Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Cari Zoch, Marketing Manager at Avention, a company that offers real-time, actionable B2B data to deliver 21st century business info, solutions for sales, marketing and research.
Salespeople are always looking for the holy grail when it comes to making cold calls. They can sort their lists, segment criteria but what’s most important? Timing.
I’m here today to argue that timing is more than finding the best day of the week or the time of the day to pick up the phone. In fact, it varies by industry and type of prospect anyway.
I don’t think anyone will argue with the fact that the #1 time to call is when your customer is ready to talk. You could be the best salesperson in the world with the best product in the universe, but if your customer is not ready to buy, then your phone call will fall on deaf ears. By using both unstructured and structured data, you can pinpoint customers with accuracy that has not been possible to date. Relying on data gives you concrete and tangible information on which you can base your calls, making your selling time more efficient and giving you more qualified leads in your pipeline.
Here are 4 ways to use data to determine when to pick up the phone:
1. Call when there’s a fit.
Lots of people have gotten into the habit of making a call when a trigger event occurs. While triggers are valuable, triggers alone are not enough. They don’t indicate a fit between your product and the company you’re calling. It’s like saying that just because someone got a raise, they’re now ready to buy a house. Not necessarily true. They may already own a house and be perfectly happy with it. However, if that same person is posting on social media about house hunting, searching for houses, and sending off other signals that they are involved in the house hunting discussion, that information, paired with the fact that they got a raise, is a very strong signal that this person is in the market for a house. It’s the same with the signals businesses are sending out on a daily basis.
2. Call when an event at the company is bringing change that opens a door for you.
These are the “triggers” that are so often referenced. 50% of sales go to the first salesperson to contact the prospective buyer according to InsideSales.com. If you’re the first to know a business is bringing in a new CMO, then you can be the first to call her about bringing in new marketing software.
3. Call when you have insight.
What better time to call prospects or leads than when you have something to share with them that they may not even know themselves -- something that can impact their business in a big way if they knew.
One such scenario is when you see a problem you can solve. 70% of people making purchases are doing so to solve a problem according to Impact Communications. Some companies may not even realize they have a “problem” so-to-speak. But your data is telling you something about their company make-up that gives you clues into something that is (or may become) a pain point for them. For instance, a new branch opening in your part of town may not have considered the special recycling laws and how their business will handle them. Luckily, your company specializes in green office efforts and can help. Presenting solutions to problems companies didn’t even know existed ensures that you’re first in the door and most likely will get the sale.
4. Look at adjacent markets and where competitors are focusing.
There is a lot of publicly available data out there about your competitors based on conversations they are having and actions they are taking in public forums. But who has time to sit and monitor every competitor’s Twitter handle or blog? How many hours would it take to scour the news seeing what each competitor is up to? Now that you can search a company and pull back a rich data set full of business signals that show you where the company’s focus lies, you have some insight into your competition and possibly into the markets you should explore.
For more Cold Calling tips and insights, visit our SlideShare or watch our on demand webinar.
Cari has over 15 years of Marketing Communications experience and has spent the last 3 years focusing on the ever-evolving world of social media. Prior to joining Avention, Cari was the Global Social Media Manager at LifeSize, a Division of Logitech, and built their social media program from the ground up. At Avention, Cari is responsible for Corporate Communications including PR, Social Media, and Analyst relations as well as facilitating 3rd party demand generation efforts. Follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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