by gabriel_sales | Apr 29, 2014
While cold calling has never been easy, it certainly has not gotten any easier in the past few years.
Using the data we’ve gathered as an outsourced sales team for B2B companies, in 2013 our average call (time a rep picks up the phone) to connect (times a decision maker picks up the phone) ratio was between 7% -16% (depending on the Industry). In 2008, it was between 12% – 21%. This means that cold calling is now 30% to 50% less effective getting someone on the phone. In part, this is driven by better screening technology, but it is primarily driven by the fact that with downsizing, there are less decision makers doing more work, so they have less time to pick up the phone.
In order to help you get the most out of your cold calling, here are three tips for B2B cold calling success:
1) Know Your Target:
Spend more time researching and less time calling. Look at what your target company does and your specific prospect’s role there. Look up he or she on LinkedIn to see their past work experience, interests, anything that can give you an idea of what makes this person tick.
The more you know going into the call, the less cold the call is. This process helps to generate momentum in your favor and further ensure a successful first contact. Additionally, consider the time zone in which your prospect is located. The absolute best times to cold call are between the hours of 8-9am and 4-5pm, with the lunchtime period of 1-2 being the absolute worst.
Continue reading this blog series.
For more on how cold calling’s decline in effectiveness has changed the B2B sales and marketing process, watch this quick video. You can find out more about the value of an outsourced sales team here. Feel free to contact us with any questions.
by gabriel_sales | Apr 10, 2014
During the course of our sales process, we often hear from early stage prospects who have not really thought about outsourcing to help outperform the competition in terms of lead generation. Many of these early stage prospects haven’t committed to outsourced B2B lead generation and often struggle to understand or grasp the enormity of change that can occur as a result.
What many companies fail to realize is that simply by freeing up the time that was once spent educating and qualifying, you are now able to provide a deeper level of service to your customers, which in turn can lead to higher retention, more upsell possibilities and more referrals.
By shifting focus to serving the needs of your prospects, you change the dynamics of the entire conversation. The prospect realizes you are there to help, rather than to just sell.
By leveraging outsourced B2B lead generation, you have a team of experts at your side to help with all of the heavy lifting. While your competitors struggle to figure out how to get more leads or implement a marketing automation platform, you are freed to focus on strategy, content, and closing that can help you outperform the competition.
The other major benefit to B2B sales outsourcing has to do with time. Sales and marketing have changed dramatically in recent years with the rise of digital technology, and adapting your sales process to this new digital environment is a task that is neither simple nor quick.
As B2B sales and marketing outsourcers, we have over 13 years of experience building scalable sales machines, and we have developed a proven and streamlined process for running integrated sales and marketing campaigns for our clients. We have found that using this process, we can achieve in 90 days what typically takes 9-18 months for a client to implement on their own. For startup companies looking to take a new product to market, this difference can be significant when attempting to outperform the competition.
To learn more about the value of leveraging outsourced B2B lead generation to outperform the competition, read How an Outsourced Sales Team Can Help Your Marketing Team. You can learn more about the B2B outsourcing services we offer on our service page.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions.
by Glen Springer | Feb 5, 2014
By definition, outsourcing in any industry is going to involve giving up some level of control.
Obviously, each company is going to have a slightly different stance on how much control they are willing to give up for each outsourced function. While we understand and completely appreciate not wanting to just ‘hand over the keys’ so to speak, there is a certain level of control that has to be given up in order for productivity to occur.
We sometimes run into this issue in discussions with prospects who are considering our sales and marketing outsourcing services. We often hear, “I have all the scripts, lists and content I need. I just need you to make calls. Also, I want you to be accountable for your results.”
Requests like this put outsourcers in a tough spot. In this type of situation, the outsourcer has zero control over the sales strategy, the messaging, the lists that are procured, the content, etc, and at the same time, they are accountable for the results produced. Companies who make these requests are essentially attempting to keep control over the entire sales process while placing the accountability on the outsourcer. From a business perspective, this just doesn’t make sense.
If you are asking someone to be successful, and you are not giving them any control over that process, you can’t expect them to be accountable for that—you haven’t given them any control over their own success or failure. By retaining the control yourself, what you gave them predetermined what their outcome was going to be.
Although sometimes it is uncomfortable, sales outsourcing generally requires giving up a great deal of control. In order to really get the true metrics that outsourcing can produce, you have allow those who are experts to lead the way. It is likely that you are already a thought leader in your field of expertise. If that field is not sales, and your sales are struggling, it is probably better to let someone with sales expertise take the lead. Sometimes to be successful, the best thing to do is simply get out of the way.
If you would like to know more about the value of sales outsourcing, read 5 Advantages of Sales Outsourcing in 2014. Feel free to contact us with any questions.
by Glen Springer | Feb 5, 2014
Many people consider Outsourced Sales and marketing work come to me with some preconceived notions about what they would like to do.
One thing I hear over and over again is the desire to produce outsourced sales or marketing functions using a pay-for-performance model. While the intentions of using a pay-for-performance model are usually good, in practice, there are several reasons why it doesn’t work well for outsourced sales.
The first is in regards to the cost of resources. Let’s take cold callers for example; cold callers are an extremely expensive resource (especially if they are full-time). Cold callers can also require a lot of training before they can become effective.
If everyone is in agreement that cold callers are valuable resources, why would an outsourcer agree to invest in those resources without any guarantee of return on that investment? From a business perspective, it just doesn’t make sense.
Another reason why pay-for-performance does not work well for outsourced sales is that it puts the focus on short-term goals rather than long-term success.
For example, I often get asked if we will take compensation for each appointment set. From a sales reps perspective, this incentivizes the sales rep to ‘hit his number’ by setting as many appointments as possible, regardless of the quality of those appointments. Because, if the only performance metric being looked at is the number of appointments set, the rep has no motivation to put in the extra time and effort to only set meetings with quality prospects that he thinks will eventually close. With no reason to think past hitting his numbers for this week/month, a pay-for-performance sales rep is focused on his short-term goals, not your long-term success.
If you would like to know more about the value of outsourcing B2B sales, read Scale Your Business for Sales with B2B Sales Outsourcing. To learn how we price our sales and marketing outsourcing services, you can visit our services page and click on the different boxes for pricing details.
Feel free to contact us with any questions.
by Glen Springer | Feb 3, 2014
I work the front end of our sales process, taking Inbound calls from interested companies looking for help with their sales. Inevitably, we see the same scenarios play out and the same issues come up over and over again. One issue that has come up a lot recently is what we call the “self-diagnosis dilemma.”
An executive or SVP of sales reaches out with the core problems of:
- They need a bigger pipe
- They need more leads
- They need faster revenue traction
Often, what we see happen is when companies are looking for kind of outside help, they have some preconceived notions in their mind about what tactics will work. They will say something like, “I don’t need any content; I just need callers,” or “I just need you to set appointments.”
While it is great that people are trying to take some action to improve their sales efforts, self-diagnosing in this way does not always produce the best results.
For example, let’s say you have a runny nose and a cough and diagnosis yourself with a common cold, which you would normally treat with some over-the-counter medicine. However, when you go to your doctor, he tells you that you most definitely have whooping cough and need antibiotics—the over-the-counter stuff won’t cut it.
So, while symptoms may look the same on the surface—whether it be a runny nose or low conversion ratios—a qualified domain expert with years of experience servicing multiple customers successfully on a daily basis probably has a better understanding of what solution is most appropriate.
Experts are experts because they can see big picture ideas that others miss, and they are able to discover new solutions to difficult problems. And while it was somewhat easy to become a marketing expert 10 years ago, the sales and marketing landscape has changed dramatically with the proliferation of digital and is now much more complex on both a social and technological level.
So, if your company’s sales are struggling going at it alone, it would probably benefit you to be open to an expert’s advice before haphazardly concocting your own home-remedy.
If you would like to know more about the value of outsourcing B2B sales, read Scale Your Business for Sales with Sales Outsourcing. Feel free to contact us with any questions.
by gabriel_sales | Jan 7, 2014
As a quick Google search will tell you, the complexity of B2B sales outsourcing is increasing dramatically as we move more and more into a digitally-driven world. In this new world of digital sales tools, marketing automation and customer relationship management, it takes more than a good cold call script to close a deal.
Scaling your business in this environment is going to take a commitment to smart technology use, authentic storytelling and a strategized sales process. Because many B2B companies do not have a marketing automation expert, a trained journalist and a highly experienced sales team on staff, they now are looking to external resources for support.
When it comes to B2B sales outsourcing and marketing, the right solution for any company is going to depend on their existing gaps and current goals. Some companies may only need help with technology implementation (marketing automation consulting), some have struggles that are on a more strategic level, and others need support through execution (content production).
Here are three ways a sales and marketing outsourcing company can provide value to a company looking to scale:
1. Go-to-Market/Market Validation Consulting
Before attempting to scale any kind of business, it is necessary to have a clear picture of your market and your ideal customer profile. With go-to-market strategy or market-validation consulting, you can leverage expert research and advice and test your markets, message and solution before committing to sales and marketing budgets. By paving the way for success beforehand, you can eliminate time spent chasing bad tactics and unnecessary development cycles and instead focus on campaign refinement and optimization.
2. Pipeline development via staff augmentation
Many times, scaling a business is about having the right people on board. By leveraging an outsourced sales and marketing team, you get access to a highly experienced group of experts you likely could not afford to hire internally. This team can help you with all parts of sales pipeline development including content production, email nurturing, SEO, database management, etc.
3. Measurement and reporting
As a service provider, every outsourced sales and marketing team should be accountable for the work they do. As a B2B company looking to scale, the detailed measurement and reporting an outsourced team provides can be extremely valuable. While we cannot speak for every outsourced sales and marketing company, at Gabriel Sales, we provide our clients with twelve different types of reporting on our efforts—from data on conversion ratios to verbatim transcripts of cold calls—and have weekly meetings to discuss our successes and areas for improvement. This increased level of transparency gives companies the ability to better forecast and understand where and how to optimize as they scale.
To learn more about the value of B2B sales outsourcing and marketing, read How an Outsourced Sales Team Can Help Your Marketing Team or 5 Advantages for B2B Sales Outsourcing in 2014. If you are interested in learning more about what we do, you can visit our services page.
Feel free to contact us with any questions.
While cold calling has never been easy, it certainly has not gotten any easier in the past few years.
