Leading Questions

HAVE YOU EVER RECEIVED A bad sales call? Perhaps the salesperson barreled through the script without bothering to engage in dialogue. Maybe he stammered and paused — and then quickly revealed his sparse product knowledge when you posed a question.

Even worse are calls where the caller lacked awareness. How often do you receive calls where the salesperson has no inkling of how your company operates — your day-to-day functions, initiatives and constraints? And were you more familiar with the solution when you got off the phone?

To build awareness, many marketers rely on cold calls designed to generate leads. For seasoned performers, these calls can be both a distraction and demeaning. They siphon time away from building relationships, solving problems and diversifying client revenue streams. That's why many successful marketers employ separate teams to filter prospects from suspects. These lead-generation programs can save your sales pros valuable time, increase productivity and provide a strategic understanding of your prospect's working environment.

Unfortunately, some lead programs are glorified market research with limited long-term value. Others can lead to a premature sales pitch. To maximize the value of your lead program, here are some simple rules to follow:

1. Stay focused

   Your objective in lead generation is to create awareness, interest and a desire to learn more. You're selling the prospect on the value of devoting time to reviewing a product or service, not the purchase itself. As a result, your lead team should focus on the main benefits rather than specific details. Initially, your objective is to establish a dialogue, identify hot buttons, educate your prospect and gain some form of commitment. In the process, you will position your company for the next phase in your sales process.

   A lead-generation call can veer off in a variety of directions, but never mistake the forest for the trees. Always remember the action or commitment you want the prospect to make. Do you want to set the expectation for a follow-up call? What about a live or online demonstration? Do you simply want to send your brochure — or is your solution conducive to a short proposal? As part of this process, your lead team always must establish an expectation for what will happen in future phone or in-person contacts.

   Also ask yourself: How does this program fit into the larger picture? What level of knowledge should the lead team possess? What tools and resources should team members have — and under what circumstances can they use them? In short, you should chart the entire sales process, outlining all steps, triggers and prospect enticements involved.

2. Maximize call value

   When salespeople follow up a lead, they should be armed with applicable market intelligence. A lead-generation call is designed to lay the groundwork for a second call or a face-to-face appointment. Salespeople should be cognizant of what's motivating a prospect and the overall landscape of the organization. Although the data you collect will vary by product or industry, you'll want to furnish the sales rep with information such as:

   • Key contacts and their decision-making layers and process, budgetary authority and purchasing time frame.

   • Current solutions being used and the firm's past experiences.

   • The three biggest challenges facing the prospect.

   • What matters most to the prospect (low cost, responsiveness, experience).

   • What would motivate the prospect to change — i.e., poor vendor performance, company growth, lack of staff expertise, cost-cutting initiatives.

   By using open-ended questions within a consultative context, you can gather information that will help a salesperson find the openings needed to develop a customized sales strategy for that prospect. For example, you could ask a series of probing questions. What have you been doing? How has that improved your operation? What other steps would you like to see taken? Why?

   But keep questions to a minimum on an initial call unless you already have a strong rapport with the person. Otherwise, the call could be perceived as an interrogation, with minimal value to the prospect. Instead, identify the critical information ahead of time and develop tactics for attaining it.

   Even if you don't produce a lead, ask a question or two before you end the call. That way you can determine whether a contact may be open to your service (or an alternative from your company) in the future.

   Always close with a suggestion for continuing the relationship, even if you don't elicit any interest. Capture an e-mail address and follow up with a personalized thank-you, Web site link, electronic brochure or catalog — or even a trade show announcement. Always ask when you can call back.

   Similarly, create customized disposition codes to identify the reason for refusal, so you can track trends in specific markets. Moreover, establish a process for sharing pertinent data with applicable touch points in your company. Such a system will allow you to use this information to your best advantage in future direct mail or e-mail campaigns.

3. Offer value

   During lead generation, marketers sometimes offer an enticement to encourage prospects to take that next step. Unfortunately, what seems valuable to a caller doesn't always resonate with the one being called. This is epitomized by the “free consultation,” which prospects often equate with a boilerplate sales pitch. Therefore, give something of tangible value that can stand outside the context of your follow-up call. Your lead team can offer a white paper, a free sample, limited-time access to your product or a free subscription to your company newsletter. If you must position your follow-up as a free consultation, be sure it's a broad educational experience instead of the proverbial dog-and-pony show.

4. Be prepared

   Do your homework. Research the company and the industry on the Web. Are there any new developments that could relate to the product or service you're selling? How does your solution appeal to specific markets? Identify the targeted audience, markets and companies, and position your message accordingly.

   Also identify the types of resistance you could encounter on an initial call and develop strategies for overcoming objections. These might include no budget, time or need for the product; no familiarity with your company; or a desire to buy locally or work with an existing vendor.

   You should be ready to answer basic questions about your offering. Among them:

   • How does it work?

   • Customers in the area.

   • Setup and maintenance.

   • Training and customer support.

   • Cost.

   • Technical or operational requirements.

   • How is this different or better than a competitor's product?

   • Capabilities in delivering customized solutions.

5. Build credibility

   In a cold call, you must establish credibility immediately. Your company has to be positioned as a trusted, experienced problem solver. To substantiate that, you must bring value to the time a prospect may set aside for you. One strategy is to drop names of well-known local or national clients, provided you employ it in moderation and have each client's permission to do so. Cite real-world results rather than abstract claims to prove your contentions. Be sure the lead team has case studies, testimonials, stories and anecdotes at hand.

6. Be clear

   In describing your product or service, use images, metaphors and hard illustrations to make your offer more immediate.

Take this example:

We help departments like yours achieve their three biggest goals:

1. Shorten the billing cycle.
2. Pay bills sooner.
3. Find documents faster.

Here's how: We offer a Web-based imaging solution that puts all your critical documents on one server. Just imagine an office where your staff can bring up information with just a click of a mouse. No time-consuming trips to the file cabinets. No misfiles. Everything handled right at your desk.

That's what our service does. We help you cut labor costs with a more productive staff. So you can collect your billings faster — and take advantage of early pay discounts. Best of all, this system can be implemented in minutes using the hardware and software you already have!

From there, return to asking open-ended questions to build dialogue and rapport.

Keep in mind that your prospect likely is barraged with similar calls all day long, and so you have to clearly and succinctly identify the business problems you solve. You must connect your solution to the prospect's day-to-day experiences. Moreover, you want to differentiate your company as one that can save a prospect time, money and hassle — and do it all with the least amount of disruption to the potential client's current processes.

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JEFF SCHMITT (jschmittdbq@mchsi.com) is marketing and compliance manager at Advanced Data-Comm in Dubuque, IA.