The CRAP Report

Matt, Jill, Eric, Lexy, Pete, Kevin, Craig, Brad, Stephen

Okay, okay, I know – this is really predictable.  A lead generation blog entry with a Halloween theme?  I agree, but nevertheless, I do have a couple of points to make here.  I’m not really big on horror movies.  I liked them as a kid, but somewhere along the line, the idea that all fiction has its basis in reality crept into my head and now most horror movies freak me out.  That being said, I’ve seen enough horror movies to know that they all pretty much have the same elements to them (especially ones from the 80’s).  These clichés, I’ve found, have a direct link to teleprospecting and I want to share them with you on this day before All Hallows eve (insert spooky music here).

The first one is pretty universal: don’t go off on your own.  If you’ve ever watched a horror movie, you know that the person who leaves the group is surely going to meet their fate in a matter of minutes.  There’s never anything good that happens to the guy or girl who splits off on their own; their always the first to go.  The correlation to that and sales prospecting is just as clear to me.  If you’re making the decision to build your own inside team to generate sales qualified leads for your sales team and you’ve never done it before, chances are good that it may end badly.  Now, I’m just speaking from my own experience and interactions I’ve had with clients in the past.  Rather than go off on your own and do it yourself, I think (and I’m obviously biased here) that you should probably outsource this to the experts.

Second: don’t run past the obvious help.  Often times in horror movies, when the victims of the antagonist are running through a house, they run past the front door and head upstairs to go and hide.  Uh, hello?  How about the door?  Make your escape!  In teleprospecting, don’t be too proud to seek help from the pros.  Is your inside team not as effective as they should be?  As they could be?  Do yourself and your BDR’s a favor and get them help.  You want to make sure that every marketing qualified lead that your reps follow up on is done so as strategically as possible, and if you’re having trouble defining what that strategy should be, look for help.  It does you no good to have a team of BDR’s that are okay, when you could have a team of BDR’s that are great.  Don’t be too proud to get help.

Lastly:  Keep moving!  Why, oh why, do people in horror movies ever stop and hide!?  If you stop, you die, but if you keep moving, you make yourself a harder target to hit.  In teleprospecting, this means that you’ve got to make sure that your reps, or your outsourced reps, are continually sharpening their skills.  Its one thing to have a group of highly skilled BDR’s today – its another to think their going to be as skilled tomorrow.  Teleprospecting is constantly changing, from different tricks to get prospects on the phone to getting them to open their emails with greater likelihood.  If you’re not doing everything you can to foster an environment where your BDR’s (or your vendor’s BDR’s) are improving, you’re selling yourself, and those reps, short.  Keep moving by putting workshops and trainings together to ensure your reps are in a constant learning mode.

Well, there you go – some lessons I’ve learned from horror clichés and how they relate to B2B lead generation.  I need to go get me some candy like zombies get brains.  Happy Halloween!