Teleprospecting Is Not A "One and Done" Activity
Every year, around this time, fitness centers begin advertising their special rates for the upcoming New Year. At the start of January gyms are full of well-intentioned folks making good on their resolutions. After about a month the excitement wears off and many people fall back into their old routines and the gym slips down several notches on the priority list. It might be that the expected results didn't materialize and many give up to a degree. There are some that end up hiring a personal trainer for a one month trial period and hope that will get them into shape. Yet once a week sessions for a month is not enough to make much of an impact. Hiring a professional is a great idea, but giving the commitment enough time to succeed is the key to realizing your goals.
I have seen many organizations, especially in this economy, that recognize the value of hiring an outsourced teleprospecting firm but are weary of trying one out for more then a month. Unfortunately, these organizations are going to run into the same problem that the individual who expects to see results after a month of once a week sessions with a trainer faces. You want to give your outsourced teleprospecting firm enough time to get ramped up, build pipeline, and gain momentum. I have found that shutting down a campaign after only 30 days does not give my clients enough of a sample size to gauge results accurately.
A former client of mine was hesitant in signing more then a one month contract with us. They felt that a month would be enough time to judge how successful we were at finding qualified sales leads. This client wanted us to find opportunities with C-level executives at Fortune 500 companies. I set the expectation that it typically takes us at least a month to get fully ramped up, especially within the target that that they wanted us to go after, but they wanted to stick with the one month program. I got my team trained and on the phones as quickly as possible and at the end of the month we had passed over 4 qualified sales leads. My client was happy with the leads and felt that they were right in line with what they were looking for, but they had been hoping for more. They also mentioned that had one of our leads closed then they might have been able to extend the contract (even though they had a 12-18 month sales cycle). I assured them that if they were to extend the program they could expect to see the amount of leads increase in the following months and that 30-40% of these leads would start moving to forecast. Yet due to a tight budget they decided to stop after the month.
I received a call from this client a couple of months after their contract ended. They told me that two of the leads that we had passed were moving forward in their sales process and had a good chance of becoming closed business. They agreed that they should have invested more time into the program.
If you are looking for a teleprospecting firm to deliver fully qualified sales leads and truly become an extension of your sales and marketing team, a long term commitment yields the most dramatic and measurable results.