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To Cold Call or not to Cold Call: That is the Question

November 1st, 2010 by Lisa

Don’t you wish your phone would ring off the hook with prospective customers asking to buy your product or service? I sure do! Unfortunately business doesn’t come to you and instead you have to go out and find it.

I’ve heard it said that 90 percent of people hate cold-calling and the other 10 percent are lying. Even the term cold calling can make your stomach churn. That is why some refer to it as prospecting or lead qualification. The truth is, picking up the phone is still one of the best ways to speak to a company executive.

Why do we try so hard to avoid it? The reasons are different for all of us. Maybe we don’t like talking to new people or we don’t want to bother someone at home or work. Or maybe we’re a little lazy and just prefer to make the easy calls. For most of us, it is a fear of rejection! I don’t want to call someone and have him or her get annoyed and act rudely toward me.

According to a research firm that tracks what works in the marketing industry, only 11 to 17 percent of prospects were annoyed by getting an unsolicited cold call. That translates into less than 2 rude responses for every 100 calls. And not all of the uninterested prospects will exhibit rude behavior. Let’s do the math, if only half of the uninterested prospects are rude and you make 50 calls a day, then you would only encounter about 2.5 crusty customers a week. I don’t know about you, but I encounter more than that in one trip to the grocery store. Don’t focus on the fearful 2.5 calls, but on the other 247.5 calls that could push your prospect one step closer to becoming a customer!

Go ahead… pick up that phone!

If you would like to learn more tips or have a CRM topic you would like us to write about please contact Simplesoft Solutions, Inc. in one of our Cincinnati/Dayton (OH), Charleston (WV), or Charlotte (NC) surrounding area office locations:

Dayton, Ohio Office:
Simplesoft Solutions, Inc.
550 N. Main St. Suite A
Springboro, OH 45066
Phone: (937) 885-1204 x 3204
Fax: (937) 885-3580
sales@simplesoft.net

Ripley, WV Office:
Simplesoft Solutions, Inc.
710 Random Rd.
Ripley, WV 25271
Phone: (304) 521-2387
Fax: (937) 885-3580
sales@simplesoft.net

Charlotte, NC Office:
Simplesoft Solutions, Inc.
3635 Eastover Ridge Drive
Charlotte, NC 28211
Phone: (704) 910-3872
Fax: (937) 885-3580
sales@simplesoft.net

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Tags: Cold Calling, Goldmine, Leads in CRM, Ohio, Sage SalesLogix, Sales Management, Sales Training, Salesforce.com
Posted in Exploring CRM Strategy | 1 Comment »

Are You a Prospector?

September 20th, 2010 by Lisa

In my last post , I talked about how to retain your customers. This time I’d like to discuss how to “START” the sale.

It has been my experience that most sales people hate “prospecting”. What is prospecting?

Wikipedia describes it this way: Prospecting is physical labor, involving traversing (traditionally on foot or on horseback), panning, sifting and outcrop investigation, looking for signs of mineralization. I like that. Not necessarily the horseback part, but that’s what it feels like sometimes. Physical labor, panning, sifting, looking for signs of interest in a product or service. This is part of the qualification process.

It has been said that successful people do things that unsuccessful people choose not to do. I think that is very true, especially in the area of sales. How often do you hear these words? “I love cold calling!” Probably about as often as, “I love a good rash!” You have to be thick skinned to cold call. The odds of rejection are very high. It is however, a necessary evil in the sales process.

I did some digging for statistics on sales “touches”. Most experts agree that only 2% of sales are made in the first contact. I am guessing that number to be even lower as the value of the product or service goes up. Only 5% of sales are made by the 3^rd contact. It is estimated that most sales occur on the 8^th to 14^th touch, depending on the cost of the offer. WOW, 8-14 touches? In some states that might get you arrested!

The reality is, most sales people stop after 2-3 contacts leaving over 80% of sales on the table for the more persistentsales person to scoop up. Which one are you? Develop a plan. There is a big difference between marketing and selling. You need to be in the marketing business during those first few touches. Engage your prospect! Get creative. Don’t just call 6 times a month and leave a voice message. Create a unique “Campaign” and brand yourself. If you can get an e-mail address and a physical address in that first phone call or two, you can then turn much of your marketing on auto-pilot if you have a good CRM with marketing capability. (You obviously have to comply with CAN-SPAM laws and use opt-in or opt-out techniques.) We use Sage SalesLogix Emarketing, so whether we’re marketing to several hundred or several thousand prospects, it’s really a breeze.

Sage SalesLogix E-Marketing is an integrated service that enables you to quickly and effectively reach out to all of your contacts, nurture and qualify your leads, and grow your customer base. You can create professional e-mail templates and then view report metrics such as opens and click rates. You can then quantify the results to see what is and is not effective. You can even create your call plan based on those results, immediately warming up your calls. If you’d like to read more about Sage’s E-Marketing or sign up for a free trial.

Go, climb on your horse and start panning and sifting! There might be a big sale just over the next hill.

Dayton / Cincinnati, Ohio Office:
Simplesoft Solutions, Inc.
550 N. Main St. Suite A
Springboro, OH 45066
Phone: (937) 885-1204 x 3204
Fax: (937) 885-3580
sales@simplesoft.net

Ripley, WV Office:
Simplesoft Solutions, Inc.
710 Random Rd.
Ripley, WV 25271
Phone: (304) 521-2387
Fax: (937) 885-3580
sales@simplesoft.net

Charlotte, NC Office:
Simplesoft Solutions, Inc.
3635 Eastover Ridge Drive
Charlotte, NC 28211
Phone: (704) 910-3872
Fax: (937) 885-3580
sales@simplesoft.net

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Tags: CRM, Drip Marketing, email-marketing, Emarketing, Sage SalesLogix, Sales Process, Salesforce.com
Posted in Exploring CRM Strategy | 1 Comment »

Are you Indifferent?

July 9th, 2010 by Lisa

I have you noticed something over the last several years and I wonder if you have too. Things just work. Your car starts in the morning, even if it is below zero. Your roof lasts 20 years. Even your $15 hair dryer will last a solid 5 years. And when’s the last time you called a TV repairman?

The truth is, whether you buy it at Nordstrom or Target. It works. There is, however, a big difference in the customer “experience” between Nordstrom and Target and that is reflected in their prices. Your competitor’s products also “work”. They may not be as pretty or have a low total cost of ownership like your products, but on the surface… they work. And if you add a cool new feature to yours, within 6 months, everyone else will have it too. So who is the real winner here? The one who can not only get the sale, but also keep the customer!

I think I’ll cover getting the sale in my next blog. But the issue today is: how do you hang on to your customers for life?

Here are some statistics that I dug up from various sources including the SBA, US Chamber, Gartner Group, the National Sales Assn., and The Harvard Business Review.

Did you know that the average business loses 50% of their customers every 5 years?

Why do customers quit?

1% die (I guess you kept those for life)

3% move

5% develop other relationships

9% seek out your competition

14% are dissatisfied

69% quit because they feel your indifference

Wow, a whopping 69% will buy somewhere else because YOU didn’t pay enough attention to them!

So with all that being said, what percent of “unhappy” customers will tell you directly that they feel your indifference? 4%…yes, you heard me correctly, just 4% will admit to being unhappy rather than “quit” you and move on to your competitor. How many other people will an unhappy customer tell while he is NOT telling you? …9. An unhappy customer will tell an average of 9 people that he did not get good products or services from you. What if you have 100 unhappy customers? Bad news travels fast!

It is estimated that it takes 3-13 times, more time, to acquire a new customer over selling to an existing one. An average of 94% of your marketing budget is spent on persuading a customer to call or interact with you, while only 6% is spent on how to properly handle the call or customer. So what good is that shiny new piece of marketing material that you spent your hard earned cash to produce if it results in a customer feeling that you are indifferent.

Know your customer! Remember your last few conversations. Remember the little details. Prove to them that you are not indifferent and they are important to you. Research shows that a CRM system like Sage SalesLogix can reduce customer service costs and increase customer retention by as much as 70%. Imagine being able to, with the click of a mouse, know the entire history of your customer’s account. You know what he purchased last and what his concerns were. You might even know that he adopted a brand new little dog named Spot last month ….. even if you have never spoken to him personally. Sage SalesLogix is a collaborative tool that can give you a true 360 degree view of each and every customer.

It is said that long-term loyal customers buy more often, spend more money, buy higher priced products, provide more referrals, are less expensive to serve, have higher retention rates and higher lifetime values.

How happy are your customers? Are you indifferent? Do you act indifferent? Are you keeping track of your calls, emails, invoices and overall touches with your customer in one central place? If not………you might be indifferent.

If you would like to learn more about Sage SalesLogix or you would like to discuss Customer Service Training that is tailored to your business, please contact Simplesoft Solutions, Inc. in one of our Cincinnati, OH or Chicago, IL surrounding area office locations:

Dayton, Ohio Office:
Simplesoft Solutions, Inc.
550 N. Main St. Suite A
Springboro, OH 45066
Phone: (937) 885-1204 x 3204
Fax: (937) 885-3580
sales@simplesoft.net