Assess your Sales Leads: Is Hot, Warm or Cold?

Assess your Sales Leads: Is Hot, Warm or Cold?

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Video Transcript:

A typical telemarketer makes at least 140 live calls, talks to at least 40 decision-makers, acquires at least 10 fresh contact emails, and sends out reference materials to at least 140 contacts – all in a day’s work. That looks quite a lot to finish in a plate – unless you’re a foodie.

Do all these guarantee a Lead? Let’s see.

Each qualified lead follows a set of criteria. The number of qualified criterion of a certain lead will determine its classification. See below.

Hot Lead

Sizzling and sumptuous to your eyes…

Yes, it’s a Lead! This type of a qualified lead that meets all the required criteria which most of time is set. So how to know if it’s a hot lead, apply the BANT lead qualifying system.

B is for Budget

The prospect has set or prepared a budget and is just ready for disposal at anytime a project proposal is approved by the management.

Qualifying questions for this criterion would be:

Do you have a budget? How much is your budget? Are you willing to expend? What is your budget range?

A for Authority

The contact person you speak to could either be the Person In charge, or the Recommender. He should have the final word to either say “yes” or “no” to the proposal.

Qualifying questions are:

Are you the person in charge/recommender on this project? What is your role on this? Do you solely make decision on this?

N is for Need

Need would always top the set of qualifying questions in a telemarketing script. When a need from the prospect is identified, this sends a signal of a brewing lead.

Qualifying questions maybe as follows:

Are you looking into this type of product/service to improve your process? What product/service are you currently using? Have you encountered any issue? Are there any initiatives from your company to evaluate/replace your current system? What functionalities are you looking at?

T is for Time frame

The point period from the time you spoke with the prospect to the planned or projected period of purchase or implementation of the new product or service.

Most qualifying questions would be:

When do you plan to purchase? When do you plan to implement the new system?

Follow Up your Inbound Leads with 5 to 5 Calling Rule (and Generate Over 40% Increase in Sales)

Warm Lead

Well-plated and perfectly garnished, but tastes just fine… what’s the missing ingredient?

This qualified lead misses 1 or 2 criteria. But what makes it bagged the qualifying scale is that a Need was identified and the other 1 or 2 qualified criteria should be able to support the first. In most cases, the disqualifiers would either be Budget or Time frame.

But don’t get easily discouraged, these leads are not wasted.  They could still be nurtured and you might be surprise in due time they’ll be contacting you again.

Related: 7 Email Marketing Secrets to Get You More Hot Leads

 Cold Lead

So, who likes a bowl of cold soup?

A qualified cold lead has 2 or 3 disqualifiers and the remaining qualifier would be supported by the prospects agreement to take a look or compare set ups between their current system and yours. This is the kind of lead which most of the time is set to KIV (kept in view), and further nurturing is needed. Business success is not achieved overnight. It takes time, effort, tools, skills and strategies to be able to reach your target results.

Related: The Secret Ingredient in Turning Your Social Followers Into Qualified Leads

Look at every lead as an edible opportunity. Imbibe hunger for it. Whether it’s HOT, WARM, or COLD, it’s still comestible, isn’t it?

Do you need the following industry -targeted customers for your business? Learn more how we generate them.

Originally appeared at Callboxinc.com

Are you a Sales Pro or a Sales Wannabe?

Are you a Sales Pro or a Sales Wannabe? [VIDEO]

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Becoming a sales pro comes through learning and practice. Sales experts believe that a person’s attitude and personality play an important role in becoming a successful salesperson.

Watch this video and learn how you could close more sales and be that Sales Pro you want to be.

Competence

Sales Pros aim to get better. They invest in their own self-development. They don’t boast about their experience but do whatever it takes to become more efficient in their work.

Sales Wannabes consider their work as “just a job”. They show up and get their paycheck. They don’t invest in learning. They think it’s the company’s job to train them.

Tip: Better to teach your sales reps to sound more natural over the phone

Communication

Sales pros connect with prospects and engage them in conversation. They build relationships. They instill an impression of confidence and make you feel that you picked the right salesperson.

Professionals figure out a way to get through and get in but sales wannabes whine about how hard it is to get to buyers.

Related: Knowing the Different Buying Signals Will Make You A Better Salesperson

Customer-First Attitude

Sales Wannabes don’t care whether prospects buy or not. Oftentimes, they sounded like they’re not interested in what they’re doing and that prospects are keeping them from more important things. Here’s How to Gain Prospect’s Trust.

Reliability and Responsibility

Sales Pros do what they say they’ll do. They call on time and show up earlier than the scheduled meeting.  You can count on them, whatever it takes.

Sales Wannabes don’t care about your time, following the schedule that’s convenient only for them. They are often late for a scheduled meetup or sales call.

Related: Why You Shouldn’t Ask, “Is this a bad time to talk?”

Poise

You can tell a lot about a person based on how they react in every situation. Sales Pros are always calm and continue with the conversation even when dealing with tough gatekeepers or prospect’s objections.

Sales Wannabes are defensive when dealing with prospect’s objections. Most of the time, they’re the first one to hang up the phone when dealing with irate prospects.

Related: Don’t be Annoying: 3 Sales Mistakes that Make You Look Dumb

If you’re still part of those Sales Wannabes, but want to make the switch to being a Sales Pro, don’t worry.  Apply these 5 characteristics of a good sales pro, and you’ll get there.

Make your Emails Impossible to Ignore

Make your Emails Impossible to Ignore [Video]

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Whether you admit it or not, email marketing is still one of the most reliable marketing channels in terms of lead generation. That speaks volumes, because the fact that it is permission-based should make it more of a challenge getting them opened, the same way that it is a challenge for marketing minds to craft emails that get opened or get leads to convert. The point is, email marketing works. You just have to know how to make it work for you.

I’m sure there was a time when, upon opening and reading an email, you said to yourself, “What kind of trash is this?” or “I could have made a better email myself.” or something along those lines.

 Believe me, I know how you feel.

I’ve been in this industry long enough to have used all sorts of marketing channels — email marketing included — yet, there’s never a day that I don’t learn something new. Take email marketing for instance. New concepts crop up literally daily, but the fundamentals remain almost the same.

In this video series, you’ll learn not only the fundamentals but also some valuable tips and tricks that would improve the chances of your emails getting opened – from ensuring they’re mobile-friendly to making sure they’re as personal as possible. This video series is not a panacea for your email marketing ills, but if you use them, I’m pretty sure you’ll see some positive changes.

Really, I am one with you in your quest to never having an unopened email again.

 Episode 1: It’s All about Mobile

Mobile Marketing isn’t the future — it’s the present. And if you’re not exerting a significant effort in your mobile marketing, you’re already lagging behind the competition. This also applies in email marketing. In this episode, you’ll understand why it’s important to optimize your emails for mobile usage, and learn some tricks that’d come in handy along the way.

Episode 2: It Pays to Personalize your Message

Unless it’s from the state lottery department and it begins with “Congratulations!”, rare is the email that leaves an indelible mark in our busy daily lives. That’s because emails are not exactly the most personal means of communication. But it also doesn’t mean you should just be contented in sending run-of- the-mill messages that convey zero emotion or sincerity or both.

Pro tip: The more personal your emails are, the better the chances of them getting opened, and ultimately, getting a positive response. Here’s how to craft emails that would make the guys at Hallmark blush.   

Episode 3: Use a Catchy Subject Line

Books have synopses, movies have trailers, even sporting events have game previews where the protagonists tell the viewers what to expect come game time. Some, like boxing and MMA, make it even more interesting by making the fighters talk trash to each other, get into each other’s nerves and exchange blows even before the bell. That’s creating hype, that’s how tickets are sold, and that’s partly how fighters earn eight digits in less than a hour.

Similarly, that’s what should be done when writing an email. If you can sell it — meaning, make it interesting enough for the reader to open it and read the contents — just by the subject line alone, you should be inducted in the marketing gods hall of fame. See your ticket below.

Episode 4: Cut the Chase

Everybody is so busy these days we all need to be direct and straightforward. Most, if not all would agree if I said getting straight to the point works for most situations — in courtship, firing an inefficient staff, and even when doctors tell their patient their prognoses. I mean, I like details but unless it’s a really nice book or a series, I prefer knowing the meat of the matter ASAP.

Same is true with emails. Save the preamble for your novel. Just cut to the chase and tell the prospect what’s it about. Here’s why.

 

Here’s How to Have a Successful Email Marketing Campaign with Callbox

AskCallbox-Mitos

AskCallbox: What makes an effective lead nurturing program?

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I can drown you with numbers from a dozen sources that prove how important lead nurturing is in the marketing process, but I choose not to. Let me give you a sprinkling of the juicy tidbits, though, as compiled by Ellen Gomez for Convince and Convert:   

  • 79% of marketing leads never convert to sales. Lack of lead nurturing is the common cause for poor performance (MarketingSherpa)
  • Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at a 33% lower cost (Marketo)
  • Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads (The Annuitas Group)

Very clearly, lead nurturing is an effective marketing tool to transform what were merely leads in the ToFu to paying customers in the BoFu. I will let you in on a secret: everybody can use lead nurturing to their advantage, and that includes you.

I know you’re excited, but before you begin any lead nurturing program, you need to clearly define goals so you know what is considered “success”. We all know there’s always that “everything depends on perspective” thing. A 100% increase in converts may spell success for you, but to others, it may mean nothing. See, without clear objectives of what you are trying to accomplish with your lead nurturing campaigns, you will never know if you’re seeing success or not. Now think of a concrete and measurable goal. You can even write it down.

The Four E’s of an Effective Lead Nurturing Program

Now, here’s what we’re going to do to realize those goals.

  • Establish

Build a good list of prospects, (operative word: good) from which you define buyer personas and do progressive profiling. Everything, and I mean everything, starts with a good-to-great prospects list. If you can tell yourself you have a pretty decent list, throw it away. You need at least a good one, or else everything that follows will be exercise in futility.

Related: AskCallbox: Where Do you get the List?

From the list, you have to understand who it is you’re trying to reach. It will provide you with a tremendous marketing and sales advantage. Creating buyer profiles takes time, but once completed, they focus and leverage your efforts. You simply cannot have a consistently effective nurturing program without clearly defined prospect profiles.

Get updated and targeted business list of your target market!

  • Educate

Create awareness, inform them about the product, and teach them how to make better decisions by creating relevant, timely, and useful content. In creating the content, make sure you:

  • Know your audience very well
  • Consider the buyer’s journey
  • Set a conversational tone
  • Keep it simple (or short and sweet)
  • Personalize your content
  • Engage

If you have already mapped out the number of touch points you need and determined which channels to use – it could be email or phone or social media or all of them – you’re ready to engage them.

After sending the initial information about the products or services, you can follow-up by phone. By now, you should have already been able to determine if the target decision makers are receptive or not. If they aren’t, you can try and reach out to them via social media. They have to be reachable somewhere; it’s your job to cover all bases and figure out where that is. And remember, key to engaging your prospects is not just giving them any old marketing bit you have prepared, a brochure or a link – it has to be relevant to them and their business, and you must give them that information in a timely manner – at a point when they need it and are actively looking for it, not before, not after.

  • Earn

Win them over with a final push! Sometimes, all it takes is a little nudge to make the prospect say yes. Apply all the theories in Psychology to get that sweet yes.

  • Try reciprocal concession: If there is an expensive and a cheap model of a product, it’s better to advertise the expensive one first. Selling down works better than selling up. We feel more responsible and satisfied after agreeing to a concession. We think we have brought that change.
  • Use social proof: We view a behavior as more correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.
    The more number of people doing it, the more the rule works into making us believe that the behavior is correct.
    We use behavior of people (like us), to determine proper behavior for ourselves.

Mention how many people have bought the product in the past 48 hours and the prospect might just give in.

You have to understand that an effective nurturing program actively moves the prospects you’ve created through your marketing and lead generation efforts, through a complex sales development process to the point where they become paying customers. Yes, anyone can enjoy the benefits of an effective lead nurturing program. You just have to be willing to invest time and resources and patience and ingenuity. The list is quite long, really, but in the end, it’s all worth it.

Here’s what you’ve missed! AskCallbox: Where Do you get the List?

AskCallbox: Where Do you get the List?
AskCallbox-Charlene

AskCallbox: Where Do you get the List?

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Building a good list is important, but it may take a long while. When you need a torrent of leads at the top of the funnel, buying a list is an easy solution.

There are several very good reasons:

  • You save time when you purchase updated and cleansed lists rather than clean them yourself
  • You know your target prospects better and can be more accurate with your campaign messaging when you buy profiled lists
  • You discover new businesses that you should be marketing to

When there’s a known need, nature will find a way to supply. Naturally enough, there’s an industry that focuses on sales lead generation so you don’t have to. Most of these services let you segment and sort millions of contacts online, revealing the most vital details (name, email, phone) once you purchase the list or sign up with an annual subscription.

Internal Marketing Research

Most companies have their own internal marketing data research, and coupled with advanced online searching, sales lead generators gather, cross-reference, scrutinize, and deliver email, phone, and other pertinent data. These are then supplemented with other data such as employee growth rate, business history, size of market served, and salary information. Besides selecting targets by number of employees and industry, sometimes,  the targets’ location and proximity are also considered.

Third Party Sources

If you think letting internal marketing research do all the dirty work consumes so much and effort, worry not. Whether you are looking to build a target list on the basis of geography, industry, company size or any other segmentation, there are a number of different sources out there offering business contacts with email addresses and other information. While each of them work on varied models and range from a few cents per contact to several dollars a contact, it’s important to understand the underlying value proposition of each source while deciding on which one will work best for you.

Info USA
www.infousa.com

Best For: Do-it-yourselfers seeking a fully-curated source, especially those targeting consumers.

Overview: InfoUSA divides its sales leads into postal/phone contacts and email contacts. For the latter, InfoUSA helps you create the email message and does the actual emailing (but charges extra for fancier HTML layouts) — in other words, it won’t send you the actual email list. (This probably helps keep others from abusing the list, to your benefit.)

Hoovers
www.hoovers.com

Best For: Those seeking a fully-curated source, especially for business contacts. Plans are available for do-it-yourselfers or annual subscribers who prefer dedicated, consultative service.

Overview: With Hoover’s, you can run your own searches, using its Lead Builder tool, or you can subscribe on a monthly or yearly basis and work one-on-one with a representative, to build your lists.

Jigsaw
http://www.jigsaw.com

Best For: Do-it-yourselfers seeking a collaborative, potentially lower-cost solution.

Overview: Jigsaw is a collaborative database of contacts. You can buy contacts with money or with credits earned from sharing your contacts or correcting Jigsaw’s list. Data quality depends on the quality of Jigsaw’s collaborators.

Find the Best Fit

For most marketers, purchasing lists is still the easiest way to fill a pipeline. Again, remember to carefully evaluate what you’re getting in terms of value from each of the third-party sources mentioned above and select the one that checks all your boxes.

Reference: entrepreneur

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AskCallbox-Berns

AskCallbox: Why would I work with Callbox or any lead generation company when I have an in-house marketing person and my own CRM?

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I understand you are in as tight a spot as any marketing guy can be: it’s either a win-win or a lose-lose situation, there’s no middle ground. This is a legit dilemma.

Indeed, why would you hire some agency to do the marketing for you when you have an in-house team and your own CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform at your disposal?

Simple: the best way to do lead generation is to not do any of it. Let the experts handle it.

Let me put it in perspective. Yes, you have a car. It is working fine. If your goal is just to get from point A to B, use it. Drive it even. But if you’re traveling cross-country and you want a stress-free ride and enjoy the landscape and not worry about anything else, rent a car. With a chauffeur.

Gain Expertise

You may know your product or service like the back of your hand, but you may not necessarily excel at other functions your product may require of you, such as lead-generation. By outsourcing to an established marketing agency, you are putting a team of experienced and expert people at your disposal, giving you the advantage of generating the maximum return on your investment while still retaining control of every project.

Sometimes, in your quest to make all things great, you may find yourself donning several hats—quickly becoming a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. But in the marketing world, you have to be a master, especially when it comes to lead generation. Teaming with an experienced and successful marketing company allows you to lean on the experts when needed so you can focus on what you do best.

Save Time & Money

Outsourcing your marketing efforts will save you time and money since a good marketing company can strategize, execute, and deliver your needs. It’s like getting all the perks of having a multimillion dollar marketing staff at a fraction of the cost, and with no long-term commitment.

See, in-house marketing does not guarantee income. It may have its crest and troughs, but a business still needs to pay its marketing staff their salaries and bonuses depending on performance. Work with a reputable marketing firm and cut overhead marketing costs, as they will be replaced with as-needed costs based on your budget. As the business owner, you could start with a variable marketing budget and later on, as you can feel significant ROI, you can establish a fixed budget and develop a marketing plan. Or better yet, get the services of that same agency again.

Avail of Proven Technology & Efficient System

Most sales and marketing firms are not dependent on one person. They rely on a cohesive team of experts who have mastered every step of whatever process they have in place. Callbox, for example, works on a system of processes that functions like clockwork. We have technology in place for your campaign to run smoothly and successfully. We provide multi-channel lead generation services that are designed to help get you in front of your target prospects at the best time — when they are most interested and ready to listen to what you have to offer. Our SMART (Sales and Marketing At the Right Time) Calling system helps produce high quality sales leads by tracking exact times of lead activity and responding promptly at every opportunity. From emails, SMS and postal mail sent based on pre-set triggers, follow-up calls made to opens and replies, website visits, and social media connections – Callbox ensures you spend time only on sales-ready leads. A proven technology and an efficient system are two benefits you may not have in your in-house team.

Get Fresh Insight

In-house teams can struggle to execute things they haven’t done before. The learning curve can be pretty steep. Having a seasoned agency handle your lead-generation campaign means avoiding a significant part of the learning curve. Aside from that, a lot of employees are very reluctant when it comes to talking about company sales, marketing strategies and efforts or anything along those lines. Who would blame them? Most of the time, sharing an opinion that’s different from the one your bosses have can lead to all kinds of troubles. Marketing agency experts, however, will always provide an honest and objective opinion about your business.

Make the Right Choice

Outsourcing your marketing team is a critical decision for any company. Used correctly, it can bring plenty of value by putting your organization in expert hands. The key is knowing and understanding your company and its needs and then choosing the right marketing agency to outsource for the future growth of your company.