Cold Calling B2B: Part 2

The next step in creating a powerful cold call marketing machine is to create the campaign.

Definition of "Campaign":  a systematic course of aggressive activities for some specific purpose.  


So to lay just a little more foundation, before you can create a "systematic course of aggressive activities" you need to know the specific purpose.  


What is the desired result of your phone call.   Poor cold calling says, "Just anything to move the customer forward."  or "I'll take a sale, an appointment, or even a request for more information."    Not very specific, is it.  And since it is not specific you will not get specific results.  If you don't get specific results you don't get a good and solid cold calling result.  If you don't get good solid results you don't enjoy cold calling.  When you don't enjoy cold calling, you suck at it and choose every other activity to take up your time.  Fair enough?


So what is the specific objective.  For each of my campaigns in the B2B world I'm trying to get one thing.  Some objectives of various campaigns have been to get a 20 minute meeting, to get a 20 minute phone appointment, or a one on one webinar.  Does that mean some will ask for information first?  Sure.  Do I give it to them?  It depends on the campaign I design.  However, when I do, I send information in the form of a link to our website that shows 90 seconds of what we do.  

An example is at:  http://www.finishlinefloors.com/floor-finishing-ultra-durable-floor-finish.html.  Notice all the information, pictures, and testimonial we give in 90 seconds.  Brevity is the key to everything in today's marketplace.  It is the key to your information packets, your appointments, and yes, even your cold calling.

Just two links for you to learn a little more about "The Objective."  A year ago I wrote on my military training in strategy and wrote a two-part series on "The objective."  

• http://unlockyourlife.blogspot.com/2010/11/strategic-thinking-objective.html
• http://unlockyourlife.blogspot.com/2011/01/strategic-thinking-objective-part-2.html

Once you have decided on your objective then create a plan on what activities you will do in order to get that objective. What are the activities you will do and in what order?


For instance:  In some campaigns I will send an e-mail first and the next day make the cold call.
In others, I will cold call only for appointments.
In others, I will cold call, send information, and have a follow up call.


Some of the activities can be: calling, email, postal mail of a reference letter with your post it note telling them you will call, phone calls, and whatever else you can think of.  In your campaign you will choose the order you feel will be the most effective.


Such as:  

• call, email, call
• email, call
• call, mail, call
• call only
• email or mail only (direct response marketing).

After you determine the order of activities you want to do the real key is to create a tracking system so you know which of the plans are the most productive.

Next time I will present a really easy tracking system that if even better than most computer programs.

Cold Calling B2B: Part 1

Yes, I know:  "No one likes to cold call."  You may also be thinking, "I'm just not a good at it.  I've tried scripts.  I've tried gadgets.  I've tried all the tricks of the trade."

Let me give you some hope.  Successful cold calling is not about the tricks.  It's not about how to pressure or manipulate people to take your calls, make an appointment with you or even buy your stuff.  Cold calling is simply calling someone you have never spoken to.  Let me change that, Cold Calling is simply and briefly talking to someone you have never met.

When you are at a sporting event or run into someone at the mall who is in the position to buy from you, most of us would not try to close a sale right there.  When we connect we would just tell them what we offer that could really help them and schedule another time where they can explore your offering in more detail.

That is all that happens in successful cold calling.  You simply met someone, virtually.  Connect and schedule something in the future. That could be scheduling a demonstration, scheduling an exploration meeting, or scheduling time for them to review some information.

Before we discuss how to make that call.  We need to establish a foundation.  This pre-work is ABSOLUTELY critical to a successful sales career.

"If you lay a crappy foundations your buildings stink." - Mike Huey

Foundation 1:  USP.

I know...you already know this.  Not so fast.  In a recent informal poll of over 200 people on linked in, most thought their USP was their customer service.  WRONG ANSWER.  Read on, my friend.

What is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?  If you said customer service you need to get a new USP ASAP.  Everyone says they have better customer service.  You need to find an objectively measurable USP that your future customers can see, taste, and experience.  For example one of (notice we have more than one) the USP's at the company I work with is that our floor finish in the tile and grout area lasts at least twice as long as our competitors.  When I offer to have them do a side by side comparison after two months it is clear which finish lasts longer.  Your USP could be pricing, financing, durability, ease of ordering or many other things.  These USPs need to be seen by the customers before the purchase.  If your USP is customer service on the back end of the sale you have a harder job in selling.

Foundation 2:  Know your Ideal Customer

I know.  I know.  You already know this.  Trust me.  You don't until you read this.

You may have a product or service is everyone could use.  Heck,  maybe everyone buys it.  However, with cold calling you don't have tons of time on the phone to determine which of their needs your service will address.  So know who the 20% of your current customers are that make up 80% of your income.  Know what their specific needs are and then we can create cold call systems that goes at that market first.  As an example, we sell our floor finishes into hospitals, government buildings, universities and then into a second tier of corporate offices, nursing homes, hospitality industry and whoever has enough floors that it makes sense for us.  Each of them have unique needs.  So in the first campaign of cold calling I created a script for the unique needs for the person overseeing facilities in the hospitals.  Within 10 seconds of phone time, they know we understand their needs.  Then we can create a campaign for government buildings.  Different needs but within 10 seconds they know we know their needs.

With each ideal customer, identify their top five pains.  

Really, the top five.  Not the ones around your product but THEIR top five pains.  If you don't know their top five pains then you don't know your customer.  If you don't know your customer, get to know them.  In order to bond within 10 seconds on the phone you have to know them before they know you.  After you have identified their top five pains, does your product or service address at least one or two of them?  If yes, go on to the next step.  If no, then we have two options.  First, you have not identified the best Ideal Customer for your offering.  Find a different market to help.  Second, if you can't find a market where you can help their top five pains then you need to serious look at finding a company with a product or service that does.

After you have identified one or more top pains of your ideal customer write a ONE sentence statement that positions your offering to relieve or eliminate each pain.  Write one sentence statements for each of the pains you can help with.  Hopefully each sentence will be different.  You need this sentence because it helps you stay brief when talking on the phones.

Next week, I will share how to create the frame work on this foundation for an effective marketing campaign that utilizes cold calling.

5 Steps to Geographically Expand Your Business in 2012

Would you like to launch another office or expand your business to an other location when the market is down?

Some say, "NO" because they don't have cash flow now and are struggling to make it in this economy.

Some say, "YES" because they have a profitable model that is replicatable and have funds to invest.  They think, when everyone is scared that is the time to expand and grow.

If the latter is you, then here are the simple steps we learned the hard way on expanding our B2B company into other markets.



1. Find a sales person/force that is highly skilled at opening accounts.

That is different than a farming sales person who can maintain accounts.  This sales force must know how to cold call accounts, quickly process incoming leads from any social media campaigns you have done, and will willing to look for opportunities anywhere.

2. Send your best operations people to the new city to fulfill initial orders.

The worst thing to do is to give mediocre order fulfillment to jobs you are starting.  You want jobs done right so you can leverage referrals and get a positive word-of-mouth going about your company.

3. Hire operations people in the new city and have them mentored by the operations people from step 2.

Get quality people hired, trained and working for you.

4. Hire sales force and have them mentored by the launch team of step 1. 

The launch team knows the accounts they created and are best at coaching the local new hired sales reps the in's and out's of those accounts.

5.  Provide training on farming the accounts that are going while still working to get new accounts.

One of the best training systems we used was Strategic Selling by Heiman and Miller. They will learn how to establish themselves in a large account with strong multiple contacts.

EVERYTHING should be documented in procedures. Before we wrote procedures for our operations people it took 3 months to train them. Now- 2 weeks. In writing procedures I highly recommend Michael Gerbers book E-Myth Mastery.

Analyzing Your Competition

The need to analyze your competitor is the same in every industry.   We usually want tactical ways to get competitive information. First, however, you must start with a strategic plan. 

What is it you need to know about your competitors? 

Probably much more than just the prices. Probably more than just what their features and benefits are. It also depends on your position at your company. A CEO needs to know different things than a IT consultant who is going head to head in a sales meeting. Do you also want to know, how your competitor innovates? How do they recruit talent? First figure out what you need to know. 

Create a Corporate Template or Competition Spreadsheet

This gives you a place to capture data that comes in about all your competitors. This form needs to be available to everyone on the front lines working with clients and prospects. 

Tactical Methods of Getting Competitive Information

1. Best tactical is your converted clients. What do your clients who used to use that competitor say? Why did they convert. Have them tell you everything that answers the strategic things you want to find out. 
2. Of course web research but this is not the best. Web sites written by the competitor are designed to sell. So it is hard to know 1. Is what they are selling out yet or still in Beta and 2. What their weaknesses are except by conclusions from silence. 
3. Personally contact the competitor and ask them questions. Pose as a potential client. 
4. THIS ONE IS KEY: Assign competition champions. By this I mean: if you have 5 competitors, pick 5 people in your company whose job is to keep up with a specific company. Then as companies evolve you have up-to-date information. Regularly have them give up-dates to the template or spreadsheet. If a sales person found out that your competitor is offering a no-risk offer, the champion for that competitor is the person your sales person sends the update to.
5. Interview former employees of your competition of those you hired or those you are interviewing for jobs. Find out what the internal culture is like. Are they excited and growing or are they in panic mode. 
6. Ask targeted questions (from your strategic planning) of your network. LinkedIn is a great source for asking and finding references or concerns about a company.

There is a great article I just read called, 6 Reasons Your Business Needs More Competition.   There is a reason, Capitalism, spawns competition.  To ignore competition is to ignore your competitive advantage. 


After you gather competitive information your next step is to figure out what they will do before they do it.  I address that topic in my military strategy post:  Anticipating Battlefield Events.

Let me know how it works for you and your company.

Business Growth: The #2 & #3 Differentiators

Last time I discussed the top differentiator for a company that wants to rock in their industry.  Here are the next two.

Superior Employees

          The biggest reason my father never opened his own business was employees.  They can be either the greatest head ache or source of greatest joy.  The company I work for has a unique system.  It sets them apart from competitors.  But we didn’t start taking off until the president hired a top gun sales guy to reach our home city of Minneapolis and hired me to turn it into a national company.  On my wall I have written, “Recruiting Emerges as a Competitive Strategy.”

          As the owner of your company don’t feel that all the innovation, skill, and drive have to be from you alone.  Hiring or developing employees that can take your company to the next level is a huge advantage.  Your competition, who is not reading this magazine, is just grinding out another month of work.  Pushing their employees to show up on time and do acceptable work. 

          You, on the other hand, are investing in your business by reading Unlock Your Life Blog and searching for competitive advantage.  Great leaders don’t just lead, they surround themselves with great leaders.  Eisenhower could not have won World War II if he was the only general.  He had incredible generals and admirals working with him, Nimitz to run the naval fleet, Patton in north Africa, Bradley across Europe to Germany, McArthur in the pacific theater.  To be a captain of commerce you must have superior leadership.

Superior Operations Systems

          Finally we get to the operations, the products, and the equipment that may give you a competitive advantage.  Industry journals are a great source of companies advertising their unique machines and chemicals.  A wise business owner is not just looking at how to get more business but how to stay ahead.  Every month, our company is looking at products and services that are coming on the scene which we may want to add to our arsenal of unique services for our customers.

          When I was an infantry platoon leader in the U.S. Army I studied and applied strategies and tactics.  One key lesson I learned was I could not depend on one strategy to win all of my battles.  When I excelled, it was because I implemented a blend of various strategies and tactics in different proportions to my environment.  The same is true with your business.  Each of the unique advantages above can enhance your business.  However, you can dominate your market if you blend various advantages in varying degrees and apply it to your company.

Business Growth: THE #1 Differentiator

How can you differentiate yourself in a highly competitive field?  What if you are selling the exact same service?  What can you do to grow your business in tough times where the only differentiator seems to be price?

          Here is the first of three ways to make your company objectively different than your competitors.  Contrary to what manufacturers want you to believe these are also in highest impact order. 

Superior Sales Systems

          You may have the latest and most innovative system but without sales you have idle equipment in your warehouse.  Most companies focus on getting the newest gadget and fail to enhance the highest priority differentiator in any industry-sales systems.

          Many great inventions have gone with their inventors to the grave because they were not brought to the market.  Don’t let this happen to your company.  Focus on increasing your sales and marketing skills and systems.  Focus on creating actual sales systems that are better than your competition.  Then, even if you cannot afford the greatest new extractor or piece of equipment, you can beat you competitor.

          I own rental properties and have one where the weeds are getting out of control.  I went to the internet and found four companies that told me they were “The Best.”  I entered my information in their “Contact us” field and asked for someone to contact me so I could get that yard taken care of. 

• Company A called me within 10 minutes of my sending the request.
• Company B called me the next day
• Companies C and D never contacted me.

 

Company A got my business because not only did they call me right away, the sale person answered all my questions, set my expectations, and closed the deal on the first call.  The other three companies did not have a chance.  Who knows.  Maybe company B, C, or D have more efficient machines, more green chemicals, or better customer service.  They might have what they think is a competitive advantage but without superior sales force they have nothing.

Next time I will share with you what your second best differentiator is.

Strategic Thinking - Press the Fight

WARNING:  This is part 7 of a series on strategic thinking.  If you haven't read any before then this blog entry may not make as much sense.

When you have game-planned the battle scene and you have conserved or built up your force, the next step is to Press the Fight on YOUR terms.

Pressing the fight means:

1. Tenacity
2. Aggressive
3. Pushing the enemy into awkward positions.

We are launching the battle to franchise our company.  We have game planned, thought, and planned some more.  Now we are going for the big accounts.  That is Tenacity and Aggressiveness.

Crawl, Walk, then Run

I also believe in crawl, walk, and run as the way humans learn best.  That seems to contradict Pressing the Fight with aggression and tenacity.  It is NOT.

Some children take forever to walk.  Some move to walking quickly. 

We tested the concepts with small, local accounts in week one.  We met 100% success.
We tested the concepts with medium accounts in week two.  We met 100% success.

That's it.  Go for it.  That is what we are doing-Pressing the Fight.  Once you have done the prep work described in the previous sections, it is time to work harder and faster than your competition.  Press the Fight until you have victory.