MILLION DOLLAR
THE
Appointment Setting eBook
Eve r y t h i n g yo u n e e d to k n ow
to be successful
in B2B appointment setting
w w w. p ro s a l e s s t a f f. co m
Dear Reader,
SalesStaff is in the business of growth. Specifically, we are in the
business of growing our clients’ sales pipelines with industry-leading
Demand Generation programs. Our team is passionate about the top
of the sales funnel and the best practices for filling sales pipelines
with qualified opportunities.
The SalesStaff team has several decades of collective experience in
the Demand Generation industry. It is through that wealth of experience that we have amassed a large knowledge base around B2B lead
generation and appointment setting best practices. We are delighted
to share some of those tips, techniques, and methodologies with you
here in our Million Dollar Appointment Setting eBook.
In this eBook, you will find hard, actionable information that can
make an immediate impact to your organization’s opportunity generation activity.
We take our role in the B2B sales & marketing community very seriously. It takes a special type of person to choose sales & marketing as
a career path and we wish you well on that journey.
Regards,
David G. Balzen
SalesStaff CEO
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Sales appointment setting and lead generation are such critical segments of any organization’s sales
funnel. Appointments and leads are the fuel to a healthy sales engine, after all. Yet so many sales
organizations are challenged with the task of filling their sales funnel with opportunities.
Only 25% of leads
are legitimate and
should advance to
sales.
Source: Gleanster Research
More than two thirds
(68%) of companies
report struggling with
lead generation.
Source: Lattice Engines
Companies that excel at
lead nurturing generate
50% more sales ready
leads at 33% lower cost.
Source: Forrester Research
57% of B2B organizations
identify ‘converting qualified leads into paying
customers’ as a top
funnel priority.
Source: MarketingSherpa
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1. Cover
2. Letter from CEO
3. Statistics
4. Table of Contents
5. The End of “Smile and Dial”
6. Know Your Ratios
7. Leaving B2B Sales Prospecting Voicemails 5 Easily-Digested Tips
8. Know Your B2B Appointment Setting Metrics The Magic Formula
9. T he Death of “Cold” in B2B Cold Calling
10. You Want 25 Sales Meetings?
How Big Should Your Prospect List Be?
11. How to Measure QUALITY (not Quantity)
of B2B Appointment Setting Activity
12. Do These 3 Things Every Time to Increase
B2B Prospect Response
13. 6 Ways to Avoid No-Shows of B2B Sales Appointments
14. 5 Easy Steps to a Dynamite Elevator Pitch for B2B Sales
15. How Many Dials does it Take to Get 1 Sales Prospect
on the Phone?
16. 25% of Contact Data Goes Bad Every Year...
Bad News for B2B Appointment Setting Campaigns
17. 5 Can’t Miss B2B Appointment Setting Techniques
18. About Us
4
Know Your Ratios
4
4
4
In baseball if you hit the ball 3
times out of every 10 at-bats,
then you are an All-Star.
In the stock market if 3 out
In inside sales, if you can book 3
of your 10 picks soar, then appointments every 10 calls then you
you are rich.
are……well, you’re make-believe.
In most industries, it takes:
• A minimum of 20 calls to have a meaningful conversation
• 10 meaningful conversations to book a “sales-ready”appointment
Do the math: That’s 200 calls to get to an appointment in most industries. I’m not talking
about “Let me drop off some information and we’ll follow up later” - I’m talking about a
“pain and challenge identified sales-ready” appointment. People who choose inside sales
as a career path are not daunted by the consistent rejection and the amount of effort it
takes to get to the desired result. We’ve all heard the cliché “it’s a numbers game,” but in
reality it’s a combination of planning, effort, and a positive mental attitude.
A successful Inside Sales Rep will start by building his/her daily activity into a measurable
and trackable effort. This individual will first PLAN their approach by making sure they
have the correct number of prospects and the correct messaging to bring to these
prospects. They will then set an HOURLY GOAL for the amount of effort they want to put
out to achieve the desired result. If the goal is 200 calls today, then they will make at least
200 calls – no excuses or distractions. They then TRACK the results of these calls to
identify the number of calls it takes to have a conversation (“Call-to-Conversation Ratio”)
and the number of conversations it takes to book sales appointments (“Conversation-toAppointment Ratio”). Once they’ve established these ratios, then they hold themselves
accountable to improve upon each one the next day. This happens EVERY DAY!
Successful ISRs do not “smile and dial”; this leads to frustration with constant rejection,
shaken confidence. An Inside Sales Rep could rip through 8 hours pretty easily with
nothing accomplished. Successful ISRs plan, set hourly goals, and track their efforts.
They then raise the bar on themselves and push themselves harder the next day.
5
The End of “Smile and Dial”
How many times have you heard the “I can sell ice to an eskimo” line from a sales guy?
“Give me a phone and a list and I’ll book three appointments by the end of the day!” While
this may be true in some cases, it makes more sense to PLAN your approach so you
don’t waste a lot of time and effort.
Step One: Get a good list
We will talk more about this in the future, but you will have to invest in a great list if you
expect great B2B telesales results. There are subscription sites that give you some basics,
but there are also specialty sites like Red Base Interactive that can give you far more bang
for your buck. Rather than paying 60 cents to a dollar per record with Jigsaw, you can
invest less than 15 cents to get more detailed contact and company information.
Step Two: Organize list by industry and title,
and craft a message specific to each
Work with the your team to always make sure that you are presenting a message that
matters to that title of individual and to that specific industry. People get calls all day long,
and they are not going to afford you time if you can’t quickly establish a solution that
can solve their challenges. You do not want to call a CFO and talk about the technology
behind your offering – save that for the CIO. Talk about the financial impact with the CFO,
the technology integration with the CIO, and the ease of use with the COO. By the same
token, the needs of a hospital may differ from the needs of an insurance company. If you
have an offering that covers multiple industries, then make certain that you are offering
solutions that solve problems that are specific to that industry. In order to do this, you
need to organize the list by titles and industries so you can quickly change the message
as needed in groups, instead of on every other call.
Step Three: Track and Analyze
It’s important in demand generation marketing to make sure you are identifying your “Callto-Conversation Ratio” and “Conversation-to-Appointment Ratio.” A few quick tips:
• If you aren’t having as many conversations as you would like but are making a
sufficient number of dials, then shorten the list. Bottom line – If you start to have
conversations on the 8th attempt, then shorten the list to get you there faster.
• If you aren’t having the desired conversation-to-appointment ratio, then take a
look at the questions that you are asking. The answer might not be in the “pitch,”
but instead in the questions that you ask to get the prospect to engage. Try asking
more questions about their situation, and you might uncover an opening that allows
you to state how you can help.
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Leaving B2B Sales Prospecting Voicemails
Some sales research suggests that 75% of business calls end in voicemail. There’s
widespread debate on whether it’s even beneficial to leave voicemail at all in B2B sales.
We’ll save that debate for another day and focus on tips that might help you if you DO
decide to leave voicemails in the course of B2B sales prospecting.
Of course, the objective is to get the recipient to pick up the phone and dial you back.
So how can you increase the likelihood that that will happen?
Much of a voicemail message is variable – tone, diction, syntax, context, content, talking
speed, voice inflection, tonal emphasis, etc. There’s a subtle psychology that plays out
when leaving voicemails; you’re essentially an infomercial pitchman for all of thirty seconds.
Keep in mind that some of these suggestions are situational. They might be better in
some circumstances rather than others. Use your judgment.
1. Use the e-mail/voicemail one-two punch. Using these two contact methods
together increases the chance of getting a return response. You give the recipient
two ways to contact you back. In fact, you can use the e-mail/voicemail in either
order. Perhaps, you leave a voicemail first and then send an email with the subject
“Follow-up on Wednesday’s voicemail.” Or maybe you send an email first and follow
through with a voicemail, “Hello, Jim. I just sent you an email and wanted to make
sure it made it to your inbox. I’d like to reinforce that…”
2. Don’t convolute your core message with too many topics. If you have a lot to
cover and need to be thorough, use email. Otherwise, utilize one hot button when
leaving voicemail.
3. Gain credibility immediately. You have but a few seconds on stage. Replace
mundane, esoteric sales-speak like, “We’re a first-class provider of __________.”
Instead use, “We’re the people helping _________ with their _______ needs.”
4. Keep voicemails brief and straightforward. B2B sales research states that, for
voicemail messages, the sweet spot is about 15-25 seconds. The average person
speaks approximately 150 words per minute; so naturally, if you’re scripting a
voicemail, make it between 40-75 words.
5. Use their name in the first three words and the last three words. When people
hear their name, it’s a subconscious hint to pay attention. Try starting with, “Hello,
Jim…” and end with, “Thanks and I look forward to speaking with you, Jim.”
There are lots of examples of creative voicemail messages. Take a look at Trish Bertuzzi’s
post 4 Ways to Get Your Prospects to Call You Back for a few of our favorites.
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The Magic Formula
of Appointment Setting Metrics
There are several B2B appointment setting metrics that carry weight. Really, you can
dice up the numbers any way you like, but the idea in sales data analysis is to identify
problem areas and success areas. Not only that, these data points must be used to fix
the problems and expand on those successes.
There’s a “Magic Formula” which encompasses the most basic B2B appointment
setting metrics.
1. Touches/Dials – The number of times an agent touched a contact record. There’s
some flexibility in defining this number. Often, sales managers will choose whether
to include or omit various touch points like emails, or even calls with the designation
“Call - No Message.” If your Inside Sales Reps (ISRs) use email in the course of
prospecting, it’s advisable to include the number of prospecting emails in the total
number of touches.
2. Conversations – The number of hard connects with targets. This is live conversation
with the prospect on the telephone. If your reps use email, you should also include
return emails from prospects.
3. Appointments – This is the end goal of a lead generation team. All previous efforts
have combined to produce this result. For many Inside Sales Reps, this is where their
work ends – transitioning appointments to Field Sales Reps.
Once you have a large enough sample (we recommend 2500 touches or more), get
acquainted with this ratio and how it fluctuates. The formula will be different for all types
of industries. You can even compartmentalize the formula to find out how well your inside
sales team performs in certain industries, geographies, etc.
As an example, we took a sample from our own internal lead generation here at SalesStaff
and came up with the following Magic Formula:
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So, simplifying the terms, we get the following:
This is very valuable information in creating a benchmark. Now we know that in order to
marginally add just one more sales appointment, we should find a way to make 21 more
touches, on average.
How do you do that exactly? Break the formula down into parts. One way to increase
efficiency is to have more conversations per touch. Perhaps here you look at obtaining
updated contact data or focusing on ISR training in name sourcing.
Another way to increase appointment totals, according to the Magic Formula, is to convert
more appointments upon conversation. You might accomplish this by retraining ISRs on
appointment setting best practices and how to make the most out of a prospecting call.
Any way you slice it, the Magic Formula is lead generation metrics in their most basic form.
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The Death of “Cold” in B2B Cold Calling
Have you ever heard the adage that 90% of people hate cold calling and the other 10% are
lying? Perhaps it rings true (no pun intended) but the reality is that, in the business hustle,
picking up the phone to reach potential prospects will never die. It’s a technique that can
lead to a meeting, a sales pitch… in short, the beginning of a business relationship.
If single men never approached women and instead waited to be approached themselves,
the world would be a lonely place. It holds true for the world of sales too. If you sit around
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the phone waiting for it to ring, you’re at a severe disadvantage. Get a load of this:
In a 2007 survey by MarketingSherpa, only 11 to 17 percent of those surveyed were irritated by
getting an unsolicited cold call. On the flip side, 45 to 53 percent of those interviewed said that a
cold call they fielded had helped vendors leapfrog onto the consideration shortlist for a purchase.
Amazing, right? As Trish Bertuzzi of The Bridge Group so eloquently states in her blog:
The problem is that people are confusing cold calling with outbound calling. Picking up
the phone still works as part of a Sales & Marketing approach that integrates inbound
marketing, social media, great content, lead nurturing, etc.
InsideView published an article called Why Cold Calling is the Bottom of the Barrel,
where they say:
Some of the best businesses in the world were built from cold calling and that was
because they found a way to exploit a technology (phones) using a team of people to
saturate a market of people that loved to talk to other people. That hasn’t changed a
whole lot in the past few years other than the fact that the phone is no longer the best
technology to use because decision makers have less time. Sales 2.0 savvy teams will be
the next wave of revenue generators for companies, starting in the technology space and
moving like a wave through different industries. Social selling will hit resistance and may
not apply at all to some companies (I can’t imagine which ones but I’m sure they exist).
First things first, we fundamentally disagree with the premise that cold calling is
the bottom of the barrel, but it all depends on how you use the term “cold calling”.
In my humble opinion, the “cold” is the part that’s dead – not the calling. With the
advent of inbound marketing, matured email marketing techniques, and social media
outreach, prospects can be effectively “warmed” up prior to picking up the phone.
If your marketing team is doing their job right, callers can get lead lists of folks that
have opened an email piece, or commented on some social media post. Like it or not,
though, you’re still going to have to pick up the phone.
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You Want 25 Sales Meetings?
How Big Should Your Prospect List Be?
So you want to draft an appointment setting campaign to fuel your sales team with
appointments. You’ve decided that a successful campaign would yield 25 sales
appointments. Well, how many contacts should you start your calling campaign with to
[
reach that goal? In this article, we’re going to help you answer that.
We have found that, as a rule of thumb, it’s best to start with a list of 1000 contacts in order to
secure 25 sales appointments within a short nurturing timeline of 2-3 months.
Obviously, there are a number of variables to consider:
• Timeline – The SalesStaff pilot program is usually set at 60 days, which as you can
imagine, provides for a short nurturing timeline. If your timeline is more than a few
months, then you have more time to nurture leads. You can accommodate long-term
follow-ups, add prospects to a nurture track, etc. If you have a short timeline, you
probably need more contacts on your list.
• Daily Call Volume – The more calls you make on a daily basis, the more likely you
are to secure sales appointments. Our Inside Sales Reps make upwards of 150-200
dials per day on behalf of our clients, and that helps form the basis for our number of
1000 contacts. If you anticipate a lower call volume, you may need to lengthen the
timeline of the campaign.
• Contact List Accuracy - If your list is up-to-date and accurate, you’ll have better
success. Also, if your list has mostly correct titles for decision-makers around your
solution, you’ll fare better.
• Pipeline Acceleration – The goal on the front end of the calling campaign should
be to quickly develop a healthy inside sales funnel full of outbound emails, follow-ups,
etc. Starting a campaign with a smaller list (say 200) is going to impede how quickly
leads accelerate through the funnel into opportunities.
It’s worth repeating. Appointment setting is a dynamic model not bound by exact
numbers. In addition to the primary variables mentioned, other elements exert influence
– things like overall demand for your solution, title level of your prospect base (C-suite
vs. Director-level), and a whole host of other factors.
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With that being said, as a loose approximation, you can use this formula for determining
roughly what your prospect list size should be:
( ) X 80 = C
M
t
Where:
M
t
C
= # of Sales Meetings Desired
= Timeframe of the Campaign (in months)
= # of Contacts on Your Initial Calling List
So, for instance, if your goal is 30 sales meetings in 3 months, you should start with
(30/3)*80 contacts or 800.
The formula becomes moot with extremely large or small M- and t-values and should
be used as a rough estimate. The bottom line is this: a goal of 25 sales meetings should
start with a list of about 1000 contacts. Ultimately, you have to figure out what’s best for
you and your organization.
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How to Measure QUALITY (not Quantity)
of B2B Appointment Setting Activity
Naturally, the lead generation activity of an organization is measured by how many leads
or sales appointments were generated. The next level of analysis would be the QUALITY
of B2B appointment setting activities. In other words, qualitatively, what KINDS of funnel
opportunities have your lead generation activities yielded?
Here at SalesStaff, we’ve implemented a feedback loop with our clients to determine the
quality of the sales meetings we’ve provided their sales team. Benchmarks we look at
as a measurement of success is:
• If the sales meeting has resulted in follow up activity, and
• If so, in what time period are these next steps to occur
It’s important to note that this measurement is not necessarily driven around when a buying
decision will be made. That would be highly variable given the disparity between our clients’
solutions and sales cycles. Thus we categorize all client appointments as follows:
1. Near-Term Opportunity: – Follow-up scheduled within 0-6 months
2. Mid-Term Opportunity: – Follow-up scheduled within 6-12 months
3. Long-Term Opportunity: – Follow-up scheduled 12 months or more
4. Qualified but Not Advancing: – Prospect has met all qualification criteria but
no definitive follow-up scheduled
It’s worth repeating. Appointment setting is a dynamic model not bound by exact
numbers. In addition to the primary variables mentioned, other elements exert influence
– things like overall demand for your solution, title level of your prospect base (C-suite
vs. Director-level), and a whole host of other factors.
24%
7%
43%
26%
We find that it’s a tremendously useful metric. If you haven’t already, it might not be a bad
idea to track this analytic to determine the QUALITY of your lead generation team’s efforts.
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Do These 3 Things Every Time
to Increase B2B Prospect Response
It takes more and more touches in order to get a B2B prospect on the phone these
days. Research suggests that, on average, it takes 22 dials for one connect. There are
lots of ways to accomplish the task of making connects.
1. Power through 200 calls per day, which is a lot of heavy lifting.
2. Target half that number and use other activity methods extensively, like email, lead
nurturing, etc.
The ultimate goal of outbound activities is a sales appointment, but the first step is that
elusive connect. How can one make the most out of their outbound activities in order to
increase connects?
1. CALL #1: Always leave a voicemail on the first call. FThis is a long-debated
topic in the inside sales world. Here’s our take on it: You’re already on the phone,
why not leave a voicemail on the first go-round? You might ask, “Why leave a
voicemail when 95% of prospects don’t return them?” Duh, because that means
there’s 5% that do. We don’t advocate leaving more than one message per week, as
that shows negative returns
2. EMAIL #1: Follow up your voicemail with an email… every time. The one-two
punch of call-email is extremely powerful. You give the prospect a chance to answer
you by either method. It’s OK for automation purposes to have template emails –
everyone has a templates. However, be sure that there is at least minimal tailoring
so there is semblance of a personal touch. We recommend inserting a sentence at
the beginning of the email that says, “I was researching your website and found it
interesting that _____________.”
3. CALL #2: After your first call, if the prospect still doesn’t answer, make it
your goal to connect with SOMEONE. We’re not necessarily advocating that you
launch into a call with an HR director about your IT solution. However, you can make
the most out of that dial by speaking with someone. Go to your data resources and
find another contact. Press 0# to get to an admin who might tell you the best time
to call your prospect or perhaps the admin might tell you that you should be chasing
someone else. Either way on CALL#2, talk to somebody meaningful.
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6 Ways to Avoid No-Shows
of B2B Sales Appointments
Sales is inherently cyclical. Sometimes you have a great week; sometimes it seems
like all of your weekly sales appointments are no shows, reschedules, or the dreaded
cancelled all together. A courteous prospect would reach out and tell you that
something has come up, but as we know, prospects aren’t always playing by the rules.
Heck, they don’t have to – they’re in the power position. So the question becomes:
How do we as salespeople and appointment setters minimize the amount of
prospects missing scheduled sales appointments?
So there you are, all psyched up about a sales appointment. You’ve done your research
and have all the makings of a great business case for why THIS prospect might benefit
from your solution. You set all of your materials out in front of you, get the Powerpoint
up on the screen, make the call, and then… straight to voicemail. Here are a few tips on
(1) how to avoid no-shows in the first place, and (2) optimal strategies in the event of a
missed appointment.
How to Avoid No Shows
1. Remind the prospect of the scheduled meeting 24 hours in advance via
phone AND email. This is a given and simply good practice. Frame an appointment
confirmation as a “courtesy call” to confirm that we’re still on for X o’clock tomorrow.
If the courtesy call results in a voicemail, send an email too.
2. When setting the appointment, make clear the value of the solution to them
personally in their position. A prospect is less likely to renege on a scheduled
meeting if they see the value for themselves in some way. Identify why your solution
helps them personally. Does it save them time in their role? Does it earn them favor
with upper management? Ultimately, does it make their job easier?
3. When applicable, prompt the prospect to invite other colleagues to attend
the call. The more people scheduled to be in attendance, the less likely it is that the
prospect will cancel. The logic rests on the fact that the prospect becomes accountable
to attend the meeting, accountable not only to you but also to others in attendance.
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In the Event of a No Show
1. If they don’t answer at the scheduled time, get to the administrative
assistant by either zeroing out of the phone system or calling back for the
admin. The admin might be able to shed some light on the situation. Maybe an
emergency came up or maybe they had a can’t-miss, critical meeting with the boss.
Ask if they have access to the prospect’s calendar to coordinate a reschedule.
2. If you email the prospect about the missed appointment, reply to the original
accepted calendar invite. This is a soft way of showing the prospect that they
made a commitment to you. This technique is subtle and it works!
3. When you send the email to reschedule, provide a choice of two times.
Rather than ask the open-ended question of, “When are you available?”, you should
say something like “Which is better for you: Tuesday at 10AM or Wednesday at 3PM?”
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5 Steps to a Dynamite Elevator
Pitch for B2B Sales
What exactly is an elevator pitch? We’ve all heard the term. In truth, it’s not an actual
sales pitch by any stretch. But it is a sales technique you should master. An elevator
pitch is more of a conversational technique – one that allows you as a salesperson to
convert possible prospects who you meet by chance.
Step #1: Develop a Captivating “First Sentence”
This is the set-up statement intended to incite preliminary appeal. It is one sentence
put in layman’s terms – not a long soliloquy with industry jargon. It should be how you
respond to the ubiquitous questions of “What do you do for a living?” and “What does
your company do?”
The elements of a great “first sentence”:
• It helps if your statement is backed up with at least one quantifiable fact.
• It explains what YOUR CUSTOMERS do and how you help them do it better.
• It’s short and to the point – 10-15 seconds maximum.
• There is an underpinning of enthusiasm.
• Most importantly, it is impactful, and thus memorable.
EXAMPLE:
Needs improvement: Our company provides effective IT consulting on an outsourced
basis that helps with reducing complexity, cost, and time involved in managing critical IT
infrastructure and network functionality.
Why it’s not good: This is a whole bunch of business blabber that doesn’t tell your story.
Better: We give companies the freedom to focus on what it is they do best by leaving
complex IT challenges to us - usually lowering their cost of IT management by 20% or more.
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Step #2: Elaborate with a Compelling Differentiator
Now you test the waters. If the person looks disinterested, go back to casual
conversation. Ultimately, though, you’re looking for a sign of interest. It may come in the
form of a question like “How is it you do that?” If you get the green light to go further, it’s
now your duty to do some positioning. The purpose of this step is to get the prospect
to see that the salesperson and their company/offering is a distinctive resource that
warrants attention.
Draft differentiators by (1) listing out ways your company is better and different than the
competition, (2) selecting a few that are the most likely to be impactful to a prospect,
and (3) craft a terse summary of those you’ve selected into a single sentence.
Step #3: Engage the Prospect with a Bridge Question
Now is where you quit talking for a second and do a little listening. You want to open the
door to a little repartee. In essence, you’re creating a bridge to further discussion. You
don’t need to get elaborate with the question – just keep it simple and open-ended. A
few bridge questions might be:
1. So I’ve told you about me. How does your company handle these challenges?
2. By the way, what critical concerns do you have in these areas?
You are merely trying to make it casually acceptable to ask for an actual sales meeting
to discuss further.
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Step #4: Evaluate and, if necessary, Call the Prospect to Action
What are we trying to do with an elevator pitch, anyways? Create an opportunity. So at this
point you assess the prospect’s interest level and act accordingly. Some possible scenarios:
1. Prospect is neutral. You say: “How do you feel about having an initial discussion
about [insert your value statement]?”
2. Prospect is uncertain. You say: “If we can genuinely [insert value statement], how
would you feel about having an initial discussion?”discussion about [insert your value
statement]?”
3. Prospect is cooperative. You say: “We should talk a bit further about [insert value
statement]. How do I get on your calendar?”
4. Prospect is enthusiastic & interested. You say: “We really should get together.
What do you look like next week for a phone call?”
Step #5: Engage the Prospect with a Bridge Question
For the elevator pitch to work it must be delivered naturally and casually.
• Rehearse with someone else.
• Record the conversation.
• Play it back and listen to see if you sound rehearsed or natural.
(There’s a certain irony in rehearsing so as not to sound rehearsed, admittedly.)
• Lastly, avoid sounding salesy – you want it to be conversational and not sales
pitch-esque
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How Many Dials does it Take to Get 1 Sales
Prospect on the Phone?
In the Discovery Phase of our client engagement procedure, we see companies tracking
all kinds of metrics; things like:
• Dials
• Talk time
• Scheduled sales meetings
• Leads uncovered
These are all dandy metrics for measuring sales prospecting success, sure, but what
about conversation rate (ratio of conversations to dials)? Wouldn’t it be helpful to know
just how many dials your inside sales reps can expect to make, on average, to get a
sales prospect on the phone?
It’s a number that most sales managers can extrapolate from their CRM data, but who
knows how many actually do. From this metric, one can project the first piece of the
sales prospecting process:
What is this ratio?
Dials
Conversations
Appointments/
Leads
Closed Sale
So, here is some data from a reliable source. ConnectAndSell compiled the results of
millions of calls across all industries and into SMB and large businesses. The systemwide conversation rate, as reported in 2010, was 4.5%. That’s 22 dials for 1 connect
with a prospect you are trying to reach (not with an admin, or voicemail).
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ConnectAndSell goes on to report that the problem is not getting any better, with the
conversation rate sliding year after year:
What does this mean for sales managers? You should be:
• Tracking the conversation rate to get a better handle on subsequent metrics
• Increasing the target number of dials by 10-15% every year… just to maintain the
status quo
It should be noted that the data is somewhat skewed in that it represents
ONLY dialing and not part of a campaign that might include nurturing elements
like voicemails, warm-up marketing, or email integration. Clearly, one might
expect a higher ratio with the presence of well-defined campaign process and
elements of lead nurturing.
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25% of Contact Data Goes Bad Every Year
What does contact data have in common with milk, license plates, and good looks?
They all have an expiration date, the results of which we know too well:
• E-mail campaigns with lots of bounces.
• B2B lead generation and sales campaigns where your reps are spending too much
time “looking for the right person”.
Like it or not, every B2B marketing campaign starts with a set of contact data. We’ve been
in this industry for over fifteen years, and one of the mantras that we hear time and again
is “The list is bad.” Well, to a certain extent, part of your list of contacts will always be bad.
Let’s take a peek inside your CRM. You feel great about the fact that through conducting
normal business, you’ve managed to accumulate contact information for tons of prime
prospects. Now we’re going to tell you something that will temper that enthusiasm: At
least 25% of those contact records are trash! According to MarketingSherpa, 2.1%
of contact data goes bad every month. That’s almost 25% per year.
The solution is simple, and twofold:
1. Expect that some of the data you purchase will be obsolete, and
2. Try to minimize the bad data you feed into your marketing campaigns (one way to
minimize dirty data is to hand it over to a “data cleansing” agency that can correct
bad information).
The folks at SiriusDecisions tell us that “The company that markets with a healthy datacleansing routine can realize nearly 70% more revenue than an ‘average’ organization,
based purely on data quality.” Simply put, data fuels marketing campaigns, and if you
run them on bad fuel… well, bad things happen.
BAD DATA SOURCES
BAD DATA CONSEQUENCES
DUPLICATED DIRECT MAIL
LIST PURCHASE
LIST RENTAL
AGING CONTACT DATA
INCONSISTENT FORMATTING
MARKETING LEAD DISPARITY
HUMAN-ENTERED DATA
MARKETING
CAMPAIGNS
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
LOWER RESPONCE RATES
INACCURATE METRICS
TOOMUCHTIMESPENT“CHASING”PROSPECTS
One last piece of advice: If you are executing a B2B cold calling campaign, get direct dial
numbers if possible. It cuts time in half! It might take 45-90 seconds to get to a contact
without a direct dial number, but now you can get them in half the time. In SalesStaff’s
world of making thousands of calls per day on behalf of our clients, that time adds up fast.
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5 Can’t Miss B2B Appointment
Setting Techniques
The practice of B2B appointment setting has certainly progressed from an art to a science.
You remember in Glengarry Glen Ross when Alec Baldwin presents the new leads to the
team printed on a stack of pink paper and tied with a bow? We all wish it were that
easy. It requires focus and commitment to generate sales leads. We have a few tips to
pass along to you sales and marketing junkies out there that might help your efforts:
1. Use a predefined call flow. No one wants their leads floating around in no-man’s
land. Hone in on a callflow that works. Use email in conjunction with calls to make
your prospecting a bit warmer. So, for example, you might hone in on a callflow of
Call-Email-Call-Call-Call-Email-Drop for a longer campaign. On the other hand if you’re
burning and turning to generate event attendees for a webinar or event, you might go
with Email-Call-Call-Email-Drop. Either way, experiment and find out what works.
2. Always sound fresh. No one wants to pick up the phone and hear someone
droning on in a monotone voice. Sound as pleasant and friendly on the 100th call as
you do on the 5th.
3. Send Outlook meeting invites to all parties and make sure they accept This is
so important. In a non-threatening manner, it signifies your prospects’ acknowlegment
and acceptance of the meeting they’ve agreed to. If you don’t get an acceptance
back within 24 hours, call them up again and politely ask if they received your e-mail.
4. Present your value proposition and do it fast. Say what makes your company
different within the first few sentences. Pique their interest on the front side and
then explain away once you’ve “captured” your prospect to some degree. And
remember to put your value proposition in terms of the output for the prospect and
the benefit to them.
5. Maintain a healthy inside sales pipeline. Treat your inside sales efforts the same
way an outside salesperson would. In other words, stay on top of follow-ups, and
progress leads through the funnel with e-mails and conversations until you get the
win, or in this case, the appointment. If you are running short on follow-up activity, it’s
time to drop another list of prospects into the top of your inside sales funnel.
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ABOUT US
Our History
Our company evolved from a 1990’s consulting practice that guided
hundreds of CEOs and Entrepreneurs on the implementation of sales
training, systems and processes; staffed thousands of sales people; and
created branding, messaging and go-to-market plans for hundreds of
hi-tech and B2B clients. Today, that experience is the foundation for a
hybrid demand generation operation piloted by a highly experienced
and talented team of sales leaders at SalesStaff LLC. More than 10,000
sales appointments and leads are generated annually for our clients. We
are changing our industry in a better direction that leverages outbound
prospecting, business intelligence, and a performance-based production
model. The collective impact to client sales pipelines is more than a
billion dollars of new sales opportunities entering funnels every year.
Our Services
SalesStaff provides high-level appointment setting and demand
generation services for business-to-business technology companies
through the deployment and management of quota-based marketing
programs. We research opportunities and successfully secure meetings
with key executives and generate leads on behalf of our clients’ B2B sales
teams to expand their sales pipelines and accelerate sales cycles.
What Our Clients Are Saying
An IT Security Client: ”In evaluating Demand Generation vendors,
we found the pay-for-performance model offered by SalesStaff to be
extremely attractive. Other per-month or per-rep models we evaluated
didn’t provide a firm guarantee of results. So we were eager to work with
SalesStaff, and have been more than pleased with the results.”
A Managed Services Client: “What we liked most about working with the
team at SalesStaff was the open communication we had throughout the
course of the campaign. They were always available to discuss critical
aspects of the campaign. In addition, they successfully developed a
structured process to follow-up with key prospects.”
A Workforce Management Client: “What I like most about working with
the SalesStaff team is that they do what they say they’ll do.”
www.prosalesstaff.com
CONTACT US
Pay for performance appointment setting can jump-start your organization’s sales
pipeline. A 60-Day Pilot will offer your company the opportunity to build a sales
pipeline with our meetings, monitor conversion rates, forecast ROI and provides ample
data and results to determine the viability of a permanent partnership with SalesStaff.
• Pay for performance provides for a guarantee of qualified meetings with qualified prospects
• Various meeting volume options
• Custom lead modeling according to your marketing plan
• No set-up or data Fees
• Pay-Per-Meeting pricing
Your Pilot will be designed to include a strategic lead nurturing plan for your solution,
custom-built marketing database, experienced Inside Sales Reps dedicated to your
program from beginning to end, and much more. Our Inside Sales Reps are trained on
over 70 IT Products, Apps & Solutions.
For more details and pricing, contact us to receive a custom proposal from our
Program Expert outlining a Pilot exclusively geared to your sales goals, target market
and sales qualifiers. Contact us by phone, chat or through our web form to learn more
about how we can grow your sales.
SalesStaff, LLC
10701 Corporate Drive, Suite 340
Stafford, Texas 77477 (Houston metropolitan area)
Phone:
888.591.8022 x333
Web:
www.prosalesstaff.com
Email:
[email protected]
Twitter:www.twitter.com/salesstaffleads
Facebook:www.facebook.com/salesstaff
www.prosalesstaff.com