Cold Calling 2.0 Aaron Ross

PebbleStorm/CEOFlow: “Make money through enjoymentaaron@pebblestorm.com

Part 2 of 2

And how marketing can leverage an outbound sales development team

Part 1 Review

Review

In Part 1:

What it's like if you're “panning for gold with a colander” (generating leads without an effective lead management function), and what to do about it:

- Treat salespeople as internal customers

- Build an ‘Lead Management Machine’

- Choose and commit to a first step

[Slides available at www.salesmachine.blogspot.com,

or contact us for copies]

So you’ve nailed inbound lead management and are making the most of the inbound leads hitting your website...

Now how do you get MORE new large company leads and MORE bang for your buck by leveraging a Cold Calling 2.0 team?

Who this is intended for

(Although there are principles here anyone can appreciate)

Companies with direct sales (or use channel partners with direct sales models) selling a product worth more than $10,000 in value.

The big picture

The B2B leadgen problem

$100M Defense ContractBoeing

Lobbyist

$100 SaleTimex WatchesGoogle, eBay

$100,000 OrderSalesforce.com, Saas…

Man

y B

uye

rs

F

ew B

uye

rs

Specificity of Product(Can I easily specify what I want?)

HIGHLow

$1,000,000 OrderOracle Apps, SAPGartner/Accenture

Lo

w

Avg

Sal

e P

rice

Hig

h

?

Print Ads

Webinars

Online News LinkedIn

Twitter

Radio

Microsite Campaigns

Telemarketing

Wikis

Too much noise, too little time

Cold Calls

Mail

Email

Campaigns

Blogs

RSS feeds

Phone

TV

Texting

The business issue

How can your programs and company break through the noise to generate measurable results?

Where you are

97%Other

3%Cold calling

Sources of new customer revenue

Where you want to be

75%Other

25%+Cold Calling

2.0

Sources of new customer revenue

Cold Call: A telephone call to someone who is not expecting contact

Also known as… flailing waste of time phone-spam frustration

The irony of Cold Calling 2.0 is that it should never involve making ‘cold calls’

Who are these guys?

We created, from scratch, a “Cold Calling 2.0” sales development team

that has sourced $100 million in recurring revenue for salesforce.com

(that’s an extra $1 Billion in market capitalization)

Why it should NOT have worked

Unlike today, Salesforce.com had little brand recognition in large companies….“Who? Do you do sales outsourcing?”

Below-market compensation for the role

Classic prospecting methods and cold calls didn’t work

No fancy tools or big budgets: we only used salesforce.com, OneSource, Spoke/Jigsaw, & telephones

Why it did work

1. Invested a year of preparation to nail it before scaling

2. A team 100% focused on outbound prospecting

3. A process that created PREDICTABLE results

4. Leveraged our tools every way possible

5. Committed to developing its people and expertise

6. Earned executive trust and commitment with audited, proven results

2.01.0

Cold Calling

What’s changed?

Field Sales = 90% of prospecting

ABC / Always Be Closing

Dials per day, appointments

Cold calls

Cheesy sales tricks work

“I hate this job”

Long letters & emails

CRM hurts productivity

1.0 2.0Sales Dev = 90% of prospecting

Is there a mutual fit?

Qualified opportunities / month

Research, referral calls

Authenticity works

“I learned a lifetime skill”

Short and sweet text emails

CRM multiplies productivity

What is world class?

“Outbound Machine”

15-30%+

8-10x+

>20%

90%

Growth of customer acquisition

Return on sales development reps

Outbound close rates

Success rate for sales development reps

Building a world class machine

1. Effective process

2. High capacity

3. Sustainable growth

What’s your true potential?

What next?

So you want to take the first steps to transform…

If you can only do 3 things…

New technologies and a search for shortcuts tend to distract people from nailing the basics first.

After the basic and process are proven, then accelerate them.

Three fundamentals to start with:

1. Smart targeting

Ideal industries

Ideal companies

Research functional teams

Find influence

Business Issues

Fit?

Separate the core functions www.CEOFlow.com

“Outbound”

AccountManagement Sales

FrontlineSales

Organic & Marketing Leads

“Inbound”Qualified Opportunities

New Customers

3. Develop your people

Product-pitching“Salesperson”

Selling Product,Doing Deals

Presentations

Problem-solving“Person Who Can Sell”

Build Trust ThroughTransparency, Honesty

Conversations

Tactics?

A new email template will not transform you.

Don’t let the search for tricks distract you from getting the basics right

But, here are examples:

1.0: “More is better”

Subject: Improve sales effectiveness in Q2?

Chuck, 

*Are you continually challenged to project accurate revenue? *Do you know who your best reps are and what makes them successful? *Do you know which marketing activities your company engages in are generating closed deals? *You know there are some big deals in the pipeline, but can you easily generate a real-time report detailing their status? *Do you know where your marketing dollars are best spent?

Does this sound familiar? You face the same challenges as many other companies. Salesforce.com has proven to be successful at leading global companies such as Adobe Systems, AOL Time Warner Communications, Putnam Lovell, Dow Jones Newswires, Berlitz Global Net, Siemens, Microstrategy and Autodesk to name a few.

Salesforce.com is a web-based CRM service that can be rapidly rolled out and is easy to use.  Sales organizations use it to centralize and report on contacts, accounts, historical activities and to track sales performance.  Marketing can easily measure the ROI of individual projects.  Salesforce.com makes it very easy to customize reports and gain visibility into your sales organization and individuals' performance to get a better handle on your business.

Online demo:salesforce.com/us/seminar.html

Could we schedule 20 minutes of time to discuss this?  Or would someone else in your organization be a more appropriate contact? 

 Warm regards,

Aaron Ross

2.0: “Less is more”

For your own good, we’re not including an example template here

If you use someone else’s language, it loses authenticity (write real emails as if to a friend)

If everyone uses the same templates, they’ll stop working

3 key points:1. State simply and clearly why you are reaching out

2. Offer credibility (say, examples of customers)

3. Make the email easy to read and respond to on a blackberry

Process 1.0: Big chunks, slow pace

1. Target marketing executives at 100 accountsCold calls, Fedex’d books…

Emails: 1% response rate

2. Take weeks or months to set up calls

3. Irrational persistence

When it’s just not a good fit (no budget, no pain, wrong time…) doggedly keep trying to handle objections

RESULT: Slow feedback cycle – not sure if it’s working?

High effort, low results

Process 2.0: Smaller chunks, faster pace

1. Begin with a handful (5-10) “Ideal” targets

2. Email the CEO, C-level executives or call their assistants“Research calls”, not cold callsEmails: we achieved 9% response rates

3. Get C-level referrals within hours or days to your target contacts

4. Quickly discover if there is a fit or not, and move onNot knowing one way or the other is a dead zone

5. Move on to the next batch of targets

RESULTS: Fast feedback cycle – it should work NOW

High effort, high results

The First Phone Call

1.0: ALWAYS BE CLOSING!

First call:

Discuss the pitch, “Value Prop” and how great your company is for most of the call

Success = new Stage 1 OpportunityA call resulting in no new opportunity is considered a failure

Next steps

in-depth demo or in-person sales meeting to discuss purchasing processes, competitors, etc.

2.0: ARE WE A FIT?

First call:

Brief introduction for context, focus on learning about the prospect’s business for most of the call

Success = enough understanding to place them in one of 3 buckets:

1.Good Fit Now (Set Next Step)

2.Good Fit Later (Build an Internal Champ)

3.Waste of Time

Next stepsBusiness Issues & Goals discussion that re-qualifies / confirms the processes and mutual alignment of both sides.

Top prospecting mistakes (besides making cold calls)

6. Expecting instant results It can take 2-4+ weeks to develop a qualified opportunity

5. Long emailsCan someone read and respond on a BlackBerry?

4. Going wide, not deepHitting 100 accounts once instead of 10 accounts 10x each

3. Giving up too quickly at Ideal Targets Don’t give up on working to understand if there is a fit or not until you get a “no” from the real decision maker

2. Not giving up quickly enough at non-Ideal TargetsThese wastes of time are a huge opportunity cost

1. Depending on activity metrics instead of a proven process“Dials per day” is meaningless. What’s the ‘assembly line’ process?

Now, how can marketing leverage a cold calling team?

How marketing can leverage sales development

Three ways marketing and sales can work together to proactively generating more leads:

1. Tradeshows & conferences

2. Apply budget to tools that help generate pipeline…as long as you hold sales to tracking & proving results

Examples: Demandbase, Genius, ConnectAndSell

3. Use your imagination on some other joint project…-But keep it simple-Reward them-If they want budget for something, just try it! But hold them to proving the results

A conference campaign

Phase 1: Preparation (Weeks)Acquire a list of attending companiesThe outbound sales team calls into the relevant accounts to:

- Prepare a conversational cheatsheet for the conference attendees - Set up appointments

Phase 2: The Event Send sales (not just marketing) to proactively work the event

Personal request: please resist indiscriminately scanning badges. Only scan people who are actually interested in your offerings!

Phase 3: Follow Through (Weeks)The outbound team completes its follow up on the leads generated at

the tradeshow

Phase 4: Constant ImprovementTake some time to discuss what you would do differently next time.

- “ITunes” for sales contacts and marketing names Search, filter and purchase

- Web 2.0 self-service interface

- Raises productivity for both marketing programs and cold calling programs

- Business Model: Price per contact/name

Better list-building

Help sales leverage marketing tools

Increase results from marketing investments by helping salespeople get more out of them

For Sales Reps, see in real-time…- Who opens your e-mails

- Who visits your web site

- Which pages they visit and for how long

…and either call them while they’re at their desk, or present personalized greetings and chat invitations

Business model: monthly subscription per user

Sales reps spend enormous amounts of time dialing, with no connection to decision makers

ConnectAndSell deploys virtual sales agents to do the dialing (it’s like a human autodialer, without the ‘click’)

Sales reps have a constant stream of live conversations - 7 to 10 per hour, rather than 1 to 2

Business model: $275 per hour of usage (before volume discounts)

Multiply sales conversations per day

One more time

A great application is no substitute for, and will not fix, an ineffective process.

They accelerate processes that already work.

Next moves

1. A dedicated outbound sales development team multiplies effectiveness- In fact, if they aren’t dedicated…they won’t be effective

2. Where are you going to start?- Your next conference

- Try out a joint sales-marketing application around an upcoming campaign

3. Be “Aggressively Patient”!- Aggressive progress every day, patience for results

Now light the fuse!

Aaron RossPebbleStorm/CEOFlow

“Make money through enjoyment”

aaron@pebblestorm.com(310) 751-0656

www.PebbleStorm.comwww.CEOFlow.com

www.BuildASalesMachine.com

Thank you

Design: David Stychno (david@c2llc.com) Special thanks to: Erythean Marttin, Ryan Martin, Mike O’Sullivan, Elizabeth Arnsdorf

Thank you!

Appendix

Which level are you?

CRAWLING•Don’t measure ROI•Fuzzy “Ideal Target” profile•Not measuring close rates of outbound pipeline•Reps making “cold calls”•Dependence on calls per day metric•No career path•Quarterly metrics•Advanced apps distract

BUILDING•ROI between 200%-800%•Have reps who are 100% outbound•Repeatable process•<20% outbound close rates•Training program•Clear career path•Monthly metrics•Trying advanced apps

FLYING•“Outbound Machine”•ROI of >800%•Perfect “Ideal Target” profile•Strict quality-control standards•>20% outbound close rates•90% success rate of reps•Promoted outbound reps outperform in sales•High ROI on advanced apps

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

Getting to the next level

•Weekly Coaching•Tools Training•We Build Your Dashboards•Weekly Drumbeat•Activity Goals•Basic CRM training•Call training

•Monthly Coaching•Tools Refinement•You Optimize Dashboards•Monthly Drumbeat•Pipeline Goals•Advanced CRM•Pitching

•V2MOM•Tools Generation•You Build Own Dashboards•Quarterly Drumbeat•ROI Goals•CRM + Apps•Consultative Discussion

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

Transformational timeline

@ 6 Months

•Outbound-specific “Ideal Target Profile” defined•First outbound reps ramped and seeing results•Waterfall modeled•Tracking dashboards and tools in place•First “new process” qualified opportunities generated

•Predictable, proven “Outbound Machine” •15%+ outbound contribution to revenue•Data-driven Waterfall•Quantified ROI on the role•Proven career path, upward mobility

@ 18-24 Months

First 90 Days

•Onboarding process and tools defined•Next set of outbound reps hired and ramped•Quality audit process in place•Waterfall improved•First revenue from short-cycle opportunities

Add Target Accounts

Add Contacts

__ Call Connects

Example prospecting waterfall

__ New Opportunities

__ Closed Deals

Prepare

Prospect

Begin SalesCycle

Work Responses (9% Response Rate)

__ Demos/Appointments

Define Ideal Target Profile

Send __ Cold Emails / Make __ Mapping Calls

Invest in training

Intern With Services or Lead Qualification

(2-4 Weeks)

Call StaleLeads

(1 Week)

Call FreshLeads / Stale

Opptys(1-2 Weeks)

De

gre

e o

f Ris

k

Time

Call ColdExecutives

•It’s a better investment to really train outbound reps before putting them on the front lines (so they can have constructive conversations)•Train them for 4-6 weeks in customer-oriented roles first

Ingredients For Rep Success

1. OrganizationYou know exactly what you need to do every day, and do it.

2. PassionYou truly care about the company you work for, the product they sell, and in trying to help your prospects solve problems.

3. Constant Improvement (Kaizen)Expertise takes time and effort; perfection is a journey, not a destination.

Aaron RossPebbleStorm/CEOFlow

“Make money through enjoyment”

aaron@pebblestorm.com(310) 751-0656

www.PebbleStorm.comwww.CEOFlow.com

www.BuildASalesMachine.com