#9 – Respect your prospect’s time!

When you reach someone live it is important to be conscious of their time.  Why?  Well your initial goal by targeting the organization is to locate the appropriate person to speak with and after that it is to gain some of their “time” to qualify first and, if appropriate, move the sales process forward. 

What I mean is that the role of the teleprospector is to penetrate an organization and qualify them as an opportunity for the sales team (uncover pain/need, etc).  A critical step in this qualification process is to set the appropriate next step expectation with the prospect and advance the sales process.  So the “close”, if you will, of a teleprospector is to book some time on the prospect’s calendar for the next step in the sales process.

As a result of this we all must remember to be respectful of the prospect’s time, as this will break down some of the traditional barriers that exist in moving the sales process forward.

“My 2 Cents”

So here goes…..

#8 – Always target multiple contacts inside an organization

Regardless of the organization size (unless it is a 1 or 2 person shop) you are targeting it is critical when inititially trying to penetrate a given organization that you attempt to reach multiple contacts.  When you pick-up the phone to call cold an organization and do not know exactly who you are supposed to speaking with, you must make sure you are reaching out to a contact at every level of the organization (perhaps a C-level contact, a business decision maker, and a technical decision maker – or 3 contact titles that fall into your target market.)

By reaching out to at least three contacts you will accomplish two things – you will find a quicker path to the most appropriate person as it relates to your call and number two you will be generating awareness inside the organization at different levels that can help you gain insight into the organization and where the  pain/need you are looking for may be festering.

Check back tomorrow for #9!

“My 2 Cents”

http://blog.startwithalead.com/weblog/2009/02/seven-tips-for-improving-cold-calling.html

Please take a minute to read this posting by Brian Carroll.

He is providing a series of tips that I agree with across the board……number 4 for example (respect the executive assistants)………I could not agree more with this statement.  They are the window into the organization and have exactly what you need at there fingertips, a map to the target organization.

Please come back next week as I add to the this list of seven. 

“My 2 Cents”