If you work in outsourced B2B lead gen, you know this moment in a conversation all too well:
Sales Partner: Can you tell me what criteria you want us to follow when procuring data?
Client: Well, we want only C-level executives, in companies with over 250 million in annual revenue. Our sales reps won’t take calls with anyone who has a lower title. What’s the point if they’re not the ones who will sign off on the budget? We don’t want to waste our time with Managers or Directors.
And there you have it. You’ve just been “C-Bombed.”
To me, there are few things more shortsighted than limiting a calling campaign to just one cluster of very high-level titles. I did some digging in AG’s instance of Salesforce.com and came upon a pretty valuable stat when it comes to passing leads in the C suite:
Of all the leads our SDR’s have passed in 2014 that have gone to a next step in our client’s sales process, less than 10% had titles in the C Level.
I get it. Clients want qualified oportunities with the guy or gal who controls the purse strings within an organization. However, you are doing your B2B lead generation teams a disservice by not allowing them to prospect multiple levels of the business. Here are three reasons why:
1. C-level executives are often not directly experiencing the pains and needs your product or service alleviates.
The first and most relevant reason to prospect other members of an organization is that C-level executives in large organizations are simply not often as acquainted with the pains and needs your product or service ameliorates as those actually managing the day-to-day functions of the job. So much of what makes our client’s solutions valuable to a prospect is that it can specifically address actual challenges an organization is experiencing. It’s very difficult to extract that information from someone who just couldn’t tell you what those challenges are (and even if you got them live, would probably just direct you to their director or manager anyway).
2. You’re more likely to have the opportunity to speak with a director or manager rather than a C-level employee.
The second reason is, of course, gatekeepers. They are real, and they will screen your calls or scan your emails. They can either stonewall you or be your champion. Sure, there are some sales strategies for speaking to gatekeepers and catching C-level prospects when gatekeepers may not be available (i.e., call earlier or later in the day, or when you think they might be on a lunch break). But at the end of the day, you are more likely to get in front of a C-level prospect by producing a referral from their managers, directors, or VP’s in the business. How? C-level executive assistants are typically adept at pointing you to the correct person who would actually have the most information about the challenge you’re looking to help solve, if any at all. Talk to Managers, Directors, Department Heads, and VPs, and convince them to bring your solution to the attention of the CEO/CFO/COO. After all, according to Edelman Trust Barometer, 84% of B2B decision makers begin their buying process with a referral.
3. Common sense: C-level executives are just too busy to talk to you.
The third reason is basic timing and logistical issues. C-level executives are incredibly busy people and are constantly traveling or in meetings, etc. There needs to be a reasonable level of understanding on the client side that getting these executives to agree to give 30 minutes of their time for a demo/discovery call is simply unlikely.
At this point, I want to make one thing clear: I don’t think we should totally discount calling into the C-suite. My intention is to show that the most successful outsourced lead gen campaigns I run are balanced, as sales development reps reach out to many contacts within a prospect company. At AG, we think that talking to 3 or 4 contacts of varying levels within one organization is much better than restricting ourselves to just C-level contacts. We also have determination about decision-making included in our scripting, so in the event that we do pass over a title that does not start with a “C,” our SDR’s are asking questions like, “Who makes the final decision on something like this? Would there be any additional evaluators/decision makers you would like to include on an initial discussion?”
Considering that the average sales cycle has increased 22% over the past 5 years due to more decision makers being involved in the buying process according to SiriusDecisions, it’s definitely time to start rethinking your call strategy to include influencers.
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