With basketball finals and choir performances going, this week has been extremely busy for my girls and I but in my itty bitty bits of extra time  I managed to brainstorm and launch little bits of my internet marketing campaign and I’m seeing results already. Amazingly enough, with only a fraction of  my marketing plans lauched, my phone has been on fire  morning and night with people eager to join a business that will allow them to do what I do…make money on automation without ever having to cold call strangers or hassle friends and family about joining my business.  Wow.  And I’ve only just begun…

The Call Blitz Trap…

Marketing with Call Blitzes – a common program to generate sales, but does it work?  Listen to how the long term affects on your personal branding make this one of the biggest mistakes your company can make….

One of the many annoying sayings heard around most corporate offices is “TGIF” (Thank God Its Friday) and I whenever I hear that, I say (under my breath) “You are a loser” because I hate Fridays.  As a sales rep, this is the time of the week where I get tangled up in non-productive internal meetings and forecast calls.  It’s also when most of my clients and prospects are shutting down for the weekend.  I’ve worked hard all week, moved some things forward and now I’m out of runway and must  stop pushing the deal foreward.  Or am I?  What if I could do a few small things to maintain my flow and keep the ball moving forward.  As a rep, this momentum is my lifeline.  Lose it and your are F’ed.

While there are many ways to build momentum and I thought I would share 3 ways to build sales momentum on a Friday:

1) Get Prepared & Be Productive:

Friday morning before 9:00 am – make a list with 2 columns.

Column 1 has the names of customers that you have not talked to in the past 2 weeks -NOTE: I never let 2 weeks pass without a live call into any existing client because if you don’t have time to speak to them, you do not deserve to have them .

Column 2 has a list of 20 prospects that you will connect live with that day.  This is the foundation of my afternoon call blitz.

2) Be Discliplined and Make the Damn Calls

Clear your schedule for any BS meetings and dedicate at least the afternoon to making calls – this goes for both inside and field reps.  Now while, you can’t cancel a forecast meeting, you can get prepared for that call the night before to limit the time it takes by having your shit together.  From 1pm-4pm, a little discipline and hammer the phone to reach as many people as you can.  Set a goal for each conversation to accomplish the following:

a) Strengthen the relationship – maybe its a personal sharing or learning experience but before you hang up, make sure you’ve uncovered something about the person that you did not know about them and be sure to share something with them to make sure the exchange is 2 sided.   This sharing is critical to building a foundation of a relationship and many of us are guilty of rushing through conversations because we are so busy.  I also want to stress that you must share some things about yourself.  People will open to people who are human.  If its kids, love of a sports team or an enthusiam for choppers, share as it will open more doors than you think.

B) Enter the call with a purpose to uncover a new piece of information about their job/business/pain and ultimately, to move the ball forward.  What has been the biggest pain in the ass to them?  Everyone has one part of their job that was not supposed to be there when they signed on – find out what it is and see how your product/service/partner ecosystem can solve it.

3) Schedule Networking For Next Week

I’ve stressed before the importance of making time to build a network.  Most people start networking when they have no job or hate their job.  These people make me sick and I hate them – they are incapable of being successful as they willl never be able to handle the amount of consistent work it will take.

Here’s what I do every Friday – Make calls to set 2 lunch dates for networking for the following week.  Who is someone that you should meet with but never make the time to do so.  I alway set them on Tues & Thurs to leave M,W,F for customers and prospect lunches.

If you can get prepared and put some focused, hard work into the phones, you will end the week with a clear vision of where your pipeline is, what your prospects need from you and with enough momentum to carry you sailing through the 2 days weekend.

One Final Tip: Don’t ever, ever, ever, say TGIF to me or I will cut you off like a dead lead.

Lesson: A little rivalry in sales goes a long way

“I don’t have time for Twitter – I’m out there closing business “

“Facebook, Twitter – MY customers don’t use that crap”

These are just a few of the common shitty excuses that I hear over and over and over again from sales reps.  As we reps make excuses for a living (the deal slipped because the CFO’s dog ate my PO), it should come as no surprise that the same employee who is supposed to be the most gregarious one on staff, is the one who is “heading for ze hills” when it comes to Social Media.

Why?  Becuase we are coddled like babies in most organizations.

As a rep, I know that many people in my former organization pacified me.  For example, any calls that I  recieved on the last month of the quarter always started with the following “I am so sorry to bothering you – I know its the end of the quarter and you are probably insanely busy”.   While that time of the quarter was certainly active, I would not have picked up the phone if I had something better to do.

Don’t Hate Educate – Adopt a Sale Rep

Stolen straight outta Crawford – “Leave No Sales Rep Behind” is a program that I would like to see implemented all over this great country of ours.  I challenge all marketing professionals to adopt 1 orphan sales rep and knock some sense into them.

To do my part in cleaning up this mess and seeing some real change, I have created 3 sales rep proof steps to educating the social butterfly on social marketing:

THREE FOR THE SALES REP

#1 – Create a Joint Twitter Account with Your Marketing Team – Tell all of your customers (past, present & future) that you have set this up to allow them another channel to communicate and interact with you.  If they need tech support, send you a tweet, if they need some logo golf shirts, send you a tweet, if they need a quote, send you 2 tweets.

What you are doing here is showcasing your ability to engage with your client, better servicing all your customers and allowing everyone to see how you approach your business.   You are savvy, take exceptional care of everyone you work with and also create a community where customer references will develop on their own.  Your marketing team can help monitor through Hootsuite and develop

#2 Set up 3 accounts  (takes 9:30 to complete all 3 on a FIOS line – I know you and know you have that much free time)

LinkedIn - If you have not done this already you are probably unemployed already so please leave this blog

Twitter - Its here, still here, get used to it

Facebook - This is for work so keep your dumb pictures to yourself – keep your eye on the prize and just create the account stupid.

#3 – Commit to 60 days – I like to think of this as my 2nd gym membership – be disciplined mentally and physically and commit to spending time on it each day.   If you do not see results in 60 days, QUIT – but give yourself some time to get familiar with what it is as I know you will be pleasantly surprised.

THREE FOR MARKETING PROFESSIONALS

Congrats on your adoption – now the fun begins

1. Stop Treating the Reps Like Babies –  Call them out when they don’t do what they are supposed to be doing for you.  If you had a number on your back, I know that you would not let 1/2 the BS slide that you presently do.

2. Help Reps Succeed by Making it Personal –  Take 10 Prospects and 5 Current Clients and see what you can find out about them.  For example, I saw that one prospect tweeted that they were going to a conference.  I called them up, said I was also going (not true) and that we should meet for coffee at Starbucks in lobby – we did and I used the informal meeting to get a 2nd meeting.  I not saying stalk, but use what you can to help your sales team focus and collect useful intel.  Once the rep sees that they can personally benefit from this, you have succeeded.

#3 – Compose 2 Tweets A Week For Your Reps –  this is just enough to get them started and puts the pressure on them to keep the activity level up.  Your tweets can be on new specials, whitepapers, customer wins, whatever – you are in marketing so I will let you figure it out.

Since I went there with the Bush Program reference, I am forced to finish with my favorite GB quote:

“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — [pauses] – shame on you. Fool me — You can’t get fooled again.”

Sad truth is that there is a lot of GB in most sales reps – Good Selling & Good Luck

Lesson: Make sure you have something to say when the prospect picks up

By Robert Gelinas

© 2009.  All Rights Reserved.

Successful Marketing is based on Credibility. There’s nothing that establishes your credibility better than being the author of a book that explains your expertise, value, capabilities and perspectives.

Imagine this scenario: A business executive (who is one of your top target prospects) receives a mysterious box or express mail envelope.  There might be something important inside, so he/she opens it, and finds an attractive book with an intriguing title like: The Six Things All Executives Need to Know, or The Solution to the [something you know about] Problem.  It’s written by you.  It’s autographed and personalized for its recipient with a hand-written note which says, “I thought you might enjoy this.”

The executive thinks, “Wow, that was thoughtful.”

Does the executive even need to read the book?  Not necessarily.  And certainly not right away, unless it really appeals to them.  And if they do, that’s great. It does indeed contain a lot of helpful information.  Most likely it gets set aside on their desk with the intention of “getting to it” at some point in the future.  And there it may lay for a week or so.

However, what happens next is that a couple of days after its “confirmed” arrival you call them. You get their “gatekeeper” (administrative assistant) who is there to screen out any sales or marketing types from their boss.  You simply say, “Hi, this is [your name].  I’m calling for [the executive].  I sent them a copy of my latest book last week, and I just wanted to make sure it arrived okay.”

The gatekeeper replies, excited to be speaking to a published author, “Oh, yes, it did!  I’ll let him/her know you’re calling.  Hold please.”

The executive answers.  You introduce yourself.  Your name sounds strangely familiar, but they can’t quite place it.  Your name should sound familiar, since they’ve been glancing at it every now and then for a couple of days.  They suddenly remember and pick up your book sitting there on their desk.

A cheerful voice replies, “How can I help you?”

See how easy that was?

Okay, I know, you’re saying, “Sure a cold call like that sounds easy.  Just one problem.  I haven’t written a book.  I don’t know the first thing about how to write a book.  And even if I did, getting published is nearly impossible.”

If you’re a novelist, your concern is valid.  Getting traditionally published as a storyteller is nearly impossible if you’re not already famous for some other reason.  Then again, there are always Vanity Presses that will publish anyone, but the finished products of most of them are…oh, how shall we say?…not that attractive.

So you have two challenges standing in the way of you employing this powerful marketing technique:

1. Writing a Book
2. Getting it Published

Solution to Problem #1: Hire a Ghost Writer.  Collaborate on a text, let the writer turn it into something substantive and credible.

Solution to Problem #2: Hire a Commercial Publisher to publish your book.  Don’t go to a Vanity Press, but a publisher who will produce a book of the same quality as those in any major bookstore and who can get it posted on Amazon.com and other online retail venues and in all the major retailer databases so it can be special ordered by any bookstore.

In addition to using it as a marketing tool, you can also take it with you to speaking engagements where you can sell it and make a extra money.  Or you can give it away as a promo.  Whatever you can think of.

It happens every day.  You really don’t think all those politicians, celebrities, talking heads, TV and radio pundits, diet gurus, self-help mongers, detectives, criminals—and yes, even business leaders “Captains of Industry”—write all those books all by themselves, do you?  Maybe a few do, but come on.  You know better.  So why can’t you do it, too, if perhaps only on a little smaller scale?

You: The Consultative Expert

Think about it:  Most companies seek to apply a “consultative” approach to high-level selling.  You know all too well that you don’t ever want to come across merely as a “bag carrying peddler,” which you also know will just get doors slammed in your face; rather, if you can, you’d prefer to position yourself as an “expert” in the area of your products and services with valuable insights and recommendations to offer.

What better way is there to create that impression of you as a consultative expert in your field and reinforce it, than by offering a physical artifact of your latest “major published work”?  And that’s the reality of what we’re talking about here.

A book with your name on it can serve as a powerful marketing artifact.

Shouldn’t at least someone in your company, ideally someone who serves as your de facto spokesperson in Press Releases, at trade events, to analysts, etc. have an accolade behind their name that says, “…author of Title of Book”?  And then, even if someone goes to Amazon and looks it up, why, sure enough, it’s there!  If they actually read it and like, they may even recommend it to a friend, who can buy it online, or have their local bookstore order it.  That might even result in some word-of-mouth referrals and leads.

Are you starting to see the power of this idea?

It’s very powerful because, culturally, we’ve all been trained to view “authors” as being in a class of unique achievement, which for the most part is true.  Intuitively, everyone believes investing the time to write an entire book is hard to do, something that most people don’t possess the wherewithal to do.  Therefore, those who have done it must be “special.” In the business world, especially in a sales and marketing context, that’s powerful.

“Okay,” you say, “but how do I find a good Ghost Writer and Commercial Publisher?”

Obviously, you simply need to find a marketing company who specializes in such services.  You contact them and tell them what you need.  Let them take it from there.

“Okay,” you say, with just a tinge of frustration in your voice, not knowing of any marketing companies who might specialize in Ghost Writing and Commercial Publishing, “How do I find one of those animals?”

Shameless Plug Alert: Email me.  bob@jpeincconsulting.com.  Let’s talk.

Seriously, if you have an interest in exploring a Calling Card Book project, please contact JPE Inc. Consulting www.jpeincconsulting.com for more information.  We can make it happen for you.

After my first year in university, I had difficulty finding a summer job because I was too young to work in a manufacturing job and really didn’t want a clerical job.

While I was mowing lawns that summer, I was  stopped by the district manager for The Fuller Brush Company, who asked if I’d be interested in selling their products.

I took the job and started making the rounds in my territory. I had my share of doors slammed in my face, but I also had many people who would make time to speak with me, several of whom purchased from me.

For one of the sales cycles, there was a promotion on floor polish and furninture polish – neither of which I’d sold much at that point.

To help stimulate sales (we were told if we got in the door we had a 30% chance of making a sales) I offered to demonstrate the floor or the furniture polish.

It was a bit of extra work to do floors or dining suites, but every customer who took advantage of the demonstration bought at least one bottle. I exeeded my quota for the cycle and got recognized at the next sales meeting.

What I learned from this was the power of a demonstration (especially if you have a good product). I made good use of this while I worked for Plasmatreat by carrying around a demonstration plasma generator and jet. The effect of plasma treatment in increasing the surface energy of a material was truly amazing and the demos resulted in many quote opportunities.

I also learned the value of giving something to get something. My Fuller Brush customers got shiny floors or dining room tables without having to do the work. Because the products worked so well, it was hard for prospects to NOT buy, so they almost felt obligated to purchase.

If you have an outstanding product, demonstrate it as often as you can. It’ll be worth the effort.

The days of single marketing channel spray and pray campaigns are over.   If your marketing strategy is stuck in the past it is time to rethink your approach to improve your results.  Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.   In today’s marketing vernacular there are many terms used in mutiple marketing disciplines to increase response rates:

• Cross-media
• Integrated Marketing
• Multi-channel Marketing

In the “old” direct marketing days it was fairly easy to measure your marketing ROI.  Outbound campaigns primarily (but not always) consisted of direct mail or call centers.  Orders were placed and /or fulfilled with a business response device, point of sale, or call center.  At the end of the campaign the total products and services sold minus the cost of the marketing campaign gave you the ROI.  In those days the marketing function was consistantly a “Cost Center”.

In today’s integrated strategies that combines PPC, email, direct mail, SMS, Blue Tooth, banner ads, inbound call center, BRC, print ads, tv, radio, bill boards, etc the capturing of this data can seem daunting.  However, there are solutions that combine all these disparet marketing channels into a streamlined marketing response system that capture and report on results of every channel, version, and list that was or is deployed.  This gives marketers the ability to measure the bottom-line impact of every marketing activity, to quantify the impact  of changes to marketing budgets, and to demonstrate marketing’s impact on revenue.  Never consider your marketing spend an expense, rather think of it as an “investment” in growth!
A CMO Council Marketing Outlook 2008 survey found that 53 percent of  respondents indicate that the top challenge in the year ahead  is “quantifying  and  measuring the value of marketing programs and  investments”.  The study also indicated “Important organizational and  operational changes planned for 2008 included adding new competencies and capabilities, improving accountability of the marketing organization, deploying content and web site management solutions and implementing marketing ROI and/or resource allocation capabilities. This focus on organizational improvement is not surprising considering that 50 percent of CMOs are hired to fix broken marketing organizations”.

Quantify Marketing Results

• Nearly 55%  of the Marketing  Outlook  2008 survey  respondents indicated they do not track and measure the effectiveness of marketing spend or have minimal ‘line of sight’ between business results  and  marketing efforts.  Only 7% perform  analysis to understand the causal relationships between marketing, revenues, and  profits.

Typical measures included revenue, profits and market share, volume, caliber and conversion of leads, as well as direct response metrics.

“Not many companies are measuring very well what they are doing,” According to Nancy Costopolis, CMO for the American Marketing Association (AMA) “Marketers need to get serious about metrics.”

Marriage of Sales and Marketing

• Forty-seven percent of B2B marketer say that sales closes less than 4% of all marketing-generated leads…

In today’s tough economic climate the sales and marketing components of an organization better be working together like the gears of a well oiled machine.  The biggest challenge many companies face is the integration of these teams.  The marketer can have the best lead generation system in the world, but if the sales or business development team is not aligned then there is another host of issues that need to be dealt with.  On the flip side you can have the best sales organization in the world, but with out an effective marketing program, they are wasting their time on cold calling and developing their own piece meal, short lived marketing initiavites.

In the perfect world the marketer is generating highly qualified and educated leads and the sales team is focused on closing those leads.  The organizations that can deploy a strong sales and marketing alignment, with a single revenue funnel that starts with marketing and moves seamlessly to sales strategy will clearly have the upper edge in responding to market changes, customer requirments and the holy grail of closing more business than the competition.

ROI Metrics

Depending on the organizations needs there are many ways to develop KPI’s.  Consider some of the following items when developing a reporting structure for your next marketing campaign.  I would highly recommend that these are used in a Pro Forma before deploying any marketing campaign to ensure that your investment is in alignment with the companies revenue targets.

Peter Wann is the VP of Sales and Marketing for Measurable Marketing.  Measurable Marketing provides strategic and tactical marketing and sales solutions in developing ROI based initiatives.  He can be reached at 303.482.1656 or peter.wann@measurablemarketingnow.com, www.measurablemarketingnow.com

Kurz gesagt: E-mail Marketing ist wesentlich effektiver und viel bequemer.

Telephonische Kaltakquise heisst: Ständig neue Telephonierer suchen und ausbilden, Gehälter und/oder Provisionen derselbigen, die Räumlichkeiten fuer ein Call Center, Budget fuer Abmahnungen, Ausstattung der Arbeitsplätze…viel Geld, viel Arbeit, viel Stress.

E-mail Marketing heisst : richtige Liste von Agentur finden lassen, Landingpage basteln, Texter briefen, creativ erstellen – fertig.

Ich veranschauliche Ihnen das an einem Beispiel.

Nehmen wir an, Sie verkaufen Druckerzeugnisse wie mein Kunde Vistaprint in Barcelona.

Sie produzieren so Zeugs wie Flyer, Visitenkarten, Briefpapier, Broschüren , Kataloge etc. Nun hab ich da eine Liste im Portfolio, mit ca 500.000 Deutschen Unternehmern, Selbständigen, und solchen die es gerade werden wollen.

Hurra, KMU Ihre Lieblingsbeute!!

Diese Liste stammt von mehreren Newslettern, in die sich diese Leute eingetragen haben. Es geht in diesen Newslettern eben um Themen die den KMU und den Exi-gründer so interessieren. Von Steuern ueber Gesetzesänderungen bis Marketing und Vertrieb – eben so in etwa die Themen die den Unternehmer bewegen.

Jetzt suchen Sie sich eines oder zwei Ihrer Produkte heraus und machen eine Aktion. Preisnachlass oder sonstiger Vorteil bis zum bla blah. Sie gestalten eine “Landingpage” .

Das ist sowas:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_Page

Dann suchen Sie sich einen guten Texter, der Ihnen sowohl die zu verschickende E-mail als auch den Text Ihrer Landingpage schriebselt.

Vielleicht den da:
https://www.xing.com/profile/Klaus_Gummersbach
Koennen Sie sich ja nun locker leisten, haben Sie sich doch gerade von einem Call Center verabschiedet.

Dann schicken Sie das fertige Mail Ihrer Online Marketing Agentur  ( <<Finger hebt>>)  und die kümmern sich um den Versand.  Der Versand ist innerhalb von drei Tagen erledigt, dann kommt die Rechnung und eine ausführliche Statistik – für das  fine tuning der nächsten Aktion.

So, und nun warten Sie einfach auf die Anfragen und Auftraege. Inboundakquise sozusagen.

Diese Liste hat eine Öffnungsrate von ca 15 bis 18 %, wenn der Betreff gut ist (deshalb der Texter) kann das auch höher sein. Aber nehmen wir mal 15% an. Das heisst Sie haben in wenigen Tagen 75.000 Menschen aus Ihrer Zielgruppe Ihr Produkt vorgestellt.

Nehmen wir weiter an, dass davon nur 1% etwas bei Ihnen bestellen, dann haben Sie 750 Neukunden in drei Tagen gewonnen. Jeder einzelne dieser Neukunden hat Sie ca 35 bis 40 Euro gekostet. Nehmen wir an es kaufen nur 0.5 % , dann kostet Sie der Neukunde zwischen 70 und 80 Euronen.  Braucht wer ‘nen Taschenrechner?

Diese Zahl ist natürlich davon abhängig davon, wie gut oder schlecht Ihr Mail+Landingpage das Produkt verkauft hat und davon, wie teuer oder günstig Ihr Produkt ist. Deswegen sollten Sie unbedingt einen Texter hinzuziehen und eben ein Sonderangebot bewerben.

Das Ganze machen Sie einmal im Monat.  Allerdings sollte man zwischendrin mal die Listen wechseln.

Da Ihre Online Marketing Agentur ( <<wieder Finger hebt >>) ja ständig auf der Suche nach solchen Listen ist, sollte auch das kein Problem sein. Wir suchen sogar Europaweit und können derzeit Potentiale in Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz, Spanien, UK und Polen anbieten.

So, nun mal eine Frage:

Wieviele halb-legale, nervige Telephonate muessten Sie führen, um so viele Neukunden zu gewinnen? Was würde das kosten? Wie lange dauert es?

Es ist nun mal so, dass erstens mit dem neuen UWG der Kaltanruf in Deutschland nun definitiv eine rechtswiedrige Handlung ist (das gilt auch im B2B Bereich), und zweitens andere Methoden einfach effektiver sind.

Online Datengenerierung fuer Telephonische Kaltakquise

Das sieht natuerlich anders aus, wenn der Anrufer die Einwilligung des Angerufenen hat. Deshalb haben ja Online Marketing Agenturen, die sich auf Datengenerierung fuer Call Center spezialisert haben, Hochkonjunktur – von Krise keine Spur. Sie glauben gar nicht welche Unsummen gerade verbraten werden um Addressmaterial mit der “Lizenz zum Anruf” zu generieren.

So hat zum Beispiel ein Telephonriese in Deutschland eine mir bekannte Agentur damit beauftragt, im EIGENEN KUNDENSTAMM Tele-Opt-Ins zu generieren. Das heisst, noch nicht einmal die Tatsache das jemand SCHON KUNDE IST, bedeutet ein mutmassliches Einverstaendniss zu einem Werbeanruf.

Das sind Fakten, nicht nur meine Meinung!

Das ich etwas anbiete was der Angerufene brauchen koennte, heisst NICHT dass man ein Einverstaendniss vorraussetzen kann, auch dann nicht wenn es direkt mit dem Geschaeft des Angerufenen zu tun hat.

Ein mutmassliches Einverstaendniss kann man dann annehmen wenn der Angerufene, in welcher Form auch immer, einen konkreten Bedarf komuniziert hat.

Wenn zum Beispiel jemand hier auf XING sagt er sucht jemand der im seine Webseite optimiert, wuerde ich ihn anrufen und selbst das ist grenzwertig, denn man koennte argumentieren dass der Angerufene eigenlich lieber eine PM oder eine Kontaktanfrage haette als einen Anruf.

Eine andere befreundete Agentur hier in Spanien generiert derzeit 250.000 solcher Daten IM MONAT Europaweit und verkauft diese auch wie bloed an Call Center, B2C UND B2B Addressen. Die verdienen sich dumm und daemlich am UWG (und an entsprechenden EU Gesetzen).

Ein rechtlich einwandfreies Call Center nimmt ja nicht einfach die gelben Seiten oder das Telephonbuch in die Hand und telephoniert mal so drauf los, sondern wird eben Co-Sponsor bei der Datengenerierung mit Opt-in. Das kostet Geld, was sich schlussendlich entweder auf den Preis der Dienstleistung oder auf den Gewinn des Call Centers auswirkt. Mit anderen Worten , die Online Agenturen verdienen kraeftig mit am Geschaeft mit der telephonischen Kaltakquise.

Denn: Wer ohne Opt-In telephoniert (egal ob B2C oder B2B) riskiert bei jedem Anruf eine Abmahnung – theoretisch. In der Praxis verlassen sich allerdings viele immer noch auf den Grundsatz: Wo kein Klaeger da kein Richter, und telephonieren eben professionell und freundlich genug um niemanden aufzuregen – der Soft-Cold-Call – sozusagen.

Mal schauen wie lange das noch gut geht.

Was meinen Sie? E-mail Marketing oder Telephonische Kaltakquise?

Gruss

Wolfgang Brand

Wichtige Anmerkung:
Alle unsere Listen sind mit double-opt-in , das heisst der Empfänger hat ausdrücklich zugestimmt dass Ihm vom Listeigner Werbung geschickt werden darf. Das ist eine Grundvoraussetzung beim E-mail marketing.

Quite a full day playing faux extrovert…  I facilitated about 3 1/2 hours of business development planning and coordination conference calls.  An opportunity to push myself some more presented itself and I volunteered to make a cold call to a potential teaming partner.  I’ll report out after that contact is complete.

The next two days will offer significant challenges.  Tomorrow I’ll lead a major marketing presentation to a group of prospective clients.  Later in the day, I’ll attend a BBQ social at a new school for one of my kids.  The following day will include an internal business development meeting and then a lunch meeting with a prospective client.  Wish me luck; I’ll let you know how it goes.

Twitter had a massive outage today for a good portion of the day. Luckily for me, it was when I was trying to use it this morning, and couldn’t access TweetDeck or Twitter directly. Apparently it was a Denial of Service issues that had to do with hacker activity. I wonder how many people became paralyzed for just a few minutes while it set in that the mighty “Twit” was down.

It took me a minute, admittedly. I thought,  “Nah, must just be my computer, Twitter can’t be down.” Oh sure enough, it was.  After coming to grips there, I was utterly amazed how much work I got done in the following 2 hours. I sat down and got some cold calls done. I miss that on days I can’t get to it.  I’d have gotten it done eventually, but not by getting sucked into perusing the Twitter site for over an hour. You can get lost in that site!

It’s good to see that good old fashioned Non-Twitter work still lives on….

I have just had a phone call that was a classic of it’s type but before I tell you about it there’s something I need to know.

OK own up who was it?

Which marketing genius sat there thinking (there’s a first for a start) …hmmmm…people are really getting annoyed with cold calling what could I possibly do to stop it being annoying and to get people to actually take the call…..
I KNOW! …I’LL LIE.
Now there’s an EUREKA moment.
What I will do is pretend they asked for the call, I’ll say this is a follow up call and not a cold call, I’ll say this is a follow up call to a survey they took or even that I have already spoken to another family member … they’ll never know, especially if I start the call along the lines of ..Hi, I’m not sure if it was you or your partner I was talking to etc….

Well I am in a rather unique position to observe this new phenomenon and to spot the lies coming in from a long way off.

Firstly the name in the phone book next to my address and number isn’t mine. This means that if they have my name from a survey or from something I requested online then they will have MY name…if not then the wrong name. So as soon as they start with Hello Mr X and not Mr Y then any conversation openings along the lines of I got your name from… You asked us… A family member… I KNOW YOU’RE LYING!
Secondly although we have been living where we are for many years we don’t own our house we rent and are not responsible, or allowed, to do any major home improvements. So again any..You’re wife (I’m not married either) said you wanted double glazing, new roof, conservatiory etc and we are ringing back to get a more exact idea of what you want and to arrange a (sales) visit…. Guess what? …I KNOW YOU’RE LYING!
And last but not least (there are others but these are most popular) no-one in this household drives and as we rent we don’t do the building insurance….so yet again if I get..it’s about the car/buildings etc insurance quote you asked for…altogether now….I KNOW YOU’RE LYING!

Which brings me back, in a rather long winded way, to the classic call of this kind.

Now as we have established I can spot when someones lying (in this situation anyway), and depending on my mood, and their attidude, I will at some point, politely, let them know. At which point the majority realising they have been caught out, apologise, mumble something about a mistake, and end the call. The minority, especially if I have been a bit tardy in pointing out there mistake, slam the phone down without saying anything.

Then there’s the person who …*shrugs* …I don’t know lives in a different reality to the rest of us and is always right, regardless. Hence the classic call…

Ring ring (that’s the phone ;D)
- Hello
- Ah Mr X (not Mr Y spotted already) I’m ringing from Telly & Tubby Solicitors (I can’t remember the real name) about your accident. I realise that a serious car accident is distressing but we are going to get you the compensation you deserve.
- I haven’t been in a car accident
- It’s ok Mr X we know that the other driver was at fault
- He would have to be I don’t drive! Sorry I don’t mean to be rude but I haven’t been in an accident. Where did you get this information from?
- mumble mumble management company (A management company??)
- Sorry, where?
- mumble mumble muble ..ent company
- Well I’m sorry but they have given you the wrong information (This is where I’m expecting the muted apology and end of call)
- I don’t think so Mr X (Shock and incredulous irritation on my part)
- Pardon!
- I don’t think so our information is normally right (Now I am slightly annoyed)
- Well in this case some one has got the wrong information!
- Perhaps it was a family member, Mr X?
- Look, For a start my name is Mr Y not Mr X and neither I nor anyone else who lives in this house owns a car or drives and none of us have been in a car accident either driving or as a passenger so your information is wrong or someones lying!
- But according to..
- I think I would remember if I or one of my family were hurt in a car accident! (A bit belated but is this where I get the apology, the phone slam, the resigned sigh…. ready ….)
-Are you sure?
- Yes I’m sure! (I put the phone down)

Classic….after all that Am I sure!
Well now that you mention it I was wondering where my other arm had gone…

Ooh and whilst I’m on the subject no my pet hamster doesn’t want a mobile phone and he’s happy with his stock portfolio and doesn’t want to cash them in and invest in wine, gold, buying great swathes of antartica (the next great building oppurtunity), truffles or a worm farm!

Guten Tag. Spreche ich mit Familie <rauuuuuusch>? Sie wurden soeben ausgewählt und sind der glückliche Gewinner eines Audi Cabriolet im Wert von 25.000 EUR. Ja, sie haben richtig gehört! Alles, was wir noch von Ihnen benötigen, sind Ihre Angaben. Ich nenne Ihnen gleich die Telefonnummer, unter der sie zurückrufen sollten. Unser Callcenter wartet bereits auf Ihren Anruf. Haben Sie etwas zu schreiben? Dann kommt hier die Telefonnummer: 09-003-08-08-10. Noch einmal: 09-003-08-08-10. Ohne Ihre Angaben können wir Ihnen den Gewinn nicht auszahlen [...]

Ihr denkt wohl, ich bin total bescheuert?! Erstens wohnt hier keine Familie *knackrauschknack*. Und dann möchte ich über einen Gewinn persönlich von einem Menschen informiert werden. Und zwar mit einer angezeigten Rufnummer. Denn das Unterdrücken selbiger ist seit kurzem in Deutschland so was von verboten. Insbesondere daher, weil ich nie mit dieser Rufnummer an irgendeinem bekackten Gewinnspiel teilgenommen habe. Aber schön, wie ihr versucht habt, eine 0900 Nummer durch rhetorische betrügerische Pausen zu verschleiern. Sicher gibt es genug Idioten wie euch, die auf solche Abzocke hereinfallen. Bei mir seid ihr aber leider an der falschen Adresse. Und bei Unmengen anderer Besitzer von Gehirnen auch. Und euer Verein wird nicht der erste sein, den die Bundesnetzagentur auf meine Beschwerde hin abschaltet. Darauf mein Wort!

Schiebt euch den Audi dahin, wo die Sonne nicht hin scheint. Und ein Cabrio für nur 25.000 EUR will ich eh nicht. Der ist wahrscheinlich nicht mal Ledersitzen ausgestattet. Also, schönen Gruß nach Spanien, werter Herr A. Kok (der Name lässt auf einiges schließen), Inhaber der Firma Canarias Event Marketing. Leider bekommen wir Sie nicht so schnell nach deutschen Recht bei den Eiern gepackt. Aber Ihre Firma wird auf deutschem Boden so leicht keine Umsätze mehr einfahren. Bald. Sehr bald.

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What day of the week is best day for prospecting calls?  What time of the day is best?  My recent post titled Pounce, Pause, Nurture or Wait? was focused on the preferred response strategy for followup on a lead generated via the web.  Terrific comments are captured on Smashmouth Marketing blog and I recommend you read and catch up with the comments left behind.

Plenty of personal experience and anecdotal data over the years have planted the ideas I have as answers to those questions.  Gut feeling only, no empirical data to back that feeling up.  When you are preparing and planning my prospecting or cold-calling / FirstCalling activities, wouldn’t it be great to have some hard data to guide you in your efforts?  Thanks to a post by John Whattam, Regional Account Executive at Paradigm Learning, I came across a valuable report titled Lead Response Management Study from the Kellogg School of Management and presented by David Elkington, CEO of Insidesales.com and James Oldroyd, PHD Professor at M.I.T.

Here is the summary that John provided:

Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to call in order to contact (by 49.7% over the worst day) and qualify (by 24.9% over the worst day) leads. Thursday is the best day to contact a lead in order to qualify that lead (by 19.1% better than the worst day).

4 to 6pm is the best time to call to make contact with a lead (by 114% over the worst time block). 8-9am and 4-5pm are the best times to call to qualify a lead (by 164% better 1-2pm, the worst time of the day). 4-5pm is the best time to contact a lead to qualify over 11-12am by 109%).

The odds of calling to contact a lead decrease by over 10 times in the 1st hour. The odds of calling to qualify a lead decrease by over 6 times in the 1st hour. After 20 hours every additional dial your salespeople make actually hurts your ability to make contact to qualify a lead.

The odds of contacting a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 100 times. The odds of qualifying a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 21 times.

If you have an interest and/or responsibility to mazimize the results from leads, you will benefit greatly from this report.

Directly from the report here is an overview of their effort:

“Generally Speaking, the study was focused on identifying WHEN the best time was to efficiently contact web-generated leads, and HOW to generate web leads that qualify and close at optimal rates.”

If you are in sales or marketing, that has got to grab your attention.  Here is the link to read/download this report:  http://budurl.com/umd7

So, read the report and then come back and tell us if you have changed your strategy or approach to following up on leads.  Let us know if your experience matches the findings in the report.

Craig Rosenberg’s response is sounding better all the time (frequent occurrence)!