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It's the classic match between Sales vs Marketing – Outbound vs Inbound. Who generates the most value and who gets the biggest bang for the buck?
Blue Trunks (representing sales/outbound): Terry Ledden of Sales AboutFace - Sandler Training. Orange Trunks (representing marketing / inbound): Peter Caputa of HubSpot. Watch an exchange of blows that promises to entertain, engage and educate. Register here
Bonus 1: Free report “Why Salespeople Fail.” Attendees will get a link to this report after the event. Once you read this report, your view of selling will never be the same. Most modern-day selling systems and sales management efforts have many deficiencies that hurt sales numbers and forecasts. The Sandler Selling System® methodology completely changes the tenor of sales encounters with its honest, no-nonsense, dignified approach to selling that places salespeople firmly in control to sales goals.
Bonus 2: Free report “Inbound vs Outbound Marketing.” Attendees will get a link to this report after the event. The Internet has changed the dynamics of the business world, necessitating a change from “old marketing” techniques to “new marketing” techniques. With "old marketing" techniques, you are trying to reach a broad audience and hope for some small percentage (usually 1-3%) to respond. Looking at this another way, 97% of your marketing is wasted and 98% of buyers search in Google.
Register for the event here
Published by Jim Domanski. If you use the phone and want to be better at it, visit www.teleconceptsconsulting.com or call 613.591.1998.
Take the Survey: What is the #1 most challenging objection?
Are you a good questioner? Most sales reps are not. Here is a list of the twelve most common "sins" made by tele-sales reps (or field reps for that matter) and what you can do about them. Are you guilty of any of these mistakes?
Deadly Sin #1: Not Asking Questions at All
Still, after the millions of words that have been written about the importance and value of questioning, there are sales reps that continue to ignore the advice and simply pitch the product. Asking questions gets clients involved by getting THEM to tell YOU what they want or need or think is important. When they're involved, they are more likely to buy. To solve this blunder, stop talking and start asking.
Deadly Sin #2: Asking Dumb and Destructive Questions
Don't be fooled, there ARE dumb questions. For instance, "What do you like about your current supplier?" is a particularly dumb and destructive question. This question gets the client to open up and verbally 'testify' why they like your competitor. In effect, it justifies and reinforces their rationale for choosing their vendor which makes your job even tougher. What to do? THINK about the questions you are going to ask before you ask them.
Deadly Sin #3: Asking too Many Questions
While questions are good and necessary in the selling process too much of a good thing can be dangerous. Asking too many questions can overwhelm, bore or frustrate your client and YOU. Ask yourself: What do I really need to know from the customer or prospect?" Focus on these questions to ensure you get what you need.
Deadly Sin # 4: Asking too Many Open Ended Questions
Open ended questions are often positioned as the Holy Grail of questions because they get the client to 'open up' and provide vital information on their problems, predicaments, pains, opportunities, challenges and the like. However, the truth of the matter is too many open ended questions can be destructive. Unless they are relevant and pertinent, they can confuse, bore, annoy, overwhelm, and bewilder the client. They can often lead you down paths you don't want to go. The solution is twofold: carefully select your open ended questions and then direct and point the discussion with the judicious use of closed ended questions.
Deadly Sin # 5: Asking too Many Close Ended Questions
Closed ended questions are short answer or yes or no type answers. When used wisely they are handy little helpers that verify, clarify and confirm information. In addition they can help direct the questioning so you can identify needs more quickly and easily. The problem occurs when they are overused which tends to make buyers feel they are being grilled or interrogated. Surveys reveal that after three or four consecutive close ended questions buyers feel frustration; beyond that they are annoyed or hostile and will disengage from the conversation. Regrettably, the majority of reps tend to use more closed ended questions than open ended.
The Incredible Questioning Guide
The trick to balancing close and open ended questions is to create a Questioning Guide Chart. Take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left side, list all the INFORMATION you need to help understand the client's situation, needs, wants etc. On the right side, list the QUESTIONS that you need to ask in order to get the information. What you will find is that most of your questions end up being close ended. Revamp those questions so there is mix of open and closed. You can use this chart to help you deal with virtually all of the blunders listed here.
Deadly Sin #6: Not Asking Bold Questions
Bold questions are qualifying questions that many reps seem to avoid or forget. They are called bold because sometimes it takes a little nerve to ask them but in doing so you can save time by cutting to the quick and determining if the prospect has potential or not.
One bold question is the decision maker question: "Apart from yourself, Jim, who else is involved in the decision making process?" Another bold question is the budgetary question, "Tara, let me ask you: have funds been budgeted for this project (product, service)?" A third bold question is the time frame question,
"Wendi, when will the decision to buy be made?"
What are your bold questions? Add them to your Questioning Guide.
Deadly Sin # 7: Assuming that One Person Has All the Answers to Your Questions
Depending on the nature of your sale, there may be several stakeholders that could be impacted. Each stakeholder has different needs and requirements and it is vital that you ask each of THEM questions that are relevant to their situation.
Here's what you do. First, ask your contact who does this sale affect? Second, use a bold question and ask your contact for the names of those who might have a stake in the sale. Third, create a Questioning Guide for each particular stakeholder.
Deadly Sin # 8: Not Asking Pain and Gain Questions
Pain questions are those that query about a problem or a predicament or a concern that a client might have that you can fix. Gain questions query about opportunities or enhancements that you might be able to provide. Both questions deal with the issue of motivation. Find a pain or find a gain and you'll begin the motivation process.
How do you do this? Simply develop a list of questions that pinpoint pain and gain. (Your Question Guide is the place for these.) For instance, "Mr. Gunderson, one thing teachers have been telling us is that creating daily class plans is time consuming and frustration. Let me ask, is this similar to your situation?"
Deadly Sin #9: Not Asking Questions that Quantify
Uncovering a pain or gain is a good start but it is rarely enough to close the deal. The pain or the gain might be minor at this particular stage and not important for the client to take action. You need to quantify the motivator. Quantify means getting the client to evaluate the nature and extend of a problem or an opportunity. Often they don't readily see the implications of pain or gain and they need you to help them assess the situation.
For example, you can ask how often a problem occurs. What does it cost the client when it occurs in terms of both time and money? This creates magnitude. The greater the magnitude the greater the motivation.
Deadly Sin # 10: Not Using Questions to Respond to Objections
The trouble with an objection is that you can never be certain if it is the REAL objection or if it is a false objection. The way to deal with virtually any objection is to a) pause, b) empathize and c) ask a question to determine if the objection is real or if it is hiding something else.
For instance, suppose the prospect objects to price. Ask him to "explain" what he means by price. Does he really mean budget or is it an issue of value or is he comparing apples to apples? Who knows? So use questions to solve objections.
Deadly Sin # 11: Not Listening to the Answers to Your Questions
Perhaps one of the deadliest blunders is asking a question but failing to listen to the answer. Some reps dutifully ask questions but instead of listening they are simply waiting for their turn to speak.
To solve this, stay focused on the words being uttered. Use a pen and pad and take notes because it forces you to concentrate. Next, focus on the tone of voice. The way a client speaks offer nuances that can indicate agreement, disagreement, confusion, indifference, annoyance etc. If you hear something in their voice, ask about it: "Eric, I think I hear some confusion in your voice. Is there something I can clarify?"
Deadly Sin #12: Not Asking Verifying Questions
The last blunder is failing to ask verifying questions. This is particularly important in the world of telephone sales, lead generation or prospecting. Verification questions are those that seek to determine if the client understood YOU. For instance, after providing some information to the client (e.g., a product description) ask, "Does that make sense to you?" or "Do you follow my logic?" or "How does that sound to you?" Then shut up and listen. Gauge the response but more importantly gauge the tone. These questions will ensure that you are staying on track and more importantly, that your CLIENT is staying on track with you.
Summary
Questions are the very best of tools in the selling process. But use them wisely by avoiding these blunders. Does that make sense?
Take the Survey: What is the #1 most challenging objection?
Like it or not, objections are a huge part of selling. But which objection is the most challenging?
Is it price?
Is it "Let me think about it?"
What about budget?
How about "e-mail me something?"
Or something else?
Take the Survey
Published by Jim Domanski. If you use the phone and want to be better at it, visit www.teleconceptsconsulting.com or call 613.591.1998.
Riaz Sidiis a Business Development Representative at OnPath Business Solutions. Follow him on Twitter @riazsidi
In the B2B sales world, we often come across sales gurus who just appear from nowhere. They have an unwavering confidence – often possessing an aura of being able to sell dirt to a germaphobe.
But what gives them this confidence? And how are they backing it up by translating leads into sales?
The best salespeople know what type of answer they are looking for before they ask a question.
When great salespeople ask closed-ended questions, they are attempting to get a customer into a pattern of saying ‘yes’. Every ‘yes’ in response to a closed-ended question opens up a bridge towards colourful responses for the open-ended questions which will follow.
If as a salesperson you go straight into asking open-ended questions which may be perceived as intrusive, it may come across as quite rude. The personal nature of getting into these discussions is not justified since a relationship worthy of a valid response has not yet been established.
But by building rapport, you will only help to reveal detailed information which will lead to transitions which can branch off into problem questions and implication questions.
And this is when true selling occurs.
The best salespeople don’t close sales – they allow the customer to be unable to resist having the product or service by showing the Return on Investment (ROI).
The bottom line for the customer is always ROI. Time is money and if a customer feels like they are already benefiting by spending time engaging with you, they will ultimately feel the natural trust to prolong and branch this relationship by doing business with you.
This is why the best salespeople can sell anything – the customer is not buying the product or service – they are buying the advantage of doing business with a credible, confident, and legitimate business as well as a salesperson of equal caliber.
.
Never close - let the customer close themselves by providing opportunities for them to initiate in their mind the positive effect of having your product or service.
If a customer can envision themselves taking advantage of the benefits rather than feeling they are obligated to spend money, they will see the natural benefit – ROI.
Internet marketing is different in terms of proving ROI because the medium is still in its infancy and ever-evolving – this is why credibility, confidence and trust are of utmost importance.
The best salespeople never hesitate or show insecurity.
Now in order to convey the ROI of engaging in business with you, a customer needs to hear in your voice that what they are doing is legitimate.
This is why confidence in tone is the only way to win over a customer. Would you do business with someone who hesitated or did not believe in what they were saying? Never.
Even if you were presented with the greatest product or deal, your natural instinct would be to question the legitimacy of the offer and to wonder how it is too good to be true.
This is why it is important to never oversell a product. Start small and figure out the direction in which the company or consumer is going and sell to those needs.
As the cliché goes, ‘one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure’ yet there are varying degrees to this statement, even within the same industry.
Does it make sense for them to have your product or service? And most importantly, why?
If you the sales representative can answer these last two questions differently for every customer interaction in which you engage, there will always be an open-path to creating need and solving a problem which a business owner was unaware they had.
In doing so, you will not only show the ROI of the product or service you are offering but also create a relationship by being empathetic to the needs of the business.
And it is this attitude which will take you very far in sales.
Riaz Sidiis a Business Development Representative at OnPath Business Solutions. Follow him on Twitter @riazsidi
Article by Cale Helmer (Business Development Trainer - OnPath). Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Why can’t B2B Customers be more like Farmville™ crops? If they were, I could plant the exact type of Customer I wanted. I could simply pop them in the ground, walk away and come back in a few hours to reap the benefits of a job well done. I could even trade those Customers away that didn’t yield a good return on my investment. Easy as pie…..well….easy as corn or beets or barley.
The simple fact of the matter is, B2B customers will never be as easy to manage as a virtual crop on a game like Farmville™. We live in the real world that requires attention to detail, patience and experience to truly cultivate something of value. But what if we applied principles learned in a virtual game to our real world sales relationships? How would that apply?
Well, let’s look at the facts:
1) Strategically map out where you should “sow your seeds”. In this case, we need to be in tune with current trending, demand generation and lead nurturing. Planting a ‘crop’ on unfertile land will only end in heartache no matter how much blood, sweat or tears you poor into it.
2) Take care not to overplant or under-sow or your efforts will be in vain. Overextending ourselves and our abilities may cause us to not reach our end goal. Not committing enough to the cause though may result in less than stellar ROI; both circumstances leading to potentially disappointed customers.
3) Don’t get distracted with flashy by-products or side games. Stick to the plan. Don’t get distracted with all the sidebar items that could stem from the initial interaction. Keep the deal simple and tangible. Additional sales appointments will come into the Sales Funnel in due time, provided the initial ‘crop’ yields a solid ROI.
4) Share the wealth of your bountiful crop! If you’ve been successful in apply new methods to the sale, tell the world about it! Let the community know what worked and what didn’t. Let interested parties tap into that vein of success. It might just help them with their call center outsourcing or telesales requirements.
While it may seem like a simplistic approach to handling complex requirements, let’s not overlook the similarities that the game has to offer in contrast to the methods we currently use as Sales and Marketing Experts. At day’s end, whether you’re hanging up your shovel and work gloves, or turning off your Smartphone and laptop, one would hope that you’ve accomplished something to be proud of. Whether Plow Driver or Field Rep, hang in there Farmer…and keep on planting!
Article by Cale Helmer (Business Development Trainer - OnPath). Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Article by Cale Helmer (Business Development Trainer - OnPath). Connect with him on LinkedIn.
As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. The same adage can be applied when trying to teach a Representative how to sell in a Business to Business environment. You can hire a person to sell in a B2B market, but…well….you’ve got the gist.
Representatives that fall under the umbrella of ‘Generation Y’ are coming into the workforce with a much different perspective on how business works. With this new view in place, it can be challenging to educate younger staffers on the tried and true methods many companies use daily to acquire new business and maintain exiting B2B relationships such as lead nurturing, or deduplication. In our case, that’s a good thing!
In training these Representatives, OnPath Business Solutions has had to take a step back and reassess our existing approach when it comes to b2b marketing. Although standard methods of instruction (PowerPoint, Instructor Lead Lectures) are all still being used when teaching larger batches of Representatives, Peer to Peer coaching and training along with interactive curriculum sharing (Podcasting, blogging, viral video, etc.) are some of the newer methods that we’ve begun to introduce in our classes. These ‘social’ training approaches speak to the Gen Y agents on a level that is unachievable through standard lecture methods. It’s not just a matter of changing the delivery method though. We’ve also had to change the message.
More and more these days, Representatives are rejecting or at the very least, questioning the traditional ideologies of “Slam Dunk Selling”; a method that focuses most of its efforts on hyping the product, as opposed to connecting with the Buyer and identifying the benefits the product could provide them. ‘Gen Y’ Reps are all about social connectivity, social interaction and social consciousness. They use YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to keep peers within arm’s reach at all times. They Flash Mob, Blog, Geocache and form clans in MMORPGs (if you’re not familiar with these terms, then you’re proving the point of this post!) as ways of keeping that social umbilical cord in place.
All things being equal, you cannot only use traditional methods to teach this generation of Representatives how to manage B2B sales. These tech-savvy social butterflies embrace the technology they already use every day to connect with and market to their target audience. Not the baby-boomers and not the Gen X’s. These new B2B Reps bring their social networks into the workplace. They seek to reach their audiences in 140 characters or less. They share their unfiltered thoughts and unabashed feelings in the form of AVI or MPEG uploads. They are brutally honest in their assessment of a product or service. They follow the simple mantra that all sales are fundamentally made up of 3 core principles:
They learn to root everything back to the “People” element of the interaction. ‘How will it make a Buyer feel?’ ‘Will the product let me connect to the Buyer on a personal level?’ ‘Will my personal opinion sway the decision of the Buyer?’
While traditionalist in the field of B2B sales may take a pejorative view when looking at these Representatives, OnPath embraces these future leaders of the marketplace. We seek to learn from them when it comes to navigating the social media playground while at the same time giving them the ‘wisdom of the ancients’ when it comes to providing them with the fundamental skills needed to generate sales appointments in a Business to Business environment.
Article by Cale Helmer (Business Development Trainer - OnPath). Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Published By Art Sobczak, Business By Phone Inc.
See articles, books, audios, and other resources
http://www.businessbyphone.com
Do you really know where you stand with the
prospects in your follow-up files right now?
Come on, really now? I'm not trying to make
you feel bad, but my experience is that many
sales reps have no clue where they are in
the sales process with a majority of the
people they are following up with.
Yet, they continue to call, continue to
leave voice mail messages ("Hey, I'm just
checking in with you, wondering how it's
going..."), send an endless stream of emails,
and HOPE that something will happen.
It's like running on a treadmill. There's
lots of activity, but you don't go anywhere.
And it can exhaust you. (Actually, the
treadmill is better since at least you are
accomplishing something physically-more
people should do it. I digress.)
Although some reps argue that at least they
are making contact and "touching" their
prospects through their messages, I say,
bull. Here's why:
1. Repeated messages with no value puts you
in a position where you're viewed as a vendor...
a salesperson whose goal is to sell them
something. The more you call to "just check
in," the more the image of the "stalker
salesperson" is solidified in their mind.
2. You waste time, and money, on a couple
of levels. First, let me make the assumption
that many of these "prospects" never will
do anything with you. Therefore, you are
throwing away time--which translates into
money--by continuing to call them. Not only
are you wasting the time when you actually
DO reach them, but factor in all of the
attempts and messages you leave.
And then add the prep time for each call
(You are doing pre-call planning, right?)
OK, so what should we be doing?
Let's zoom in to a call. We need to gauge
the temperature of the prospect and get a
snapshot of precisely where we are with them.
I've found that it's always best to let the
prospect tell you their perception of the
progression of the sales cycle and what
the next steps should be.
For example, when you reach the point
where you feel things have moved sufficiently,
ask,
"So, where are we right now?"
"Where do we sit right now?"
"How far do you feel we have progressed
to this point?"
"How close are we to making this happen?"
"What are the next steps?"
"What next?"
"What needs to happen on your end to move
forward?"
"How do you see us proceeding?"
And then...?
Assuming you've done this, received good
information, and the person truly is a good
prospect, then what?
Well, let's use a real situation posed to
me by a reader. Donald Holbrook with Stanford
Keene asked,
"I manage three guys that are on the phone
every day and talking to the top executives
in companies worldwide. I am continuously
working on my verbal communication as well
as theirs. As you can imagine, we have to
"follow up" with our contacts and have
found that it is common for these guys
to say that they are calling back to "touch
base" or "when is a good time for me to get
back in contact to touch base and see how
things have progressed?" What suggestions
would you have to replace these words?
Recommendation
To tie this into what I have covered earlier,
I always say the success of the follow up is
in direct relation to the success of the
previous call, and what is to happen next.
It involves getting a commitment that they
(the prospect) will do something and you'll
do something as a result of the call.
Then you can follow up with,
"I'm calling to continue our conversation
of last week where we had discussed ____
and you were going to review the statistics
I sent you. I'd like to go through those
with you and I have some additional
information I believe you'll find beneficial."
On your follow-up calls it's important to
remember that your prospects are likely
not doing pre-call planning like you.
Therefore, you can't assume they are in
the same frame of mind as you when your
call arrives. Actually, you should assume
they might not even remember you. Then
you'll make it a point to briefly review
where you left the previous conversation:
"The last time we spoke you had shown
interest in..."
"I'm calling to continue our conversation
from last week where we had discussed ____
and you were going to..."
Remember, activity is not accomplishment.
Worse, it could be costly. Use these ideas
to move your prospects forward, and your
sales higher.
Published By Art Sobczak, Business By Phone Inc.
See articles, books, audios, and other resources
http://www.businessbyphone.com
by
Jep Castelein, President of LeadSloth (
www.leadsloth.com)
Published on July 13, 2010
Marketing automation—one of the new buzzwords in marketing—bridges the gap between lead generation and the sales force.
In the past, any lead was passed over to Sales, making the follow-up frustrating: Most of the time, sales reps wasted time on lousy leads.
The goal of marketing automation is to improve Sales and Marketing alignment by passing over only sales-ready leads. But why would you be interested in marketing automation? In this article, I present three good reasons (and three bad ones) to adopt marketing automation.
Three Good Reasons
1. Fix follow-up failure
In the sales funnel, there is a big gap between generation of raw leads and personal follow-up by sales.
Lead generation is a well-understood area, but a "lead" is defined as any name you add to the database, regardless of whether the prospect is ready or qualified to talk to a salesperson.
Salespeople struggle with the follow-up because they don't know which leads to focus on. That is follow-up failure. Marketing thinks its job is done, and Sales tries to call the lead but doesn't follow up.
Marketing automation can help solve that issue with automated lead-nurturing campaigns, usually via email. A lead-scoring mechanism assigns a numeric value to indicate the sales-readiness of leads. The lead is handed over to Sales only when the lead's score reaches a certain value.
Moreover, the rep gets lots of extra information, such as the Web pages that the lead visited and real-time notifications of email clicks and website visits.
2. Make campaigns buyer-centric
The most common way to do lead nurturing today is to send out a newsletter. The newsletter often talks about your new clients, your new products, your new employees, and your [fill in the blank].
However, recipients are more interested in learning about possible solutions to their challenges. To address those needs, you need to be able to segment the leads and create relevant messages for each type of lead.
Marketing automation captures information about the roles of the leads, the buying phase that they are in, and their particular interests. Based on such extensive profiles, you can segment the database and design nurturing campaigns that are tailored to each prospect's needs. That will dramatically improve response rates to your campaigns; it will also do a much better job of moving leads forward in the buying cycle.
3. Make marketing's contribution to the pipeline measurable
Measuring marketing used to be quite hard. Today, with an increased focus on online marketing, there is more data to work with. Actually, there is so much data that it's hard to make sense of it.
Ultimately, you'd like to know which campaigns resulted in sales opportunities and at what cost. Measuring that is a real challenge.
Marketing-automation systems integrate with customer relationship management systems to link marketing campaigns to actual sales opportunities. They enable "closed loop reporting" by incorporating sales data into marketing reporting.
With the right setup, it is easy to tell which percentage of the sales opportunities is sourced by marketing and which percentage is influenced by marketing. For sure, that will improve marketing's reputation in the boardroom.
Three Bad Reasons
1. You saw a cool demo
Unfortunately, marketing-automation systems make great demos. The features are amazing, and most marketers who see a demo are wowed.
However, the systems by themselves do not understand your marketing goals. You have to know your goals and set up the system accordingly.
Before you see a demo, specify what you expect to accomplish with a marketing-automation system, because if you jump right into it... you may be disappointed with the results.
2. You want to generate more leads
A marketing-automation system does not generate leads; rather, it manages leads. Where lead generation focuses on adding new leads to the database, marketing automation focuses on following up with those leads.
Before you start with marketing automation, make sure you have plenty of leads in your database and a healthy flow of new leads.
3. You need more compelling content
Nurturing leads requires high-quality content that talks about the challenges that potential clients face. There is no shortcut for developing those materials. To create appealing content, you need good writers, not a marketing-automation system.
Although outsourcing content creation is possible, I usually recommend that you encourage your employees to write, or hire employees who enjoy writing. Content authenticity is important, and you don't get that from external resources.
Conclusion
Marketing automation can fill a gap in the sales funnel and thereby increase marketing's impact on the bottom line. If you are aware of the good reasons to select a marketing-automation system, you're halfway toward making your marketing-automation project a success.
Jep Castelein is the founder of LeadSloth (www.leadsloth.com), a marketing-automation consulting firm that focuses on making B2B marketing more effective and more accountable. Follow him on Twitter (@jepc), or contact him via jep@leadsloth.com.
By Jon VanZile - B2B Magazine
Story posted: May 24, 2010 - 6:01 am EDT
Originally published March 5, 2010 on btobonline.com.
Chris Connolly, president of Connolly Financial Services in Quincy, Mass., has tried e-mail marketing to reach his small-business clients. He tried mailers, too, but none of it worked.
"If you're in my business and you're not cold-calling, you're not in this business," Connolly said. Connolly sells multiple financial products to small and midsize businesses, including benefits packages, health care, retirement packages and money-management services.
Despite the rise of inexpensive e-mail marketing, telemarketing remains important for many marketing campaigns-and according to Joe Krisky, president of database marketing company Massini Group in Hillsboro, Ore., it's more flexible and efficient than ever before.
Krisky said this turn back to telemarketing is driven by several factors, including a softening economy that makes lead generation more important than ever before and increasingly sophisticated telemarketing campaigns that combine the phone and e-mail with highly targeted call lists.
"Large businesses are determining they can use telemarketing to reach small-to-medium businesses," Krisky said. "Instead of pursuing the huge sale, they are pursuing larger numbers of small-to-medium businesses, each of which will contribute a smaller piece to the top line."
Connolly said he uses industry-specific databases to sort his prospective targets by 401k type and provider, then generates call lists based on the age of the benefit program. Operators of older programs, he said, are often unaware how much they could save by switching to a newer retirement program. Although he hired out the calling, he helps write the scripts himself.
This kind of narrow targeting is vital, Krisky said, because the b-to-b world is much more limited than the consumer telemarketing world.
"You're limited by how many companies you can sell to," Krisky said. "You can't just go faster and faster. You've got to be intelligent in how you approach your targets."
For many marketers, this means blending e-mail and online marketing efforts with telemarketing campaigns. Maureen Feeley-Woods, president of telemarketing company A Better Call in Reading, Mass., provides the calling manpower for Connolly's campaigns. When her team of dialers makes a connection, they are always prepared to send an e-mail to curious prospects that includes links to Connolly's online presence and information about his services.
"When they ask for information, I think they're saying, ‘Prove to me you're real,'" Feeley-Woods said. "About 50% of the prospects want information fast."
The Massini Group goes one step further. The company's agents are able to send "high-level" e-mails that are tied back to the call center. Agents are able to see immediately which links the prospect has opened, as well as open and click-through rates.
"If they aren't close enough to purchasing to put them in the funnel, we ask if we can send them information periodically in an e-mail newsletter," Krisky said. According to an internal Massini Group case study, a flexible e-mail component adds as much as a 15% benefit to each telemarketing campaign. "E-mail allows people to read the information," Krisky said. "It opens up two channels of delivery."
Read more about call center outsourcing, telemarketing and B2B lead generation at btobonline.com or onpath.com.
Contact Centre of the Year (Less than 50 Agents)- Dan Scheunert (OnPath President) accepts the Gold Award for Contact Centre of the Year. This award is given to the contact centre who has achieved the highest standard of excellence. ORCCA honors two outstanding teams with the prestigious ORCCA Contact Centre of the Year Award. One award is for large organizations (50 agents or more), and the other award is for small to medium size organizations (less than 50 agents).
Contact Centre Award for Agent Excellence- Tylor Thellend won the Gold Award. The candidate nominated for this award consistently serves internal and external customers with professionalism, while acting as an ambassador to fulfill the vision of the organization in the eyes of the customer and other team members. To be considered for this prestigious award, nominees will have been recognized by their organization for their positive contribution to customer service, performance excellence, teamwork, attendance and efficiency.
Contact Centre Award for Manager Excellence- Kaarin Hill won the Silver Award. The candidate nominated for this award is recognized as a leader within an organization who has demonstrated: leadership, innovation and has a positive impact on their team, workplace environment and performance. The nominee must have been in the management role supervising front line agents and managing their performance for at least 6 months.
For those unfamiliar with ORCCA, please visit the website at: http://www.callcentres.org/.
Centralized Waiting List Technology Offers Easy One-point Access to Parents and Service Providers Looking for Child Care Options.
http://www.cccf-fcsge.ca/publications/Interactionca-June10-feature-en.htm
OTTAWA - Canadian Child Care Federation. June 10, 2010. Developed by Andrew Fleck Child Care Services - a multi-service family agency in Ottawa, Child Care Information (CCI) is a regional, bilingual, provincially funded and regionally-mandated information and referral service that started in 1982. Its main purpose is to provide information and guidance on all available child care options in Ottawa and to assist parents in making informed child care choices. The program works closely with the community in the development of needed support services, the provision of statistical reports, the coordination and management of a number of interesting projects with their own level of complexity.
The inception of the Centralized Waiting List(CWL) began as a pilot project in 2001 for the francophone child care community. Parents interested in finding a French speaking licensed child care centre and/or a child care provider through a licensed agency have had the capacity to register to the CWL with the potential of selecting a maximum of nine child care centres and one licensed home child care agency that services the entire city of Ottawa by using the one application.
CCI manages the CWL's information and provides accessibility to it while the individual child care service maintains full control of its waiting list. The CWL offers one point of access; reduces the number of calls for the parent; eliminates the arduous process of putting their child's name on multiple wait lists; informs parents of the child care options; facilitates the access of children with special needs by offering them an equal chance of obtaining a licensed child care space; provides support to licensed child care services in the management of their waiting list; and identifies child care needs within the community. Initially, a total of 33 French child care services were involved. Its success changed its status from a pilot project into an ongoing service. In 2006, this service expanded in order to include all English and bilingual services. This represented an increase of 211 child care services requiring maintenance of their wait lists. Quite the challenge was waiting!
Before expanding the service to all these child care services, it was imperative to choose the appropriate Customer Relationship Management System (CRM). A CRM system manages and processes the data in order for a company to record all activities with their different relationship types: clients/customers, suppliers, partners and employees.
OnPath Business Solutions offered a customized database that allowed CCI staff to participate in the customization process in order to meet their needs. This communication tool also permits CCI staff to record their many daily activities and to convey required tasks amongst them. On Path's methodology and implementation has been truly successful. More information about their services can be found at http://www.onpath.com/.
By 2010, the database has been populated by more than 350 licensed child care services which include 250 child care centres, 87 nursery schools and 16 home child care agencies. As for the Centralized Waiting List, an overall number of more than 30,900 families and 44,900 children with active and inactive child care requests are in the system. CCI employees are able to maintain this high-volume data collection with easy manipulation of the stored information that includes detailed data and history for each of these children, parents and services.
Parents have many ways of registering their child on the Centralized Waiting List. They have the option of completing a paper form; an electronic copy; a form with the assistance of an Information Counselor by coming in person to CCI's workplace; and the online application. The online application offered in both French and English at the following website:http://www.childcareinformation.ca/, has become the most popular way of registering, with its newest feature for parents to self-edit their own files by typing in their user name and password.
Dissemination of CWL clients' information is accessible to each child care centre and home child care agency through a web portal. This tool permits them to filter, sort out the data to suit their specific needs and to communicate information regarding their potential clients in order to assist CCI in maintaining current information.
CCI prides itself for keeping up with the latest developments in the child care field and with information technology to support the delivery of high quality client-based services. For more information: Lyne Tremblay at 613-248-3605 x278 ltremblay@afchildcare.on.ca or Dan Scheunert at 613-842-4160 dan.scheunert@onpath.com