The CRAP Report

Donkey Kong was friggin’ complex to me.  Okay, maybe not so much the design, but actually playing the game.  How did those stupid flaming barrels know I was on the ladder everytime!?  And how is it that I can do the same thing 6 times, like jumping over said barrels, and on the 7th time it doesn’t work?  You know what you get for that?  That dumb ape laughing at you.  God, I hated you Donkey Kong.  Speaking of complex, here is something we hear from prospects all the time:  “Well, our technology is much too complex for a teleprospecting campaign.”  I’m here to, once and for all, dispel that notion. The beauty of outsourcing pipeline development is the fact that we CAN’T possibly know all about your technology, nor should we.  The good news behind that is that the information we gather as we’re qualifying prospects in and out for you, can be used to bolster the conversations that your sales reps will have with the leads that we do pass.

Listen, taking into consideration all of the “logarithmic-algorithmic-physio-synthetic” speak that may surround your product, at the end of the day what you want is to receive high quality sales opportunities for your sales reps to follow up on.  Teleprospecting reps do not, I repeat, do not, need to know all about the ins and outs of how your technology works.  Instead of focusing on technology, what TPR’s do is pull out pain points.  Knowing all there is to know about your technology does nothing for us if we can’t find someone who has a problem that your technology solves.  Afterall, you’re not partnering with a lead gen firm to act as sales engineers, right?  I didn’t think so.

I understand that your product may be a bit “tech-heavy,” but that certainly doesn’t preclude you from needing leads for your sales team, and though I’m a bit biased, I don’t believe there is a better way to find quality sales opportunities than through targeted outbound teleprospecting campaigns.  Remember that the goal of any good lead gen firm is to leave the prospect wanting (and expecting) more from the product specialist that they’re being passed on to, because they now believe there is a solution out there that can solve the dilemma they may be in.  If the TPR releases the hounds on the prospect during the initial qualification call, there’s nothing really left for a sales rep to talk about, and therefore has no opportunity to build a relationship with a potential client.

Thinking that your technology is too complex is, in my opinion, just a fallacy, often thrown up by marketing VP’s/sales VP’s who misunderstand that a highly trained sales opportunity development team can outperform their mass email campaign.  Or their direct mailer.  Or their call to action on their website.  Yeah, because THOSE methods are so much more effective at delivering your über-techie product.

One of these days I’m going to beat that silly game…