It’s a common problem – you encounter a company that is at the shortlist stage and you are told it is too late for you to get involved! How do you deal with it?
There are as many 'missed opportunities' in an IT Lead Generation Campaign as there are 'A1' Prospects!
With all 'sharp-end' campaigns, we recommend a ‘never say die’ approach when we encounter on specific type of rejection.
We can convert up 40% of such ‘hot potatoes’ into TOP PRIORITY one-hour exploratory appointments with very short sales cycles for our clients.
Many of us have made cold calls where a Key Decision Maker has said "you're too late". The normal reaction for most is to give up, then and there.
But have you ever analysed how many of these 'situations' your own outbound resources encounter? More often than not, they are in the Telemarketing team. But it could be anyone within Sales, Marketing and even a chance conversation by someone in Customer Services.
No, does not always mean 'No'.
Just a few choice open, 'pre-closing' questions at your fingertips, already developed for such situations (because they do arise more than you think), can turn what would be a lost prospect or missed opportunity into a serious, last-minute, 11th hour, A1 prospect willing to give your company a one-hour exploratory face to face meeting, to see if you have a better solution than your closest competitors (already marked as preferred supplier) whom they are considering to place the business with!
Any good Sales person worth their salt will know what these pre-closing questions are. But they're not making this cold call. You are.
How would you like your Telemarketing and related outbound resources to convert these from 'no-chance' into significant 'hot potatoes', perfect for that Senior Salesperson who thrives on quick kills?
The only difference is that some of these missed opportunities are at the closing stages of their evaluations, whereas for an IT Enterprise Applications provider offering high cap-ex solutions, the leads that are passed from Marketing to Sales tend to be at the start of a 6 to 12 month Sales cycle!