The CRAP Report

Every good offense has strategy behind it.  Take for example, the Rebel Alliance’s destruction of the Death Star.  The Rebel army had to take out this key Empirical battle station that had already disintigrated Princess Leia’s home planet, so what did they do?  They entrusted the field leadership of their attack to a farm boy named Luke Skywalker who destroyed the Death Star with one shot, and the rest is multi-billion dollars worth of cinematic history.  The Rebel Alliance had a strategy.  Do you have one for your teleprospecting offensive?

Could I have used another analogy besides one from Star Wars?  Of course, but then I wouldn’t have had the chance to talk about Star Wars.  The point to be made, though, is this:  If you’re looking to increase your pipeline through outsourced sales opportunity development, then the firm that you’re looking to work with needs to have some sort of strategy behind their call efforts.  On top of that, if you’re going to do it in-house, you’d better have one, too.

There are all different ways with which to approach cold calling and lead generation, business development, teleprospecting, or whatever you want to call it today.  My reps know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the purpose behind every phone call and email that leaves their desk.  They are all well schooled in our call strategy and see the fruits of their labor on a consistent basis, month in and month out.  I’ve got a friend who’s recently taken a job with a publicly traded ERP company, and one of the things that he was surprised at when he got there was that they didn’t really have any thought behind the calls that their teleprospecting team was making.  Some people would make 50 calls a day, some would make 30, and some would make 100.  The common thread among them all was the inconsistency of their efforts.  He’s doing his best to bang the drum for strategy, but just imagine how much more effective they could be if everyone was on the same page!?

Look, the bottom line is this:  teleprospecting is very effective when there is a strategy behind it.  I’ve seen its effects over the last 7 years and it doesn’t change whether you’re one of the largest software vendors in the country or you’re a fresh newborn startup; strategy makes the difference between leads that close and leads that can’t be found.

May the Force be with you!

(oh that is sooo dorky!)