Setting Realistic Teleprospecting Goals
Buying a new home is one of the most exciting and nerve wracking experiences. There are so many things to consider and you want to make sure you make the right decision. One of the first steps is hiring a realtor to help you with your search. This person's job is to clearly understand what exactly you are looking for and how much you are looking to spend. It is also your realtor's responsibility to make sure your expectations are realistic. For example, if you are looking to find a home for $200,000 with 6 bedrooms, 5 baths, a two car garage, a brand new kitchen and hard wood floors your realtor will most likely have to re-adjust your expectations, otherwise, you are setting yourself up for inevitable disappointment.
Setting realistic expectations is also important when hiring an outsourced teleprospecting firm (or building one in-house). These expectations need to be set at the very beginning of a lead generation campaign so that all parties involved know how success will be measured.
I once had a client who, at the beginning of our engagement, told me that they had used a few outsourced teleprospecting vendors in the past as well as trying to build a lead generation function in house. When I asked what the results were I was told that they never were able to see the amount of leads that they had wanted. This client's software solution had an average ticket size of $750,000+ and a 12-18 month sales cycle. They sold into a fairly niche market and there were only a few hundred companies that would even be a fit for their software. During our implementation kick-off call I asked what their expectations were for their project with AG Salesworks. They told me that they wanted us to find 12+ qualified opportunities per month with decision makers who had an active initiative in place. They also said they needed to see half of those opportunities go to forecast and ideally have had closed a deal by the time our four month pilot came to an end. I asked them if they felt like these goals were realistic and they agreed that nobody had come close to achieving them in the past but it was what they wanted. I explained to this client that they might be setting themselves up for disappointment. Despite having a great BDR on the project and an effective call process in place, we are not miracle workers and would only be able to find as many qualified opportunities as their marketplace would bear. Once we re-adjusted their expectations and aligned our goals we had a much more successful project then we would have had we gone along and told them we could hit their original numbers.
What are your goals for an outsourced teleprospecting firm or your own inside team? Are these goals realistic and attainable?