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FEBRUARY 2007
Bring in New Prospects
I think everyone has been to Sandler Sales Training by now; the net effect is both good and bad. On the good side, perhaps your team has developed a better methodology for calling higher in the account or for managing the competition. These are all good things. The problem; ieveryone is calling on the CIO - reaching for the economic buyer. The net result; no one in a buying position really wants to answer their phone. Executives get calls from thousands of resellers every year, all wanting to sit down and talk..they start with some open ended question like, "What keeps you up at night" (Perhaps a misinterpretation of what sales methodologies are calling for)? I have polled hundreds of sales people over this past year, "What is working"? Cold calling is always at the bottom of the list. So why do so many sales organizations insist that their highly paid sales people make hundreds of calls every month? What actually works?
Recent Article Featuring David Stelzl: http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/02/10/money/doc45cea78cc0667173316455.txt
Marketing Events Work!
There are a number of answers; referrals, strong vendor alliances (which requires a high degree of loyalty), specialties, etc. But by far the best answer for new client acquisition is high impact marketing events. But not evey marketing event qualifiies. As an example, I recently did an event targeting mid-market executives. Ffty "invitation only" execs sign up for this two hour lunch, 37 showed up - because the marketing was done correctly and the event topic was enticing. At the end of my one hour talk, 27 executives signed up for follow up assessments using the sponsoring partner! How long would it take your sales team to get this kind of response with executives through cold calling? A couple of key principles are involved here...
1. Invitation Only
Most events are filled with custodians. If you have attended my workshop, you know I mean the people who have custodial responsibility for system administration. These people maintain things, they do not make buying decisions. As a customer appreciation event this might be ok, but when trying to drive new business, not the most effective.
2. The Topic Works
People frequently tell me they do a lot more than security - My response; everything is security. Executives don't attend many reseller events for IP-Telephony any more, and they probably won't attend an event about servers and storage either. They definitely don't want to hear a product pitch.Yet I consistently see decision makers making their way to security functions when marketed correctly. (In the recent event I referenced, I used content similar to the message contained on the CD listed above).
3. Our Message was Coordinated with a Specific Follow-up Plan
Finally, the message can be great, but if the follow up plan is lacking, the event will not succeed. There has to be a reason to meet when the speaker finishes, and if you are relying on the audience to want a certain product, your ROI pitch better be solid. Most people that attend these events are not attending with a budget in mind. If you pitch a new product or service without compelling justification what are the chances they will create a new budget for it? Make sure you figure this out before the event takes place - trying to call on attendees a week after the event is only one step ahead of cold calling.
Consider this approach four or five times a year - a well planned, well marketed event, where products and vendors don't dominate the presentation. Presentation time is high impact while time out of the office is kept to a minimum. Doing this, I believe you can bring in more than enough leads to keep your sales team busy. Between these leads and the normal reoccurring business, you are likely to see dramatic growth over 2007. |
