B2B commercial prospecting: to find customers effectively Article summary What is commercial prospecting? (sales, prospects, etc.) Prospecting
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Telephone prospecting:
how to optimize the performance of your telephone prospecting campaigns?
Telephone prospecting is still widely used by businesses to find new customers.
Its main advantage is that it allows direct telephone contact with the prospect. However, decision-makers are increasingly difficult to reach.
How to optimize the performance of your telephone prospecting campaigns?
Article Summary
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What is telephone prospecting?
Telephone prospecting refers to all commercial actions carried out by telephone with the aim of finding new customers for your business.
In general, these telephone actions consist of contacting a potential buyer with a view to obtaining a sales meeting.
Teleprospecting is often not appreciated by buyers who find it intrusive. For their part, salespeople consider it unrewarding and difficult due to the reluctance of recipients.
However, it has certain advantages which justify the practice continuing despite reluctance.
Why sell by teleprospecting?
Teleprospecting is a delicate exercise which does not always arouse overwhelming enthusiasm among salespeople. However, prospecting by telephone remains essential in a company's acquisition strategy, even in the digital age.
Certainly companies are investing in inbound marketing and digital prospecting techniques. But there is still a lot of distrust among salespeople regarding inbound leads. Many believe that inbound produces leads but complain about lead/customer conversion rates.
Indeed, without direct contact, it is not always easy to accurately assess the prospect's maturity level.
This is precisely the great advantage of phoning.
Since the seller has the prospect directly online, he has access to his reactions. He can respond directly to his objections and influence his decision.
Thus, teleprospecting makes it possible to better qualify the prospect and obtain information at the moment on their problems, their obstacles, their needs, their project, etc.
However, to achieve this level of refinement in the qualification, you must have a perfect mastery of teleprospecting techniques and have well prepared your calls.
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How to properly prepare for prospecting by telephone?
Select and analyze prospects to contact
Before taking action, you must first establish a prospecting file containing the contacts to call.
This step is essential in the success of telephone prospecting actions for several reasons.
Firstly, if you call contacts from an unupdated database, the ROI of the campaign will be lower. By trying to reach contacts who no longer exist, are no longer employed or are not the decision maker, sales teams waste time and energy. This creates frustration and harms performance. You also have to remember to clean the database, in particular by merging duplicates.
Next, you must ensure that the contacts to call correspond to your company's business targets. When constructing the telephone file, care must be taken to select the contacts according to the type of company, the sector of activity, the turnover, the targeted geographical area but also according to the position occupied.
However, selecting the prospects to approach is not enough. We must go further and investigate in order to gather as much useful information as possible when making telephone contact. To do this, you can use the data collected by marketing and/or cross-reference the information in your file with the LinkedIn profile data of your contacts.
Prepare your phone call script
The success of a sales call depends on the quality of the telephone exchange you have with your interlocutor.
If you have segmented your contact base beforehand, you already know certain characteristics and general problems of your interlocutor. The objective is clear: get an appointment. These are your starting point and your ending point.
Now, the success of the sales process depends on the path you take to go from one to the other. The telephone script allows you to structure your calls and prepare your argument. It is a written document in which you will establish the standard structure of an appeal.
A good sales script consists of the following elements:
- Making contact: it must be short and impactful. You only have a few seconds to introduce yourself and convince your interlocutor to continue the conversation.
- The key arguments: they serve to maintain the prospect's attention and encourage them to accept a sales meeting. It is appropriate to list the key points of your offer which respond to your target's issues.
- Handling objections: when developing the script, you must anticipate objections from your contacts and prepare precise responses.
- The closing: the desired conclusion is the making of an appointment. This involves summarizing the key points of the interview, validating the meeting and specifying the terms and conditions.
Depending on the information you have about a prospect, the key arguments will not be the same. Likewise, each interlocutor will have different objections. The script is therefore not a linear plot nor a mantra to be recited systematically.
On the contrary, a good script foresees different scenarios. It is similar to a decision tree with different branches. Depending on the prospect's reactions, the conversation will take another turn. We will therefore avoid fixed scripts to maintain agility.
Plan your teleprospecting actions
The lists of prospects to contact are ready. The sales teams established a detailed call script. It's almost time to get started.
Now is the time to sort out the final practical details. Preparation is essential in teleprospecting. Nothing should be left to chance. Planning actions helps maximize performance.
First of all, it is necessary to define whether we carry out the phoning actions internally or if we outsource them. In B2B, for a target of decision-makers, it is often preferable to entrust prospecting to your own salespeople, who have a good command of the pitch and have a good knowledge of the target buyers.
Then, based on the segmentation, it is appropriate to assign to each prospector the segment he knows best, the one in which he is most efficient.
Finally, the sales manager sets performance objectives for teleprospecting campaigns. The number of appointments made, the ratio of appointments to calls made and the quantity of calls handled are common objectives for a phone campaign.
From this point of view, it is about finding a fair balance between ambition and realism. Indeed, if telephone prospecting is little appreciated by salespeople, it is partly because they consider that the assigned objectives are often unattainable.
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How to make successful telephone prospecting calls?
Pass the secretary barrier
You have carefully prepared your appeal campaign and your pitch. But, when you take action, a first obstacle stands in front of your salespeople: the secretary.
Decision-makers are in high demand and do not readily take salespeople online. Therefore, the secretary plays the role of filter. She sorts out “useful” calls from prospecting calls.
Surely you know the chorus? “He is not available, please call back later.” » And, later, repeat…
How can you get around this “secretary roadblock” that wastes a lot of time, generates frustration and harms the performance of your campaigns?
First method: forceful passage. You introduce yourself in a firm and decisive tone: “Hello Madam, Pierre Durand, from the company MagiLeads. Can you pass me John Doe, please? ". This method consists of making people think that you know your interlocutor personally and that your call is important.
Second method: bypass. You find out about the secretarial hours and you make sure to call when the secretary is no longer there. Indeed, there is a good chance that your interlocutor arrives earlier and/or leaves later than his secretary.
Find your telephone voice
In teleprospecting, everything happens by voice. It must be firm, warm and pleasant at the same time. Pay attention to the flow rate too. Speak calmly, clearly.
Throughout the interview, you must appear calm, motivated and in control. Your interlocutor will quickly sense if you are not comfortable or if you lack self-confidence. He will take advantage of this to rush into the slightest breach.
Even if the prospect raises objections, under no circumstances should you deviate from your professional attitude.
Present the purpose of the phone call
In your telephone interview, the first step is to introduce yourself and briefly explain the purpose of your call.
So that your interlocutor identifies you, start with your first and last name, as well as the name of your company. Then, in a few quick, clear sentences, explain the reason for your call.
Since you have prepared the call, you have necessarily listed a few arguments likely to address the prospect's issues. During your initial pitch, these are the elements that you must highlight.
In no case is this intended to recite your entire sales pitch. The idea here is to:
- based on the supposed problems of your contact
- make sure that he encounters this problem by asking him for confirmation
- concisely explain how your offer meets them
The movement therefore always takes place from the prospect to your proposal. If you launch into a long monologue about the merits of your offer, the prospect will not feel involved and will only want to hang up.
Maintain the prospect's attention
You have a specific objective in mind: land a sales appointment or, more rarely, make an online sale.
To achieve this, you must maintain the prospect's attention throughout the phone call. This is one of the reasons why rattling off your pitch proves unproductive.
Teleprospecting covers yet another objective: collecting additional information about the prospect. Maybe he doesn't have a short-term need requiring a quick appointment. But he may nevertheless be concerned by your offer and/or have a project in this direction in the medium or long term.
In all cases, the prospecting call must serve to qualify the prospect for future contact, near or far. This is why active listening and questioning are at the heart of successful sales calls.
The art of asking the right questions
Bad telemarketers think that what makes the difference is their propensity to put forward arguments in abundance. In this vision, the good salesperson would be the one who speaks eloquently, the “chatter”.
This is quite far from the truth on the ground. The good teleprospector knows how to maintain the attention of his prospect and practice active listening.
Before you called, the prospect didn't care that much about your offer. He perhaps lived very well in this relative ignorance. You caught his attention. How to maintain it and transform it into interest?
The objective here is to find the points of contact between your offer and the needs of your interlocutor. But the prospect is not going to talk at length about his issues. The only way to know them is to make them talk.
To do this, you have to master the art of asking questions. To gather information, you need to ask open-ended questions:
- What are the challenges you face?
- How is your performance evaluated?
- What solutions have you put in place to respond to these challenges?
These types of questions open the discussion and give you ideas for putting your arguments forward. On the other hand, when you want to focus on a specific point, you can dig deeper by asking rhetorical questions to which the prospect will be forced to answer you in the affirmative. For example, you can rephrase a point he made and ask for confirmation.
This alternation of open and closed questions should allow you to take the prospect where you want them: your offer is the solution to the challenges they encounter.
What is active listening?
What if listening was the primary quality of a good telemarketer?
The quality of a prospecting call depends on well-balanced questioning of the interlocutor. It's about discovery, not interrogation.
But questioning is useless if you don't know how to listen to the answers correctly. Not just hearing. Listen.
Active listening consists of recording the prospect's responses and relying on this material to guide the interview towards its purpose. To do this, the teleprospector must take notes during the call, ensure that he has understood the message from his interlocutor, rephrase if necessary and develop appropriate responses.
But listening well goes even further. It also means hearing what the interlocutor does not necessarily say. Interpret silence. Realize when the prospect is moving away from the question and digressing. Refocus the conversation on the question that interests you to gather the desired information.
Finally, active listening also makes it possible to detect signs of interest in the prospect. If he starts asking you about your offer, about specific features of your solution, about your prices, this means that his attention is turning into interest. In short, you are not far from the goal.
Responding to Telephone Objections
On the phone, it is common for the prospect to raise a number of objections. There are two categories:
- Formal objections: these are objections aimed exclusively at prematurely ending the appeal.
- Substantive objections: you have gained the prospect's attention but he digs deeper to make sure your offer is of interest to him.
Here are some formal objections that come up frequently and the solutions you can oppose to them:
- “I'm busy, I don't have time”: in this case, simply suggest a new time slot. By giving a date and time, you are more likely to successfully schedule a new call.
- “Call me back in X months”: get your prospect talking: why this delay? Will the situation have changed? Does the need exist in the medium term? Will a budget have been released by then?
- “Send me your information by email”: you accept and suggest that the prospect call them back a week later to answer their questions.
- " It does not interest me ! / I don't need anything / I already have what I need: focus on a problem and offer to explain how your solution addresses it.
- “It’s not me who takes care of it”: take the opportunity to take the contact details of the person to contact.
Substantive objections arise in reaction to the arguments you put forward. This confirms that you have gained the prospect's attention. Otherwise, he would have already tried to close the call.
These objections should not scare you since you have prepared them in advance. And above all, they make it possible to complete the argument and give the prospect contextualized information.
Engage the prospect
Telephone prospecting requires subtlety. To engage the prospect, it is best to start from their problems and show them the improvements that could be made.
In this way, you will lead him to project himself towards a future where his difficulties will fade away. And, for this, there is no need to immediately show off the advantages of your offer. By letting him realize for himself the value of your proposal, you engage him as the conversation progresses.
The ideal, in this case, is that he is so enthusiastic that he asks for the next contact. But, of course, if this is not the case, it is up to you to skillfully bring up the subject.
This is sometimes a difficult pivot for salespeople. Because, in the end, that’s where everything comes down to it. Will you succeed or not in getting the appointment?
To trigger this pivot, you must know how to analyze the prospect's signs of interest:
- Did he confirm that he was faced with the problems you mentioned?
- Did he give any nods of approval to any of your arguments?
- Did he ask questions to invite you to complete your statement?
- Did he raise any objections that allowed you to clarify the proposal?
- Do your responses to his objections seem to have convinced him?
- Have you made sure they have no further questions and objections?
If the prospect seems ready, you can take the next step and offer the meeting.
Specify the next step
At the end of the call, there are 3 possibilities:
- The prospect is not interested in your offer
- You have achieved your goal and got the appointment
- You must follow up with the prospect later
In any case, it is appropriate to summarize the points you raised with him and take notes to document the call.
Even if rejected, you should record objections and reasons for failure to improve your pitch. Perhaps you were faced with an objection that you hadn't anticipated.
If you need to follow up with the prospect, agree on a new slot. Check with him if, in the meantime, he would like you to send him information by email.
If he accepts the meeting, it is appropriate to specify together the terms of the commercial meeting.
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How to follow up on your prospecting calls?
You had your prospect online. You just hung up. And after ?
It is essential to keep track of each call. To do this, the teleprospector must absolutely prepare an interview report.
The ideal is to use a CRM solution to log maintenance reports. But, in all cases, you will need a prospecting file.
The prospecting file allows you to report:
- Practical details of the call: date, identity of the caller
- The report of the conversation: points raised during the interview, expressions of interest, objections expressed, acceptance or refusal of the meeting proposal, reason for refusal (in case of failure)
- An opinion on the follow-up to be given: probability of conclusion (in the form of a score), relevance of a follow-up (and if yes, within what time frame)
This information will be valuable for preparing follow-ups or a subsequent prospecting campaign by benefiting from a better knowledge of the prospect.
How to manage telephone prospecting?
Prospecting by telephone takes time and often requires multiple follow-ups. To achieve the objectives assigned to a campaign, it is imperative to set up a management process.
Campaign management consists of ensuring that prospecting actions take place in accordance with the forecast schedule and initial objectives.
Before the campaign, it is therefore necessary to define the KPIs which will allow the performance of the campaign to be measured:
- Number of daily calls
- Number of successful calls (the salesperson was able to speak with the target contact)
- Ratio of appointments made/calls completed
- Number of reminders to perform
The campaign manager will need to collect and aggregate all the data to generate an activity dashboard or automatically generate a dashboard in their CRM solution.
Campaign monitoring is essential for:
- Take preventive or corrective actions: for example, if we notice that the campaign is progressing more slowly than expected, we can allocate additional resources to finish on time.
- Readjust the schedule by including in real time the reminders to be made: here too, a CRM solution like that of Magileads automatically synchronizes the reminders with the salespeople's calendars
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Can we combine telephone prospecting and digital prospecting?
Telephone prospecting remains an effective practice. However, 70% of decision-makers hate being harassed by sales calls. Additionally, the number of calls needed to reach a prospect continues to increase.
In these circumstances, a first solution would be to focus on better training of salespeople in teleprospecting. If they are better able to avoid obstacles and retain the prospect's attention, the ROI of the telephone campaign is interesting.
The other solution consists of giving up “cold calling” and running campaigns on leads from digital prospecting, on the web. By working on inbound leads, salespeople make contact with prospects who already know the brand and have expressed interest.
In practice, however, it is important to have a virtuous organization based on close collaboration between marketing and sales. Together, the two departments must agree on what a commercial opportunity is and when the handover between marketing and sales should take place.
What tools to properly prospect by telephone?
MagiLeads solution offers several features to optimize your prospecting campaigns.
Firstly, our B2B contact database allows you to identify prospects corresponding to your targeting criteria.
You can then enter these prospects into automated email campaign scenarios.
Then, at the end of these emailing campaigns on the web, the prospects interested in your offers are automatically integrated into your CRM. The CRM centralizes all the information you need to launch a telephone prospecting campaign.
This way, you launch your teleprospecting campaigns on interested contacts. You can even organize your campaigns more efficiently by sorting prospects according to their progress, their scoring or the follow-up date.
Telephone prospecting is sometimes criticized but it still offers convincing results provided that each step (creation of the file, preparation of the campaign, call sequence, follow-up, management) is perfectly optimized. By combining digital and telephone methods, we can further improve our performance. In this case, we must encourage team collaboration and synchronization of tools.
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