1) Use the Phone, Everyday: Its simple…. pick up the phone and call the prospect you want to meet. This is a highly effective and straightforward lead generation technique. Gone are the days of door-to-door cold calling as the primary prospecting strategy. The best use of your time is to pick up the phone and call the Decision Maker you want to meet with. With targeted phone calls (as opposed to door-to-door) you can talk to more prospects with less time and gas burnt. It also allows you to focus on certain “vertical markets” and “industry pain points” instead of just walking through office complexes knocking on doors hoping you will get lucky and bump into someone who happens to be in the market for your product or services. To be successful at lead generation over the phone you need a compelling elevator pitch (value proposition) that is specific to your prospects’ business and a recognizable reference account you have worked with or helped in the past that is similar to them (a marquee reference account will help grab their attention). Remember that when prospecting over the phone, your goal is to close for the appointment. Do not try and oversell on the phone – your goal is to get to the next step in the sales cycle which is usually booking an appointment, a demo or trial. 2) Become a LinkedIn Ninja: With the rapid growth of social networking it has become much easier to uncover the different decision makers within a company you are targeting. As a sales professional you should follow the step by step guide on LinkedIn prospecting tips and use the LinkedIn to pre-call plan and to directly target prospects. The LinkedIn search engine is an invaluable tool and can really assist you in uncovering and connecting with prospects. Try searching for the company you want to talk to in the advanced section (see image) of the LinkedIn search engine. Once you find that company and some contacts in your network send them a message or pick up the phone and try calling them directly (ask for them in particular). Knowing a contact’s full name within the prospective account will help prevent you from getting screened on the phone by a savvy gatekeeper.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 07:17:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015