Ring True

Want to turn that phone call into a sale, and maybe even into an ongoing relationship? Follow these pointers:

• Don't remind prospects that you've already mailed them something. Many lead-generation campaigns involve following up on a marketing piece. In these situations, avoid citing the piece unless it's aesthetically distinctive or offers a unique sales proposition. There's a good chance your prospects already are deluged with materials. You'll only lose momentum by mentioning it.

• Close confidently. If you're setting an appointment, try an either-or close: “Would a morning or afternoon work better for you?” Always assume you'll get what you set out to accomplish in your close.

• Clearly identify the person you want to reach in an initial call. Do you want to start with the high-level decision-maker or someone who will be truly engaged in your product or service? Develop a strategy for building rapport and buy-in from the gatekeeper. On a broader level, identify parameters and key demographics for selecting businesses to call, and develop a singular approach for each segment. Realize that it may take multiple calls to different contacts to produce a lead and build a system for creating interest necessary to escalate the lead.

• Establish a process for transitioning and distributing sales leads and prospect information to the appropriate salesperson. Clearly define what constitutes a lead for your calling team, based on factors like level of interest or tangible data like budget and purchasing time frame. From the lead definitions, develop a coding system to categorize leads.

  Establish a process to track leads once generated to ensure that return on investment can be measured. As part of tracking, communicate sales-call results and different prospects' status to the calling team so they can see the fruits of their labor for themselves. Incorporate incentive and recognition programs that reward your lead-generation team based on front- and back-end results.

• Consider the lead department the place to groom future members of your sales team. View the team as an investment that requires a robust initial and ongoing training program. This should include an industry overview; product features, benefits and how-to's; the competition's strengths and weaknesses; lead program objectives; a sales process overview; and a primer on consultative questions, and the ideas behind them.