COMMENTS
You are one of the most brilliant minds in salesforce development and you get inbound marketing! I don't understand why so little of your interviews involve 21st Century techniques for prospecting. I took the time to listen to the entire interview with Ken and was frustrated salespeople are still being nailed ineffective marketing.
I get one lead per day from my website,qualified buyers that actually want to speak to me. I think traditional cold calling is the most inefficient way to generate leads if comes are marketing effectively.
To that end, I believe everyone should be using your methods because most people still don't know what to do with leads they get and exaggerated sales cycles because weak sales professionals.
So, Teicko, your leads call you with credit card in hand and you close every one?
In a session with one of my clients yesterday, a very experienced sales person who is now in a new field told me how his "drive by" prospecting (just stopping in potential prospects without an appointment) is working more effectively than phone cold calling. In fact the worse the weather (and we have had plenty in Philly lately), the better the results. Another salesperson in this company chimed in "I made 12 drive-bys and had eight people call me back when I followed up with a phone call!"
What is the lesson? I believe there are many. 1) you have to prospect to get results (and trust me this senior salesperson is having "unbelievable conversations in his head" about having to do drive-bys at this point in his career) 2)so few people are prospecting that some folks are willing to give the salesperson a shot just because they are 3) Quick rapport building is still important 4) that sales force development does work - this company was spiraling downward before the owner asked for help; they are now spiraling up
<a href=http://www.axiomexperience.com>Axiom Development
No that don't call with credit card in hand. However, they do call or accept my call because they have reached a point of decision and now we the sales person is put to their highest and best use, Qualifying and getting a qualified prospect to take action.
This is my point, the tools and approaches to prospecting[Awareness, Interest,Decision] are dramatically different and they need to be 75% pull and 25 % push. Yet, getting consumers to to take action won't change that dramatically because we are still persuading human beings.
Furthemore, this is what is so maddening to me. Everyone is talking about social media, inbound marketing and the like but they are forgetting they still need to have the Cruical Elements and a solid handle on their weaknesses or deals simply will not close. What is even more alarming, is that the margin for error is even smaller when it comes to selling because a lot of the "prospecting" is done any lack of the crucial elements, weaknesses or skills get magnified.
To close the loop, I think you are one of the most brilliant minds in salesforce development, period. And, now more than sales people need to be using assessments and getting a handle on their sales abilities. To that end, it would be interesting as a thought leader, it would be awesome to hear you address this head on with guys that are leading sales organizations that are blowing up and delivering results. I know for a fact the inbound marketing community on the East coast has your fingerprints[in a good way] on them and it would be awesome to see you interview more folks like that.
I do not understand Mr. Hubers post. It should have been edited by him before sending. Effective written communications is a critical skill that few have mastered. Practicing it everyday in everything you write is the only way to master it.
I don't think anyone would disagree that 21st century,in bound marketing plans are a time efficient and effective way to market. We should all avail ourselves to the efficiency technology can bring to the selling profession.
However, there is always a place for and value in good cold call prospecting skills. They have to be part of a "total mix" of new business generation techniques.
I agree on my post, I hit send to quickly while I was proofing it.
Two thoughts:
1. I spoke with a psychologist friend of mine. She works with children to help them get out of their own heads and be into the moment (stop worry and fear). It was amazing that the tools she teaches them are the same tools we need in sales to prospect. When a salesperson avoids prospecting it has everything to do with what is going on inside their head - the self talk which leads to fear of rejection (yesterday I caught myself only thinking of the 1 bad call I had instead of the 3 great calls I had...very disempowering and needed to change the thought pattern to continue effectively).
2. Great Ogilvy site. Loved the video with the kid selling the xbox idea to his mom http://www.youtube.com/ogilvy#p/a/u/1/MYLg_VMLUQ0 - The video demonstrated useful persistence that could not be denied. By the way his facts were true too per Dan Pinks book A Whole New Mind - check them both out. Now, back to my prospecting!
@Teiko - you're right about all of the sales 2.0 tools. But that's all about getting found. You're getting a lead a day. Some salespeople aren't getting a lead a week. They can't simply sit around so they have to prospect some other way. While it doesn't have to be cold-calling, if their letters, emails, networking, speaking, trade shows, blogging, social networking and existing customers aren't generating the leads, it will have to be cold-calling!
Even when they have the lead, they have to "prospect" that lead. There is still a call to be made and Ken was simply pointing out that no matter how you get to the point of getting in front of a prospect, at some point, somebody still has to pick up the phone, dial it, get through, start a conversation, get their attention, get them engaged, and get them to want to talk further.
It's prospecting!
@Mike - great work turning around your client!
@Rainmaker - thanks for keeping Teiko honest!
@John - good points.
@Paul - thanks for bringing the psychological slant into the discussion!
This was a great discussion. Lots of thoughts provoked.
Paul, Thanks for sharing the video clip! It will be very useful.
I agree with persistence, etc., but when I show this to my clients it will be as a demonstration of "show up and throw up" selling. No doubt the kid's performance will close some deals, and may win the Ogilvy award, but you have to ask how well it will works in today's 2.0 world?
<a href=”http://www.axiomexperience.com”>Axiom Development
I took more time to reflect on this and had a few follow up questions for everyone involved in this discussion.
Has anyone that commented ever executed an inbound marketing program to produce sales ready leads, sufficient to meet or exceed your sales goals?
The previous discussion had a few tangents and missed the point of the discussion I initiated.I'm sure I contributed to the the confusion and straying off course when my post was riddled with grammatical errors (note to self, don't comment on blogs you really care about while running two hours of sleep).
1. Calling someone, drop ins and the like are the most inefficient way of generating leads,period. Any questions about this,check out the most recent paper from MIT Sloan School of management(http://bit.ly/aomCE6. You can also read Sales and Marketing the Six Sigma Way if you need more academia to wrestle with. Cold call prospecting and drop ins can work, and so do trade shows, tv ads,radio ads etc. . But, it is much more expensive than inbound marketing.
2.Agreed, people are woefully unprepared to handle people over the phone. I see this as a completely separate topic from "using the phone to prospect" and the whole discussion I initiated in regard to how inbound marketing impacts the sales process. In my world the call is totally different when someone calls me and I know what marketing pieces they read, what webpages they went to, how long they spent on those pages, what video they watched etc. Once again, talking about outbound cold calling as a lead generation tool to me is like talking about using a horse and buggy to drop in prospect. This simply is not a conversation we should be having anymore in the 21st Century. Looking at the fastest growing companies in the US, they aren't cold call prospecting and they are blowing away the companies that do.
3.No one really answered the question. Does Inbound Marketing fundamentally change how we should be handling incoming calls or outbound calls to follow up on when someone sends an asset?
4. I forgot to mention that while my prospects don't call with credit card in hand(some do) I do close 90% of my sales calls, in two sales calls and the average deal size is $50K. Oh, and I don't do drive buy prospecting, cold calling or the like. We are 75% inbound 25% Outbound. Our outbound is driven by our inbound marketing. I'd like to know everyone elses closing ratios and sales cycle times from click to close.
Looks like the kid in the video clip was right! Maybe Mom did the right thing by giving in......... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/technology/03game.html?th&emc=th
sorry Teicko, I did not answer your questions but could not resist sharing this article in the feeling of Holiday spirit!
<a href=”http://www.axiomexperience.com”>Axiom Development