’t the right time before but now it is.   I hope you have a happy new year; we are excited for January! 

by Colleen McCarty, VP Talent & Organization Development

Initial Call counts itself fortunate for the simple fact that we are actively looking for good people to join us. Since the news is full of stories where the converse is true, one could assume that our Recruiting Team is enjoying a lighter workload. But in a world where “be careful what you wish for” is all too true, our Recruiting Team is working harder than ever. True, sourcing resumes has gotten a lot easier than in years past, and we are receiving record numbers of resumes in response to the few ads we are carefully posting. But with lots of resumes comes lots of reading to carefully review that the people we talk to have the right skills for our clients' needs. Especially hard is screening out the number of people that clearly need work, any work, and are willing to do anything. Many people think they can do this work, but rare is the person who thrives on the challenge and has the level of professionalism we require.  Recruiting wades through the stacks of resumes looking for individuals who love cold calling, who genuinely enjoy the challenge of getting through gatekeepers and voice mail to finally reach the right decision-maker so they can generate interest in less than 120 seconds. And while perhaps a few more of those special people are looking for work now, finding them is just as hard as it ever was.

by Catherine Brown, President Initial Call

Earlier this month, I went to a day of training provided by the local chapter of the American Marketing Association.  My favorite speaker was Brian Massey out of Austin, TX.  He calls himself the Conversion Scientist -- as in a person who helps other companies "convert" website visitors into qualified leads or customers.  What I liked about him is that in coming and giving the talk and giving away information, he took a dose of his own medicine. One of the points in his talk is that people are afraid to give away the knowledge that makes their companies unique, and yet he says it's exactly in giving away information about your subject expertise that builds credibility.

Brian also shared that he categorizes websites into four different kinds that companies tend to have.  Most of us are stuck in "brochure site" mode.  (Initial Call has slightly bridged the gap by beginning this blog but I can see that I have a lot of work in front of me if we want to morph into something else.)  Brochure sites aren't terrible, and they are common in professional services companies. However, he stressed that people want information, and INFORMATION is what keeps them coming back.  This has renewed my interest in continuing to share meeting statistics, inside sales best practices, the true cost of various kinds of leads, etc.  Brian analyzes company websites as part of his service offering if you'd like to discuss that with him.  The presentation was about 40 minutes and you can listen to an audio version of his presentation.  Enjoy!"

by Amy Keuper, VP Sales

You can’t turn on the computer, TV or radio without hearing Henny Penny’s warnings of doom and gloom.  Almost every news piece bemoans the state of the economy.  Pre-election hype?  Fear-mongering?  Good ratings nonetheless.

Perhaps I am just naïve, but I don’t believe we are entering the next Great Depression.  We might get there eventually, but we are not as close as the media would have us believe. 

We cannot dismiss the genuine suffering that many are experiencing.  However, we can focus on three timeless truths:  

1. An economic downturn doesn’t have to be bad news for absolutely everyone.  Even in the Great Depression someone made money.  Currently, shopping at second-hand stores is up--as are stock prices for discount retailers.  Are you looking to increase sales activity and gain market share or are you resigned that an outgoing tide must lower your boat with all the others? 
2. We are blessed to live in what is still the greatest nation on earth.  A good idea coupled with the right strategy—executed with hard work--still usually equals success.  Are you listening to positive messages about what is possible for you and your business or are you allowing negativity and paranoia to affect your drive?
3. A major paradigm shift always represents an opportunity for those willing to see it.  If you make buggy whips and you see that cars are here to stay, you can adjust to meet a new market need or you can go out of business.  Have you taken time to evaluate market shifts and plan necessary adjustments or are you merely hoping your previous success will continue?

Some may be paralyzed with fear--shrinking back and waiting for a safer tomorrow, but you should keep moving forward.  A recent increase in sales inquiries here at Initial Call confirms that many [smart] companies aren’t sitting back and waiting to hear that the waters are safe.