B2B Sales & Marketing Blog

Experience shows that the relationship between Business Developers (BDs) and the sales people who ultimately are our primary constituents is very important to the success of a business development effort.  A basic element in this relationship is the need to foster bi-directional communication as a regular discipline.

Remember, the goal is not to hand off a qualified lead or set appointments and let you battle it out on your own.  The BD team (at eti) is in your corner because they share a collective responsibility to see that every sales opportunity represents real potential.

The identification of new sales opportunities is not what defines our success; it is the generation of more revenue and an ROI that justifies a long standing partnership. You want to be sure, therefore, that you get everything you need to enable the opportunities that are handed off to your sales team to be as strong as possible.

We know full well that the sales opportunity pipeline (and the prospect pipeline) is a fluid, dynamic process.  At eti, this understanding is what distinguishes us from our competitors.

Therefore  . . .

1. When you have a question or concern, please call us to discuss.
2. When you need more information about an opportunity we have identified, let us know.  We’ll call the prospect again to obtain what you need to move the opportunity forward.
3. If you want anyone else on the prospect side to be in on an appointment, tell us, and we will work to arrange that.
4. If you have had an initial call with a matching prospect not yet ready to engage or buy, and want us to take back the opportunity to nurture and move it further along, our BD team is ready and willing to do so.
5. Our BDs will not be too shy to call you if they need clarification in order to move a prospect forward, or see an opportunity to brain storm prospect-specific next step strategies.
6. Your success is our success and we will do whatever it takes to make us both successful.

We at eti have no desire to be your “vendor.”  We will work much harder and smarter to earn the status of “partner.”

The term ‘call guide’ is often mistakenly considered synonymous with the term ’script.’  Perhaps in some circles, that is, indeed the case, but not at eti.  Since our inception in 1987, we have never used scripts.

Scripts are intended to be delivered verbatim by Telephone Sales Representatives (TSR’s) as they conduct their interactions with prospects.  Most times these scripts are TELL-type documents that essentially require the TSR to deliver/read the exact canned message regardless of the responses or needs of the person they are calling.  The key skills for the caller are outwardly focused on reading a message as opposed to engaging in a dialog, probing and listening for need, pain and interest and being able to adjust accordingly.

Why a script?  Because TSR’s working in such environments usually cannot be trusted to engage in a meaningful discussion with their prospects.  Neither their educational background nor their business experience gives them the ability to undertake the essential consultative dialog that is required.

Typically, the script structure has a fixed blurb about the product / service / charity / politician being sold or promoted and then some responses are provided for the most frequent questions and or objections.  Scripts are generally used in low-cost consumer and fund raising environments or in commodity Business-to-Business (B2B) applications where brand and market positioning are not as important as breadth of coverage.  They are also often used in high-pressure boiler rooms where ‘dialing for dollars is the name of the game.

Call Guides, on the other hand, are used to engage a prospect in a focused discussion (a consultative dialog) between a Business Developer (BD) and a prospect.  Call Guides do not dictate in any way exactly what must be said, how or in what sequence.  Instead, they set a framework for the prospective conversation.  In our world, a call guide is comprised of probing questions that are designed to stimulate a discussion about the product, service or solution about which we are calling and how it might benefit their organization.  The idea is to seek and develop a “mutual perception of need” between our clients’ offerings and the needs of the prospect organization.  Ultimately, it is there to provide a road map for the BD to navigate the prospecting waters in order for both parties to assess the potential for a mutually valuable business relationship.

Generally, Call Guides are used in sophisticated B2B environments for more complex lead generation and qualification programs.  Using call guides requires BD’s with solid education, intelligence, relationship development skills, business acumen, aptitude and comfort engaging in a consultative relationship with someone who typically knows far more than they do about the topics being discussed.  These are precisely the characteristics that we seek when evaluating people to work as BDs at eti Sales Support.

What is rarely taken into account in lead generation and lead qualification programs is the ultimate value of developing and building a prospect pipeline.

For example, for every lead that is generated by eti for our clients, we estimate some four to six additional prospects that require nurturing over time and of these a high percentage will develop into valid sales-ready opportunities at some point.

Few companies have the infrastructure (let alone the patience) to effectively undertake the task of nurturing future prospects. However, the rewards for those companies which accomplish this task successfully are potentially immense.

Our statistics reliably indicate that for every 100 or so prospects nurtured in the prospect pipeline, will render some 20-40 more sales-ready opportunities over time.   (Yes 20%+.)

Only you know the average value of each new customer.  And only you know the average number of years new customers will remain active purchasers. But the incremental profits from those extra sales minimize the nurturing costs and maximize the return on your overall marketing investments (ROMI).

Too few companies recognize the inherent future value of this pipeline and therefore the costs of nurturing appear to be disproportionately high.This could be a serious mistake. It is also short sighted because there has already been a substantial investment made in identifying these prospects.  So why waste and discard them?

Let’s take the following simple scenario:

Now if you factor in some average revenues – say $20,000 with a conversion rate of 25% – the total revenues from the Opportunity Pipeline will be some $500,000. And the revenues from the prospect pipeline in the first year will therefore total $250,000.  The sum is $750k.

In the first instance the ROI (cost of sales) is 10%,

Together with the sales from the prospect pipeline, the sum is reduced to only 8%.  i.e. An incremental increase of 20%.

But it probably gets better.  Our experience shows that opportunities coming out of the prospect pipeline that have been nurtured over time enjoy great sales conversion ratios.  So ultimately the ROI may even be substantially better than in the above example.

For more information on how eti can develop an effective and profitable lead nurturing effort and maximize your sales opportunity pipelines please call 1.800.466.4384.

Recently Shelly Sachs (eti’s VP Business Development) and I hosted a workshop at a recent MIT Sloan School of Business Sales conference. Our contribution was titled “Tough Times Demand Smarter Sales Strategies”. 

Bill McDermott, President, Global Field Operations of SAP gave the keynote address. It was outstanding. His presentation focused on the complex problems and challenges facing a large global company in today’s difficult business climate.

McDermott did not mince his words. He had in fact come face to face with the serious need to maintain and grow sales during these difficult times.  His solution was as simple as it was dramatic:

“Double the number of new sales opportunities  being driven to the field sales force!”

He made it clear of course that he was talking about qualified and sales-ready opportunities. Not simply doubling the number of raw inquiries because that’s just the starting point of the qualifying process. Such inquiries still require to be carefully qualified.

Clearly one can’t double the number of sales-ready opportunities by cutting sales and marketing budgets.  The only way to increase the number of qualified leads is to increase your lead generation investments. Nor can one handle an increased flow of raw leads by cutting the sales force – in fact you may be compelled to hire additional resources.

Well then, here’s a merit worthy offer from eti. Give Shelly Sachs our VP Business Development a call to discuss how your company could double the number of sales-ready leads in your sales opportunity pipelines.

Shelley’s extensive experience in this highly specialized field makes him an ideal sounding board for developing your lead generation strategies moving forward.  He can be reached at at 914.747.3030 Ext.3450.

You may wonder what the process of acquiring new customers has to do with upholding a client’s brand image.

We first learned to understand the importance of BRAND in the early 90’s when working on assignment for a Fortune listed 500 company.

Their executives made a serious point of informing us their company was much concerned that we should not do anything which might hurt their company’s carefully cultivated image.

On the contrary they went on to explain . . .

• that in speaking with their prospective clients we should speak with esteem for the way their company does business
• that we should convey their company is one which appreciates the customer as king
• that they value the opportunity to pay attention to the needs and values of their customers
• that they can be relied on to carry out their promises and offers
• that they should be admired for their products and respected for their services. 

We immediately realized the essential truth of this client’s definition of their brand, their company image, and the real value of their advice. Before long we decided to make changes in our business that would result in setting us apart from the average telemarketing service vendor of the time.

This decision required us to internalize that client’s priceless advice and to review eti’s company persona. It also affected our hiring objectives. The education and business experience of our phone agents would become one of the most important factors in our hiring decisions.

We would need to look for persons with an executive manner who easily and naturally spoke the language of their prospects. We would need people capable of understanding the need to uphold the client’s brand image whenever they spoke in their name. And scripts were thrown out in favor of Call Guides enabling us to engage in consultative and meaningful conversations with client prospects.

In due course our staff would be defined as Business Developers (no longer telemarketers or phone agents) in keeping with our clients’ objectives. These were, by and large, to acquire new customers via sales lead generation and lead qualification efforts. 

When we work for you, you’ll know that we are conscious of the fact that you too want respect for your company image and admiration for your products or services. You’ll get both.

Here is what clients have said about our approach:

• “You don’t describe yourselves as being in the business of generating leads. You defined your mission as New Customer Acquisition and Retention and maximizing sales/force productivity.”
• “You sold us on the lifetime significance of new customers rather than the value of their first orders.”
• “You have a basic brand image mindset which is very important to us.”
• “Your Business Developers are graduates and have business experience. They adapt and converse freely because they are not bound by scripts.”
• “You’re not the most competitive price wise. But if we wanted low costs we could have gone to any of the commodity type agencies that abound.”
• “What we can’t get from your competitors are people who will be concerned to uphold our brand image.”
• “You appreciated the concern we have for our brand image. You spoke our language.”

eti is concerned to convey the respect we have for our client’s brand image. This concept does not lend itself to a set of rules which can be prioritized and numbered. Brand image is not upheld or maintained or enhanced in this way.

In a recent article in B2Bonline entitled “Study: ‘Inbound’ marketing rates high in lead-gen results” one would be led to believe that this is the case. 

Cambridge, Mass.—Inbound marketing, including techniques such as blogging, social media, search engine optimization and pay-per-click, which pull relevant prospects toward a business and its products, realize lower costs-per lead than outbound marketing efforts, according to a new report by Internet marketing company HubSpot.

The company’s report, “State of Inbound Marketing,” is based on an online survey performed late last year among 167 executives and business owners, 71% of whom work for b-to-b companies.

The survey found that respondents who spent 50% or more of their lead-generation budget on inbound marketing averaged $84 per lead, while businesses spending half or more of their budgets on such outbound marketing techniques as direct mail, telemarketing and trade shows averaged $220 per lead.

Search leads the pack in lead-generation efficiency. Survey respondents said they devoted an average of 12% of their budgets to search but gained 16% of their leads from their search marketing efforts.

So let’s examine the facts. 

Unfortunately HubSpot appears to have made an unfair  comparison.  The Inbound Leads referred to here are not leads at all.  They are mostly “hand raisers”, that is to say they have merely  inquired and we have no way of knowing how genuine each inquiry is.

This is because the ‘so called’ leads have not been qualified to ascertain quality. Their potential is unknown.

No one has established the value of their potential; their decision making processes; their purchasing timeframe; their budgets.  Etc.

All these aspects and more can only be ascertained by someone who has the experience to engage with the prospect and peel away at the onion in order to establish if the lead is worth the investment of a sales person’s expensive selling time.

Leads without qualification have little value to salespersons whose standard of living depends on the volume of their sales. In many instances the most experienced salespersons will not follow through on unqualified leads because it doesn’t pay them. In that event the total cost of the cheap leads would be wasted.  And your actual cost per qualified lead and sale will skyrocket.

eti statistics show that only a very small percentage of these types of  “low cost” inquiries actually convert to highly qualified leads.  Based on thousands of inquiries of this type – over any number of industries -  we can say with certainly that the range of conversion is between 5% and 15%.  If you take the mean of 10% you can then ascertain that the true cost per lead (based on their $84 average) is $840  – or 10 times what they claim.

That’s substantially higher than the cost of qualified leads from the other media mentioned.�

We’ve just posted a great new article (IOHO) on the eti site that offers up 4 Positive Sales Boosting Ideas. 

Do the bean counters have you running for the hills … cutting back on all your marketing expenditures?

Are results from your current marketing and promotional activities falling?

Do you have a tough times strategy in place?

Read more here.