The CRAP Report

With today being December 31st, the last day of the calendar year in 2009, I wanted to continue (but not finish) my countdown, or my top five “wants,” for your teleprospectors in 2010.  If you were here on Monday, you read that my first desire for your BDR’s in the coming year was more confidence.  I’ve shared with you many times over the last four months about the importance of confidence for your BDR’s.  Confidence makes them better teleprospectors – you can’t argue that.  What else, though, should you want your BDR’s to have, though?  Well, good thing you stopped by!  Here are my numbers two and three top “wants” for your B2B lead generators in 2010.

The second thing I think your BDR’s need most in 2010 is a great source of data from which to prospect from.  Last week I shared with you how imperative it is that your teleprospectors have recent, accurate, and pre-touched marketing lists from which to call from.  Better lists for your BDR’s means that you’ll have a greater likelihood of passing more qualified sales opportunities to your sales team.  There are many ways in which you can go about obtaining better call lists for your teleprospectors, from creating one by hand to purchasing to just renting a list.  Regardless of which road you choose, make sure that the data you’re getting is as up to date as possible.  

In addition to that, make sure that your cold call lists are current, too.  Your BDR’s should be using names from your cold call lists to replace the individuals from your warmer lists as they get cycled out of the prospecting process.  As the warmer names move to being either not relevant or not interested, make sure that you’ve got a great cold calling list to backfill for your teleprospectors.  I have been involved in projects before where the names that my client said were “warm” weren’t really so “warm” at all, but their cold calling lists were so good, we were still able to meet our sales qualified lead objectives.  In 2010, I want your teleprospectors to have a great source of data from which to prospect from.

My third want for your teleprospectors in 2010 is a compensation plan that pays out on the quality of their work.  If what business development is supposed to do is find fully qualified sales opportunities, then don’t you agree with me that the folks doing the qualification should be comped based on the quality of their work?  Sure, put call numbers, conversation or talk time numbers, and lead numbers in front of them.  Those numbers are all important and have their place in teleprospecting, but use those numbers to spur on better qualified leads.  Give smaller perks or bonuses for hitting those numbers, but the majority of their bonus should be based on how well the leads they passed over panned out.  Call it a positive feedback percentage, a closed loop percentage, but something that is based on the “quality” of the leads that they passed over will ensure that your sales team is getting the best that your BDR’s can bring.

The benefit to a teleprospecting manager or someone who runs a team of BDR’s that implements a compensation plan like this is that you’ll eventually be able to weed out the bad from the good.  Those BDR’s that you have on your team that may not be as effective will be easier to spot because come bonus time, their quality numbers just won’t measure up to the best.

Better lists and better compensation – two “musts” for your BDR’s in 2010, and only you can make it happen!  Tomorrow, I’ll cover numbers four and five on my “want” list for your teleprospectors next year.  

Happy New Year’s Eve to you all!