What does this question refer to?

Well on the surface I think we probably all understand it.  In the world of teleprospecting for qualified opportunities, I am using the analogy to refer to making sure that if you have someone on the phone you are using every tactic you have to keep them on the phone.  This idea is not just relevant to conversations with contacts you have identified as the person you want to talk with, but also, and maybe even more importantly, to conversations you are having with folks as you navigate an organization.

What do I mean?

Let’s say I make a phone call into an organization for which I have one contact on my list and it turns out that contact is no longer with the organization – I could take a few paths:

• I could hang-up and do some research to find another contact (in my book this is the last resort)
• I could ask the operator who replaced the contact
• I could explain to the operator the reason for my call and attempt to get passed to the appropriate contact (the organization may have a policy in place that makes this choice not work)
• I could ask for the IT help desk and leverage them as an avenue to the correct contact 

All reasonable choices.

So my question is why would you not try them all while navigating this organization when you have a person live on the phone. 

And finally my advice – when you are in the trenches of teleprospecting why not use every avenue you have learned to further you in the in the process of uncovering a qualified sales opportunity – or simply put don’t leave any arrows in your quiver!

“My 2 Cents”

That said I am a firm believer that in order to “sell” or “mine” for an opportunity an individual must be comfortable with the product or material he/she is speaking about.

However, in my experience what is more critical then understanding every nut and bolt of a solution is the ability to have a business conversation with a target prospect.

I have to step back and define what I mean by “business conversation”.  This is a conversation that has set goals a BDR/Teleprospector is looking to accomplish:

1. Uncover what is going on today? (company, technology in place, etc.)
2. What are the problems that they face today or foresee in the future? (budget shrink, technology specific gaps – e.g. ERP is not robust enough for future growth, etc.)
3. How do they envision fixing the problems and when?

If the goals of this “business conversation” are met a BDR/Teleprospector should be able to disposition the target prospect “in” or “out” as an opportunity.

Now product knowledge is important but there are pieces that fall higher on the list. 

Being able to understand what areas a product can help, who the target is, what concerns the target has in their role (CIO versus Systems Administrator), objections a BDR/Teleprospector will face and how to overcome them, and finally (perhaps most importantly) is a high level understanding of the space the solution fits in (e.g. Virtualization – what is it, why people are deploying it, etc).

Armed with this type of background, the skill set to listen and digest what you are hearing and think on your feet,  and not every minute detail of a solution/service a BDR/Teleprospector is ready to generate opportunities that will lead to forecastable revenue.

“My 2 Cents”