SalesVantage.com >> Article Archives >> Sales Strategies >> "We Need More Leads"

Sales Strategies
   
"We Need More Leads"
By Bob Washburn, President, WashburnGroup

While on the phone with a software company CEO, I asked him to comment on his most critical sales issues. He replied "We need more leads"
Are your inside salespeople executing the front end of your company's sales process, and generating prequalified leads for the field, or are they performing the simpler, but less valuable, telemarketing job?

In today's technology buying environment, where only 10% of companies' IT budget is available for new product purchases, it's critically important for tech vendors to have an inside sales team that can create truly prequalified leads for their field sales forces and partners to convert to customers.

Earlier this year, while on the phone with a software company CEO, I asked him to comment on his most critical sales issues. He replied "We need more leads".

So I decided to investigate the problem, and interviewed a sample of inside sales managers, field sales managers, field salespeople and marketing managers, to help me evaluate the current state of high tech inside sales. Here's a brief assessment:
At most companies, Marketing generates interest in the company's offerings - hosting Webinars, offering downloadable white papers, product specs, and customer success stories.

Web visitors are asked to identify themselves by filling in a few (or a lot) of boxes to attend the Webinar, get the white paper and so forth. Then their names and collected data are sent to the inside sales team to telephone the prospects and see which ones are potential buyers.

Often, the Inside salesperson asks a prospect if they have an active or potential project, a budget, their purchasing timeframe, and whether they are a decision maker, an influencer or a user. Is this customer-centric selling behavior?

S/he also tells the prospect about their product's features and benefits, and sends the "lead" to the field via the CRM system–dividing leads into three categories–A for an imminent decision, B for decisions 60–90 days out, and for future decisions, say six months out. In whose opinion is the prospect qualified - the seller's or the buyer's?

If the prospect is an A, the inside salesperson sends an e-mail to the field salesperson to contact the prospect ASAP, often recommending a demo.

Some insides sales teams use scripts or checklists, while others don't, not wanting their salespeople to sound scripted. Some companies use questionnaires, to help sellers learn about the prospect's current product usage.
My concern about this approach to inside sales is that sellers aren't learning about the current situation that caused the prospect to inquire about the seller's company or offerings.

Sellers aren't asking about buyers' goals, needs or problems for which a potential new solution exists.

And sellers seem to be telling buyers about their products' features and benefits, and not helping prospects visualize how they could achieve their goal or solve their problems by using the sellers' offerings.

Most company sales leaders say they have a sales process - for their field sales force. But often, inside sales isn't part of the process. they are seen to be somewhere between sales and marketing, doing their best to "fill the top of the funnel".

The inside sales operation I've described may have made sense in the high growth 1990s, when technology buyers were upgrading everything–computers, servers, datacomm and software - every two to three years, and it was a seller's market.

But not today. In the current slow growth era, I believe that tech companies must develop and implement an inside sales process that front-ends the field sales process, as a seamless overall whole. It's now essential that the first person that a prospect talks with at your company be capable of doing a first rate qualifying job - to gain credibility with potential buyers and with their field sales counterparts.

Let's take another look at those A, B and C lead buckets. Is this the best way to categorize prospects? Are the A leads those with the highest sales potential?

Consider this. If an A prospect is making a near term decision, and your inside salesperson just now made initial contact, what's the likelihood that their buying cycle is underway, and a competitor is already influencing the solution specs?

And if this is the case, wouldn't your chances be better with a B prospect, who has assessed their problem, defined their objectives, but hasn't yet initiated a project?

And what about the C prospect? Aren't their goals, needs and issues the same as the A's and B's? Here, I'd recommend that your sellers ask the C prospect about their goals, needs and issues, learn about their current situation now, rather than wait six months until "they are ready", thus bringing the future into the present.

To change from the A, B and C bucket, active budgeted project way of selling to a more customer-centric selling approach, you will need an inside sales process - that you can teach, coach and manage.

Here are six components, from the CustomerCentric Selling® methodology, that can serve as a model for developing your inside sales process:
  1. Create a targeted conversation list - of the typical job titles that must be on board before a purchase decision is made, along with typical, job title specific, goals or issues that you offering helps address

  2. Develop introductory call scripts to initiate first contact with prospect - the reason for calling, asking to understand their situation, and if they can talk now or at a scheduled time later.

  3. In the next script segment, have your sellers ask about the buyer's goals, and be prepared to offer a menu of goals - if the prospect doesn't share a goal.

  4. Develop brief success stories, that tie to specific goals, that sellers can use next. Success stories build credibility, but keep them short.

  5. Create question-oriented Solution Development Prompters™, with a set of diagnostic questions (derived from product features), that help a buyer to explain their situation and the nature of their problems, and corresponding sets of product usage questions, that help the prospect visualize their company using your offerings.

    By using prompters, sellers develop artificial patience and artificial intelligence, until they become expert questioners.

  6. Finally, coach inside salespeople to send sales conversation summary letters via e-mail after each sales call. Letters force the seller to summarize what they learned about the prospect's goals, needs and issues, the diagnosed information, the usage scenarios (capabilities) that the prospect said would be useful in goal attainment.

    Finally, conclude the letter with next steps that the buyer has agreed to - introductions to other key players, or a scheduled meeting with your field salesperson. The opportunity control letter can be the best handoff device in the inside salesperson's toolkit.
Could this approach to teleselling help your inside sales team become more successful in generating enough really qualified leads to fill the field sales force's funnel?

Bob Washburn helps high tech sales executives accelerate sales revenue by improving sales team performance. WashburnGroup is an affiliate of CustomerCentric Selling® (www.customercentricsystems.com).
Contact Bob at bob@washburngroup.com or 508-366-0994.

More articles by Bob Washburn
More articles on Sales Strategies

Featured Advertisers


Ad Opportunities

Sales & Marketing Articles 4U