Steve Richard, co-founder for sales training organization Vorsight, wrote a guest blog article yesterday for sales strategist Chad Levitt’s New Sales Economy Blog.  The article, entitled “11 Sales Tips for Cold Calling and Prospecting,” offered some good insight into making the most out of each and every attempt to get in touch with your potential buyers.  One of the questions that Steve suggests asking yourself is this:

“Do you revisit your talking points periodically to more effectively tell your story and stand out from the vendor noise and static?”

This is a great question!  It makes me wonder how many times prospects hang up on teleprospectors because they do nothing to make themselves unique in terms of their messaging.  There is some interesting discussion going on over at that post, and I think you should take a look at it and join in the conversation.

*Picture credit:  Linda Cronin via Flickr

How lame does that title sound, huh?  Almost as lame as what one client told me, regarding how prospects would feel about their product:  “The streets are going to want to marry you!”  You know what I found during that campaign?  The streets didn’t even understand my language.

One of the most vital aspects of any good sales prospecting effort is the script that your business development rep’s are going to use.  The truth is that people are more likely to respond to an email these days than they are pick up the phone, and it is that truth alone that makes having a quality sales prospecting script a must.  While I’m a firm believer that the best way to generate fully qualified leads is through the phone, I also know how difficult that can be if the script that you’re using isn’t good.  It is critical that a good teleprospecting script comprises the following: 

1.  It doesn’t sound “scripted” – You know what its like to get a call with someone trying to sell you something at home, be it a newspaper subscription or digital cable.  They all HAVE this one in common, that they sound scripted.  A good manager will work with his/her BDR’s to ensure that their teleprospecting script doesn’t sound “scripted,” and that it flows well.

2.  It does get to the point – Please, please, please do not product dump!  NOBODY wants to listen to 47 seconds of your BDR babbling about your technology, I can promise you this.  A good script is going to get to point and do it fast.  Tell the prospect why they want to talk with you, not about you.

3.  It does get the prospect talking – This may sound remedial, but you’d be surprised at the number of scripts I look at from client’s that do not end their intro with an open ended question.  One of the most important things that BDR’s can do to ensure a better, more qualified sales opportunity is to ask open ended questions.  We’re trying to, as my colleague Matt described in his blog on the 16^th, paint a picture as to what the opportunity really looks like for our client.  The more a sales prospecting script is loaded with open ended questions, the more we can get prospects talking.

Now, about the clients who told me that “the streets [would] want to marry me”?  The script that I originally got from them was just full of techno-babble and product dumping, and that’s why it wasn’t a hit with “the streets.”  “The streets,” in this instance, were looking for a quick way to separate themselves from me, not marry me.  For now, keep the script real by following the guidelines above, and maybe you’ll get some play that way.

This is a good question, and you know why?  Because sometimes you’re not.  Sometimes, you think you’re ready to outsource your sales opportunity development and you’re just really not.  You know, its like thinking you have true love and then you catch the early flight home from San Diego and a couple of nude people jump out of your bathroom blindfolded like a goddamn magic show…well, that’s another story.  But seriously, here are three ways to know you’re ready for lead gen.  Pick up your pens boys and girls, schools about to start:

1.  You’re message is clear.

Okay, that may seem foolish, but let me tell you about a client I worked with:  I once worked with a client whose company name sounded very technical and IT-friendly, but their target audience was sales and marketing.  Do you know how hard that makes cold calling?  Have you ever tried selling to that audience with a product that sounds as if it has NOTHING to do with them?  That’s like trying to sell life-insurance to the newly entombed at your local cemetery.  If you’re going to outsource your lead gen efforts, you’ve got to have messaging that resonates with your target audience.

2.  You know your product’s value prop.

Again, one that you may initially laugh at, but I’m telling you folks, some people just don’t get this.  My buddy just finished talking with a client who’s response to the question, “So what’s your elevator pitch?  How do you best describe what you do?” was, “I don’t know really.  What would you say?”  Huh!?  C’mon man!  You’re expecting me to find you leads and this is the best I get?  I’ll bet you this, too – most people don’t know their value prop anyways, and I’d wager that if I asked “x” number of people at any given company, I’d get “x” number of different responses.  If you’re going to outsource your pipeline development, you’ve got to know your value prop.

 3.  You know who you sell to and you’ve got the list to prove it.

Pretty simple folks.  You know who you sell to and you’ve got the list to prove it.  It does you no good to spend money on lead gen if you don’t have this one down.  Maybe you don’t have the list as fleshed out as you like, but at least you’ve got an ideal customer profile, names of companies, target segments, etc. that you want to sell to.  This one’s important because if you don’t have it down, you’re going to pay extra for me to get this for you.  Now, I don’t mind that, but it’s going to take time to get the list ready, and even though I know you want to start now, I can’t do it until I get that list.  Thinking about outsourcing your sales qualification process?  Make sure you know who you sell to and you’ve got the list to prove it.

Well there you have it.  You get those three down, please call me, otherwise, keep working on it!  If you need help getting these three down, I know someone who can help!

One of my favorite Brady Bunch episodes was the one were Greg was asked to become a singer named Johnny Bravo.  He thought he had made it!  What Greg didn’t know was that he wasn’t really wanted for his singing ability, as his first song becomes electronically enhanced (much to his chagrin).  By the end of the episode, though, we find out that Greg was only wanted because “he fit the [Johnny Bravo] suit.”  Greg wanted to sing his own songs, and not have them doctored.  When he realized he was just wanted because he fit some mold, he was ready to move on.

When it comes to teleprospecting rep’s (TPR’s), though it would be awesome to see a bunch of people wearing Johnny Bravo suits around my office, I want TPR’s to have Greg’s attitude when it comes to making calls.  I want them to be their own person.

What do I mean by that?  I’m talking about scripting, actually.  TPR’s should certainly have some framework with which to follow, but at the end of the day, we shouldn’t want them to read a script like they’re Judy the Time Life operator (no offense Judy).  They’ve got to be able to have business conversations with prospects.  Unfortunately, quality can’t be scripted.  If you’re looking to put qualified sales opportunities in front of your sales team, you’ve got to get them from TPR’s who can get them without sticking to a script.  God forbid a prospect asks a question that isn’t on the script!  You ever see a TPR who can’t break from a script during a situation like this?  It’s not pretty.  It’s about as uncomfortable as an afterschool special in ’73 (I’m looking at you My Dad Lives in a Downtown Hotel).

Having business conversations with prospects outside the outline of a script is a must.  If you’re evaluating vendors to supply you with qualified sales opportunities, make sure they can talk your product.  If you’re just looking for TPR’s who can fit the suit, you’re not only selling yourself short, you’re telling your prospects a lot about how you value their time.

I once worked with a customer who told me that the easiest way to describe his offering was to tell me that they provided 90% of the functionality that a competitor (who’s name rhymes with “Bicrosoft”!) offers at twice the price, and then asked me to find him quality sales opportunities. 

Let that sink in for a minute. 

Okay, now that you’re head’s stopped spinning, let’s analyze what you’ve just read.  If the most straightforward way to describe your solution is telling me that it provides less functionality at a greater cost than your competitors, then its time to go back to the drawing board.  As an outsourced sales opportunity development professional, that messaging might make sense to me, but it certainly isn’t one that I can bring to your target market.  To be fair, my client didn’t expect me to share that to their intended audience, but talk about making messaging difficult! 

If you’re ready to partner with an organization to develop and nurture a pipeline of quality sales opportunities for you, you have to make sure you’ve got all of your ducks in a row.  This client obviously needed some help shaping their value proposition before even thinking about how they were going to bring in new sales leads.  Again, that wasn’t their value forward message to their prospects, but if that’s how they describe their services to a partner, something’s wrong.  Spending a lot of money to find good, qualified sales opportunities is smart – if you’re ready, but if you’re not, it’s a sure way to show your lack of preparedness.  Don’t believe me?  Ask me about this project sometime; I’d be more than happy to tell you how many times people told me they were happy with “Bicrosoft.”