The phone is not dead. At least my phone is not dead. A balanced demand generation strategy should leverage all media channels - as you never know which media a person will respond to. Let's talk about the phone for a moment.
Yep - it's that old piece of technology that is still on your desk. Probably has dust on it and is surrounded by those stacks of paper that you have been meaning to read for the past year. Well, put that bad boy right back in front of you, dust it off and introduce it to your computer. They are a match made in heaven.
The following is not a new tactic by any means. It's one that still works. But the success is all in the execution. This is a refresher. Take a read....
1. Send out 75 emails a week to prospects and dormant clients. You should include a solid educational asset that is not a product pitch and one that helps the recipient do their job better.
2. Plan a dialogue that you want to have with these contacts. This is not a script, but think through what you are going to say to the contact. How are you going to open the conversation? What questions are you going to ask? What new idea or value are you going to position? What objections can you foresee and how are you going to over come them? How are you going to close - what will give value to the contact and what do you want as the next step?
3. Expect that it may take you 5-7 attempts to reach the person. Don't give up after the first try.
What results can you expect? If you send out 100 emails, you can expect 3-5 of those people to actually read the asset that you sent. That's why you need to call them. By adding your old friend the phone to the mix, you will most likely up that to 15-20. Of those 15-20, you should expect 5-7 to engage you in meaningful dialogues and most should result in pipeline opportunity. If your average deal size is $50K, then you probably just got yourself $250K plus in early stage pipeline.
Now, where this breaks down is in the phone follow up. You have to dedicate yourself to dialing that phone. Set aside regular time to do it. If you do not, then your busy and hectic day will kill your ability to turn this tactic in to a effective way to build pipeline.
Hope this helps you.
To Learn more about Richardson's sales training and sales performance improvement solutions, please visit us on the web at http://www.richardson.com
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Why is it so difficult?
I just came back from a business leadership event. The attendees were mostly sales executives. There was a session at that event around improving sales and marketing alignment. It was a panel discussion and the first question the moderator asked the panel was "Why is sales and marketing alignment so difficult/hard?".
The panel and the audience did not find it difficult to answer. The answers were all across the spectrum from lack of communication, behaviors, process to compensation modeling. What became difficult in the session was getting clear direction and understanding on what to do about it.
As a participant in the audience, I felt as though the panel really struggled with this topic. The attendees and panel never really got beyond the old "sales vs. marketing" dilemma. It did not help the cause when the moderator asked the question "What about that other (your sales or marketing) person frustrates you and why".
Near the end of the discussion, the panel was starting to put some meat on the bone with some content around aligning KPI, tighter accountability, and having a strong process. But these are solutions to symptoms of the problem and not to the overall problem at hand.
It would have been great if they would have talked about "one team, one goal". No longer should it be sales and marketing teams - but looked at as one revenue generation team. Frank, are you saying that there should no longer be "marketing"? Nope, that's not what I'm saying. There needs to be branding, advertising, public relations and the other very important parts of our marketing operations. That's not the part of marketing we are talking about. We are talking about the part that is responsible for demand generation - filling that pipeline.
Revenue generation is like a relay race. Every team member is accountable for their role in the process - from the first runner (generating responders/leads) to the last runner (the last few stages of your pipeline). The hand offs of the baton (lead or opportunity) need to be flawless. In the end, it's about winning the race and everyone has a vested interest in winning that race. If not, the whole team loses. And that's not difficult to understand.
For more information on sales and marketing alignment, please read the rest of this blog if you have not yet done so. Tons of tips and other great stuff are buried in that copy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
To Learn more about Richardson's sales training and sales performance improvement solutions, please visit us on the web at http://www.richardson.com
The panel and the audience did not find it difficult to answer. The answers were all across the spectrum from lack of communication, behaviors, process to compensation modeling. What became difficult in the session was getting clear direction and understanding on what to do about it.
As a participant in the audience, I felt as though the panel really struggled with this topic. The attendees and panel never really got beyond the old "sales vs. marketing" dilemma. It did not help the cause when the moderator asked the question "What about that other (your sales or marketing) person frustrates you and why".
Near the end of the discussion, the panel was starting to put some meat on the bone with some content around aligning KPI, tighter accountability, and having a strong process. But these are solutions to symptoms of the problem and not to the overall problem at hand.
It would have been great if they would have talked about "one team, one goal". No longer should it be sales and marketing teams - but looked at as one revenue generation team. Frank, are you saying that there should no longer be "marketing"? Nope, that's not what I'm saying. There needs to be branding, advertising, public relations and the other very important parts of our marketing operations. That's not the part of marketing we are talking about. We are talking about the part that is responsible for demand generation - filling that pipeline.
Revenue generation is like a relay race. Every team member is accountable for their role in the process - from the first runner (generating responders/leads) to the last runner (the last few stages of your pipeline). The hand offs of the baton (lead or opportunity) need to be flawless. In the end, it's about winning the race and everyone has a vested interest in winning that race. If not, the whole team loses. And that's not difficult to understand.
For more information on sales and marketing alignment, please read the rest of this blog if you have not yet done so. Tons of tips and other great stuff are buried in that copy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
To Learn more about Richardson's sales training and sales performance improvement solutions, please visit us on the web at http://www.richardson.com
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Seven ideas that will help you coach to a pipeline
Studies have shown that within 90 days of initial training, 87% of the training impact is lost if it is not reinforced. Coaching plays an important role in ensuring adoption of the processes, knowledge, and skills required to be successful at the top of the pipeline. Here are seven ideas that you can immediately use to help you coach to a pipeline.
First, coach as early in your funnel as possible. Right at the top - at the handoff when opportunities enter stage 1. Management should be reviewing these opportunities every other week with each Sales Representative.
Second, spend more time motivating individual team members. Set pipeline goals. If your close rate is 50% and quarterly quotas per sales person are $100,000. Salespeople need a constant $200,000 in pipeline. Use these goals to motive and provide individual focus to each team member.
Third, lead by example. Sales Managers need to know pipeline details all the time. Speak to the numbers and ensure that their teams know they are focused on it.
Fourth, Managers should know the critical indicators of pipeline health. The answers to all of the questions that were noted earlier in this blog thread for each of the pipeline leakage points should be reported and reviewed with Sales Management during every JBP call.
Fifth, partner with Salespeople on key accounts at the TOP of the funnel. Don’t wait to coach deal-to-deal when or if they get to the final stages. Show the Reps that you are focused at the top of the pipeline.
Sixth, influence other departments. Show the Team that you mean business by leveraging the indicator data to get other groups in alignment. Groups like Product, Finance, Sales Operations, and Marketing should be driven by your involvement.
Seventh, communicate often. Every two weeks report pipeline status and health to the team. Call out successes, failures and repairs that have been engaged.
These seven steps will maintain engagement with your Sales Team members and ensure that they remain just as focused at the top of the funnel as they are at the bottom.
Now that you have invested a good chunk of time reading this installment of my blog and the previous four blogs, it would be a shame if I did not call out the action items that you should take the moment you conclude reading this blog. Here are the action steps broken down by role:
Marketing Leadership
Ensure you have an SLA and JBP with Sales
Review your nurture leakage points
Train to improve leakage
Offer tools to sales to improve “will”
If needed, invest in sales training for Sales
Sales Leadership
Ensure you have an SLA and JBP with Marketing
Demonstrate your support of the SLA
Train all of your Team to improve follow-up
Coach to the top of the pipeline
Drive balanced feedback to the Marketing Team
L&D Leadership
Take action by asking questions
Make recommendations
Be the facilitator when necessary
When all else fails, try something new. We covered many new ideas in this blog since last December. I encourage you to try a few.
First, coach as early in your funnel as possible. Right at the top - at the handoff when opportunities enter stage 1. Management should be reviewing these opportunities every other week with each Sales Representative.
Second, spend more time motivating individual team members. Set pipeline goals. If your close rate is 50% and quarterly quotas per sales person are $100,000. Salespeople need a constant $200,000 in pipeline. Use these goals to motive and provide individual focus to each team member.
Third, lead by example. Sales Managers need to know pipeline details all the time. Speak to the numbers and ensure that their teams know they are focused on it.
Fourth, Managers should know the critical indicators of pipeline health. The answers to all of the questions that were noted earlier in this blog thread for each of the pipeline leakage points should be reported and reviewed with Sales Management during every JBP call.
Fifth, partner with Salespeople on key accounts at the TOP of the funnel. Don’t wait to coach deal-to-deal when or if they get to the final stages. Show the Reps that you are focused at the top of the pipeline.
Sixth, influence other departments. Show the Team that you mean business by leveraging the indicator data to get other groups in alignment. Groups like Product, Finance, Sales Operations, and Marketing should be driven by your involvement.
Seventh, communicate often. Every two weeks report pipeline status and health to the team. Call out successes, failures and repairs that have been engaged.
These seven steps will maintain engagement with your Sales Team members and ensure that they remain just as focused at the top of the funnel as they are at the bottom.
Now that you have invested a good chunk of time reading this installment of my blog and the previous four blogs, it would be a shame if I did not call out the action items that you should take the moment you conclude reading this blog. Here are the action steps broken down by role:
Marketing Leadership
Ensure you have an SLA and JBP with Sales
Review your nurture leakage points
Train to improve leakage
Offer tools to sales to improve “will”
If needed, invest in sales training for Sales
Sales Leadership
Ensure you have an SLA and JBP with Marketing
Demonstrate your support of the SLA
Train all of your Team to improve follow-up
Coach to the top of the pipeline
Drive balanced feedback to the Marketing Team
L&D Leadership
Take action by asking questions
Make recommendations
Be the facilitator when necessary
When all else fails, try something new. We covered many new ideas in this blog since last December. I encourage you to try a few.
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