The CRAP Report

Think about your prospects for a minute.  You’ve probably got a list or a database chock full of folks that you really want to do business with.  Sure you want to do business with them because that means money for you and your organization, but I’m sure there are those that you want to do business because of the weight that their name carries in their respective industries.  Now take a minute and think about how you reach out to those folks, from a teleprospecting perspective.  Maybe you’re not doing that right now but you want to.  Do you prospect your prospects the way YOU want to or the way THEY want to be?  This question came to me today after reading a blog entry in the Marketing Mélange by Mike Frichol.

Frichol’s article, Are You Selling or Facilitating Buying for Customers?, purports that if prospective buyers, Marketing, and Sales were all aligned, the sales cycle might not take so long.  He’s right.  So, while I’ll leave it to the Marketing and Sales experts to help you align those departments with your future customers, I do see three ways that your teleprospecting teams can do all they can to quicken their aspect of the buying process.  The way I see it, there are three things you should do to make sure that your BDR’s are aligning themselves with how your prospects buy: 

1. Make sure they understand your current clients’ pains and how your solutions/services alleviated them.
2. Make sure they spend more time listening to your prospects, rather than talking.
3. Make sure they touch base with their prospects throughout the lead nurturing process with relevant collateral.

First, if you’re BDR’s are going to prospect the way your future customers want to be prospected to, you need to make sure they understand your current clients’ pains and how your solutions/services alleviated them.  This is simple, sure, but how many of your teleprospectors have taken the time to do that.  Better yet, how many of their mangers have spent time with them talking about this specifically?  I’m guessing not many.  The point here is that if your BDR’s have a good understanding of WHY people have bought from you in the past (see, they’re on the front end of the process, so they usually aren’t there when the decision maker signs the contract), they’re going to have greater likelihood of being able to empathize with your prospects.  People don’t care how much your BDR’s know until they know how much your BDR’s care.  When your teleprospectors can share with your prospects how your organization has alleviated real pains for folks in the same situation as them, turning them into a sales qualified lead is not far behind.

Second, make sure your BDR’s spend more time listening to your prospects, rather than talking.  I’ve said this before, but your teleprospectors need to focus on not just hearing your prospects, but actually listening to them.  Nobody wants to be prospected to by an order taker.  You feel this pain?  Do you have money?  Who makes the decision?  When do you want to buy?  The amount of time your teleprospectors are actually talking should be about a quarter of the time versus the amount of time your prospects should be talking with them.  The take-away here is that if you’re the one building qualification scripts for your BDR’s, make sure that the scripts are flush with open ended questions.  For the most part, folks love to talk about themselves, and if they’ve got problems and are mad enough about those problems, they’ll talk a lot.  Help your prospects talk by crafting better qualification questions so your BDR’s can spend more time listening.

Lastly, to ensure that your BDR’s are prospecting the way your future clients want to be prospected to, make sure they touch base with their prospects throughout the lead nurturing process with relevant collateral.  Unfortunately, you don’t pass a sales qualified lead every time you talk with a prospect.  If you do, let me know how you do it.  That being said, your teleprospectors are going to have a group of folks in their pipeline who are interested in your services, but who are not in need just yet.  I’m sure they follow up every now and then with a call here, a voicemail or maybe an email there, and that is great.  I think if you want to really make an impact on your prospective clients, your BDR’s should start sending relevant collateral with no other motive behind it besides being helpful.  Maybe they came across a blog article, or came across a webcast that would be pertinent to your prospect.  They should be sending those along, building credibility with those interested prospects.  That way, when it does come time to buy, your prospects will remember who reached out to them in a more consultative way and will likely call back to set up time to speak with a product specialist.

At the very least, this is certainly something to think about, and I’m glad that Frichol planted this seed in my brain – it’s a reminder that teleprospecting can always move the sales process along faster by being more efficient.  What do you think?  Can you add to my list?