The CRAP Report

Mike Damphousse, CEO of Green Leads, wrote an interesting blog article on Monday about how the real goal of a scheduled sales appointment should be to get a second meeting, not just a first meeting that consists of product dumping.  I liked what he had to say: “Make the goal of introductory appointments threefold:

• Show professionalism and value by having a conversation and asking questions
• Educate the prospect just enough to get a second meeting
• Make the second meeting follow your agenda and then satisfy theirs”

Passing highly qualified sales opportunities should naturally set up the recipients of said leads for that second appointment.  Of course, once an opportunity leaves a BDR’s hands and gets transferred over to a sales rep, there really is nothing more that can be done.  Mike’s made the point in the past that it’s really up to the rep to get that second appointment, and I couldn’t agree more.  I also think that it is teleprospecting’s responsibility to do everything they can to make that possibility as close to a probability as possible.

If you’ve got an inside team of BDR’s or you’re outsourcing teleprospecting, one of the things that you’ve got to be driving home with them is that sales qualified opportunities need to be as thoroughly fleshed out as possible.  How do we do that?  Well, it goes beyond ensuring that that marketing and sales agree on the lead’s definition (although that is huge).  You’ve got to make sure that your BDR’s are making the most of every opportunity they have when they have a prospect on the phone, and that they’re asking laser focused, open ended questions that give prospects the chance to spill their guts on the phone.

We want our BDR’s to pass sales qualified opportunities that drive pipeline, and more often than not, those opportunities come from several meetings after the one we’ve set; its our responsibility as a teleprospecting community to do everything we can to qualify the hell out of the prospect so that the first appointment is really all about setting expectations for the future.