Get the sales appointments you want!

The easy way to get the sales appointments you want!

Click here to read this special report

Frustrated!

That is the word that so many sales and marketing professionals across the UK are using to describe to me how they feel about the sales appointments they are getting from their telemarketing engine. Information Technology Sales and Marketing Professionals are desperate to know our secretes for generating better sales appointments that have a real chance of converting at a cost that provides a genuine profitable return on investment.

I have heard stories of doom and gloom form telemarketing companies arranging meetings with non decision makers over and over again to paying thousands of pounds for meetings that just don’t happen. Some of the ROI’s I have been told about have been so nominal that it beggars belief the companies can pay their rent yet alone compete in fast paced world of Information Technology.

We at ProspectAware believe that you can transform the FRUSTRATION in to DELIGHT in a few simple steps and this special report reveals how.

Telemarketing Mistake 1

Taking all the risk

There are varying commercial models in the world of telemarketing. Each model has its merits and downfalls. One of the key factors that you should consider when choosing an external telemarketing company is the level of RISK you are taking on.

The Day Rate Model: High Risk

You are probably familiar with this type of telemarketing company. This approach is a attempt to have a third party recreate your internal telemarketing team. Now the honest truth is that this approach can generate some good results as experienced cold callers build relationships, profile your target companies and generate ‘BANT’ qualified sales leads. However this approach has its own challenges.

Limited Training - With this type of third party telemarketing you never know how professional the calling will be, their level of experience, knowledge of your product, ability to objection handle may be minimal. You really don’t know what you are getting for your money.

Cost – Telemarketing campaigns based on day rate are notoriously costly, hundreds of pounds a day, with the results impossible to predict.

No Guaranteed Result – Whilst you may get lucky and have one or two telephone Super stars calling on your campaign the company you contract to do this work is not contracted to deliver you any genuine sales appointments or leads. They may be making the 100 calls a day that they say they will, they may be gathering some interesting information about who is doing business with your competi-tion and what they think about you. However you are not guaranteed sales leads. In the end this is a risky and unpredictable strategy.

Don’t use telemarketing to target the wrong People

Pay Per Appointment: Lower risk

With the challenges of getting the day rate model to work the Pay Per Appointment model has become increasingly popular. This model offers you more predictable results. You only pay for appointments that have been set regardless of the time taken or number of calls made. At first glance this model appears to be risk free however as with the Day Rate Model there are some intrinsic floors with Pay Per Appointment.

The Manager – Pay Per Appointment Telemarketing organisations have traditionally focused on meeting with
mid-level management. Most continue to do so. Now that last thing a busy sales person with pipeline to close and targets to meet by the end of quarter wants to do is visit a manager who is not the decision maker.

The Introduction – The easy way to generate their appointments is to have script robots call and “PITCH” the prospect on an introductory or educational meeting. These meetings don’t focus on a specific business pain. On the rare occasion that a business pain has been identified you are entering in to an unnecessarily long sales process as you are not actually in front of the ultimate decision maker.

In the end the long term value of these meeting turns out to be minimal.

Telemarketing Mistake 2

Using a bottom up calling methodology

Large organisations have a large hierarchy. Most telemarketing organisations focus on mid level management with a view to getting
introductory appointments. The idea is that if you get in front of these managers they may have ownership of a project now or in the near future or be able to recommend you to higher level management.

We believe that these are the wrong people to target. These managers usually have limited influence or decision making power. If you do manage to impress these managers and finally get in front of the, often sceptical, real decision maker you are still at square one. You have to build raptor and sell to a new person, who may already have had several other vendors successfully building relationships and positioning themselves as the perfect solution provider before you have had a chance. This methodology leads to long laborious sales cycles.

Beware the telemarketing BOOKERS: Easy Target

So why do so many appointments setting organisations target these mid level managers? It’s because these midlevel managers are “Easy Targets”. They don’t have PA’s, they are often interested in keeping up with the latest developments in their industry and for some it may even be there remit to “EVALUATE” new vendors. They are often happy to take an introductory meeting just to kill an hour of their day. In the Telemarketing world these people have been dubbed BOOKERS.

Introductory meetings – Now let’s make things clear. I don’t have any problem with an introductory meeting. It is an introductory meeting with non decision makers that have limited chance of leading anywhere that you must avoid at all costs.

Find Champions instead -Meeting with genuine authority figures within your target accounts is your opportunity to find and win over true influencers who will actually “champion” your technology. Remember when the Commercial Director or CIO speaks, others listen!

Sell top down not bottom up!

Click here to read this special report

ProspectAware – Telemarketing the right way!