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Displaying items by tag: Cold Calling

More and more B2B companies are outsourcing the job of setting appointments. Instead of having their sales reps make cold calls and fill their own schedule, they outsource to a B2B Appointment Setting specialist firm.

Published in Appointment Setting

You may have heard the axiom that “content is king.” If you have, you most likely heard it in the context of building an audience for a web site or to get attendees for an event. Most business people would not think about the importance of content in the context of getting on the phone to generate appointments and sales leads.

 Content is important for outbound marketing activities and if you plan to invest in outbound marketing, you better have some good content.

Published in Appointment Setting

In the majority of cases, about 90% of the time, when a b2b company hires Professional Prospecting Systems, they are looking for more b2b appointments or qualified leads.

Over the past 14 years we have developed a systematic approach to setting up and running a b2b appointment setting and lead generation program that incorporates 3 Elements :

Published in Appointment Setting
Monday, 06 February 2017 14:17

Do prospects see you as one of the herd?

From the Desk of Joe Prospect

The Battle for Your Prospect’s Mind

 

A couple of brilliant advertising guys named Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote a book in 1981 called Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. They explained that all products and services end up occupying a  position in our minds. We put a label on everything. Smart companies  position themselves exactly how they want to be thought of by their  prospects.


Whatever your business is, if you do not create a unique position in my mind, I will think of you as an accountant, or insurance broker, or printer or whatever profession you are part of. I will see you as being the same as everyone else in your group. Whatever associations I have already formed about your group, I will attach automatically to you. If you  are an accountant and I think of accountants as expensive, confusing or  interchangeable, that is who you will be to me. Unless you create a unique  position for your company in my mind. If you are a janitorial company and I  think that all janitorial companies do a great job in the beginning then start  to get sloppy, that is what I will think of you. Unless you do something in  your marketing to establish yourself as being different from your competitors.

 

You have to create the position you want for your company or your prospects will do it for you and you may not like where they choose to slot you. You don’t want to be stuck with the impressions formed on your prospects by the rest of your herd I have fixed ideas about everything. If you were to ask me about any type  of business, I will tell you what I think of them. You must be aware of  the impressions, good and bad, already made on me by your competitors –the other members of your herd. And then you have to rise above them and  set your company apart from your crowd.

 

Choosing your position is tricky because you have to decide which  segment of your prospects you are creating the position for and how you are going to establish your position in your marketing.

 

Your position must be short and simple. If it is confusing or complicated  I will not work to get it, I will just forget it.

 

Another critical thing about a position is that you have to stick to the  same position or you will lose all the marketing points you have scored with your original position.  If you vary your positioning in your marketing messages, you will leave me thinking “Who are these guys anyway?”   Stray from your position and perish.

 

In order to gain the position you want in the minds of your prospects, you will need to plant that message firmly in all of your marketing communication. Then repeat it, over and over and over again. Never move away from your core position. You can vary the content of your marketing messages but your main positioning must remain absolutely consistent.

 

Think very carefully about what you want your position to be and how  you are going to express it in your marketing.

 

Don’t let me just lump you in with the rest of your herd!

 

Reservation

Register for one of our free webinars and Question & Answer sessions held every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We take you inside an E-Telemarketing campaign and show you how our unique marketing system will build trust with your prospects and get you a huge increase in appointments whether you are a Fortune 20 company or a one person operation.

 

Call 1 866 445-4369 to register or click on the link below

Reserve your seat at an upcoming PPS Webinar

Published in Cold Calling

FROM THE DESK OF JOE PROSPECT

I get hundreds of calls every year from salespeople trying to book an appointment with me.  You have probably been one of them.

 

It may surprise you to learn this, but some salespeople do actually succeed in booking an appointment with me.

Published in Appointment Setting

FROM THE DESK OF JOE PROSPECT

Previously I told you that if you want to get an appointment with me you have to tell me what you are going to do for me without telling me how you are going to do it. And then you tell me you only need 5 minutes of my time for the appointment so I feel the process is going to be relatively painless.

Published in Appointment Setting
Monday, 12 December 2016 13:52

Joe Prospect Reveals How to Make a Bad Cold Call

The Wrong Way to Cold Call Your Prospects!

Let me start out by asking you a question. How do you feel about receiving  telemarketing calls?

If you are like me, you dread these calls and try to avoid picking up the phone if you know it is an unsolicited telemarketing call.

Why do we both feel the same way about telemarketing calls and I am sure all of your prospects feel the same way you and I do.

Let's examine how a typical telemarketing call goes.

Published in Appointment Setting
Monday, 05 December 2016 13:07

Joe Prospect Reveals How to Make a GOOD Cold Call

THE RIGHT WAY TO COLD CALL YOUR PROSPECTS!

So why do you keep calling me and why do I keep cold calling my prospects? Telemarketing isn’t going to go away because it is still shown to be one of the most effective marketing methods for most businesses.

Even though most telemarketing is done very badly, selling is mostly about timing

Published in Appointment Setting
Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:25

Are You Abandoning Your Prospects?

EVERY TIME YOU TOUCH YOUR PROSPECTS BY CALLING THEM, EMAILING OR MAILING THEM SOMETHING, YOU ARE SCORING POINTS WITH THEM. JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOT JUMPED UP AND THROWN THEIR ARMS AROUND YOU YET, DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOUR MESSAGE HAS NOT PENETRATED THEIR CONSCIOUSNESS TO SOME DEGREE. EACH CONTACT SCORES A CERTAIN NUMBER OF POINTS WITH YOUR PROSPECTS AND MOVES THEM CLOSER TO THE POINT WHERE ONE DAY THEY WILL BE READY TO DO BUSINESS WITH YOU.

Published in Cold Calling

YEARS OVER ALMOST 2000 DIFFERENT CAMPAIGNS. 
YOU WOULD HOPE THAT THAT AMOUNT OF EXPERIENCE TEACHES YOU SOMETHING.  IT HAS.

HERE’S WHAT WE LEARNED:

1.  It is not so much what you say, but how you say it.  

The prospect reacts more to the overall phone presence and level of emotion and conviction conveyed by the caller. You can put exactly the same script in the hands of 2 different callers and get dramatically different results.  Callers can be trained to convey stronger phone presence and conviction by emphasizing certain key words and phrases in the script.

2. The shorter the script, the more likely it is to result in an appointment.

In testing on some of our major campaigns over the years, the results clearly show that less is more.   The script, particularly the opening statement, must be very short and get right to the point in order for a script to work successfully. Trying to convey too much detail in a script is a sure fire way to kill an appointment setting campaign. The tendency is to think that the more information we throw at the prospect, the more likely they are to find something that interests them enough to want an appointment. In fact, it works exactly the opposite—the more details you give the prospect, the less need they have for the appointment to get the details.

3.  Sell the sizzle.

This point relates directly to the previous one.  Make sure your script sells the benefits and the end result of using your product or service.  Leave the details of how you do it for the appointment.  If they ask how or why, tell them you will show them in your demonstration or meeting. 

If you want to see exactly how we conduct a campaign, go to one of our webinars.
Published in Appointment Setting