Archive for March, 2010

Dear Marketing Coach,
Our company needs to get some leads in our pipeline pronto. We’re contemplating hiring a telemarketing person to do cold calling for us. Is this a worthwhile investment?

Here’s the short answer to your question: dialing for dollars doesn’t work.

Think about it. How often do you actually answer your phone at work? Be honest. Don’t you let it roll into voice mail more often than not? And, if you do answer it, don’t you want to ring the person’s neck if they’re a sales call? I know I do. Once in a while, I’ll be nice but mostly I find them to be a big annoyance.

Now with this said, there is a place for the telephone as a part of your integrated lead generation mix. Note the word “integrated”. It is key for success. Here’s a brief summary of how integrated lead generation works:

1. Make sure you have a targeted list of suspects that fit the criteria of your ideal customer. If you don’t have a list, get one. Do research on the Internet. Use a database service like Hoovers.com. The best lists are the ones that are built from scratch. It’s not easy — especially finding email addresses — but it works.

2. Know your audience’s pain points and address them. Why should your target audience give you the time of day? What problem(s) are you going to solve for them better than anyone else can?

2. Define your goal. What do you want from your target audience? While we would all like a signed contract upon hello, it’s not reality. Do you want a meeting? A call? Do you want them to attend an event? Be clear about the outcome that you want.

3. Once you know your goal, you need to figure out what you’re willing to give to get. You need to give something of value — especially these days. Is it a whitepaper about your product? A case study? Some sort of complimentary evaluation? You need to figure out a way to prove yourself.

4. Now you’re ready to get busy. Craft a series of three or so emails that you can customize with the recipient’s name and company name. Keep your subject lines simple. Have the content of the emails build upon one another. Hit your pain points. You can send the emails using an e-marketing tool so that many can be sent at one time but use an all-text, simple format. Simple is better.

5. Ideally, link to a page within your website that also includes a form where the recipient can review more information and respond to your request.

6. Between emails, leave a voice mail or two. Keep these simple and not annoying. Tie your message into the same messaging you’re using in your emails. Maybe you’ll even get lucky and land an actual, live person. If you do, you’ll have something of substance to say to them and something to give so you’ll be in good shape.

7. The ultimate key to success is mixing it up. No one thing works better than another but it all works better together — much better than dialing for dollars.

If you’re inspired by what you’ve just read but can’t fathom doing all of this yourself, learn more about Pomerantz’s Lead Generation Services. We’ll do all of this for you…and more.