Cold Calling B2B: Part 4 Scripts or no Scripts

So far on the cold calling routines we have looked at the foundational principles of successful cold calling.   We looked at the need to track your activity so you can either improve your own performance or know what is succeeding or failing.

Tracking is very important as we look at creating scripts and downloading lists.  If we don't track then we have to go with our gut feelings about what is working and which list is producing the best results.  However, if you are going to have any size business you need to put your monies and energies where you get the best results.  So, track your activities and corresponding results.

So let me address scripts, whether to use them or not.

Every time you go to the movies you don't think, "Hey, I don't like it when they all use a script.  I think that everyone should just wing it.  They all sound so fake."  No.  The actors have learned the script so well that they now can add their personality to it and even add appropriate improvisations that make that role (or phone call for you) come to life.  Good scripts helps them to know what to say and how to say it.

OK.  So my illustrations from "A Few Good Men" shows my age.

It sounds fake when the actors and actresses have the script in their hand on stage going through it for the first time in front of the director.  They are reading the script and trying to add personality to it but it is not the finished product.  Unfortunately most telemarketers stop at this point and never internalize the scripts.

If you want the truth and you think you can handle the truth:  my experience has been that the people who tell me scripts don't work are new and intimidated by cold calling, inexperienced, ineffective cold callers, or just don't want to put in the effort needed to become great on the phones.  They tell me scripts sounds too artificial.  The evidence they cite is we all had a telemarketer call us and it was obvious they were using a script. 

True.  Some people do not know how to use a script.  In fact some companies do not know how to use a script and it ends up sounding terrible on the phone.  They have a script.  Hire an employee.  Throw the script to them and in 10 minutes say, "Get on the phone and use the script."

The other problem with most scripts is that they are written with proper grammar.  Please forgive me Mrs. Anderson, my 8th grade English teacher.  Language properly written sounds different on the phone than language spoken in everyday words.

So here are some considerations:
1.  Scripts are effective if the caller has gone over the script so much that it becomes natural to them.  They know what to say and how to say it.  Then they get on the phones.
2.  Scripts are effective if they are written the way we would talk on the phone and not the way we would turn in for a creative composition paper at school.

Next time I will go through how to create effective scripts that everyone in your organization will like to use and will make a great impact on your potential clients.

Leadership Path

I am writing a book on business development.  Sharing our story of how we are taking a small local sub-million dollar company in Minneapolis and turning it into a multi-million dollar and multi-location company.  Thought I would just quickly share the leadership path that came out in one of the sections.

If you want to grow a large organization and you want it to be stable, first consider your own leadership capabilities and experience.  When you find yourself somewhere on this continuum, do three things:

1. Make sure you came up from the bottom and not just skipped some of the basic areas.
2. Figure out how you can master your current level.
3. Decide on what you need to do to get to the next level.

Level 1:  Self-Leadership

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  You already do this.  Well, maybe.  Let's look at a couple areas:

1. Goals and Vision written out with plans?
2. Finances in order with monthly budgets?
3. Diet and Exercise routines taking care of the machine that is going to help you achieve?
4.  Relationships in order?  Close with those you need to be close to and building your network?
5.  Intellectually expanding?
              1.  Reading, listening to audio programs, or going to seminars?
              2. Thinking Big.  Thinking past all obstacles?

If you are doing great here then go on.  If not, may I encourage you to spend a month or two and focus on the key areas of self-leadership needed.

Level 2:  Leading Another Person

Apply Level 1 to someone you oversee by teaching and inspiriting them.  This includes letting this person into your life for you to model self-leadership for them.  Begin the steps of delegation and performance review.  If you do not have positional authority over someone, learn the more powerful art of influence as a step in leadership. 

Level 3:  Leading a Team

Take the skills you learned on teaching, inspiring, and modeling, add to that the goal setting and vision creation you did in level 1 and expand it to a team.  At this level learn team dynamics.  Learn the areas of personality styles and how they compliment and conflict with each other.  Expand your skills of delegation, project management, and running meetings.

Level 4:  Leading Leaders

Many small business leaders and managers plateau at Level 3.  That is not for you.  Review your team and begin leadership development of one or two high potential leaders.  Take them through the Levels 1-3.  Delegate whole projects and teams to them.  Measure their leadership and team results. 

Level 5:  Leading Multiple Enterprises

This is the CEO level of leadership.  It is the culmination in leadership that everyone can achieve.  Encourage the leaders you developed in Level 4 to launch a new business line or division of the company.  If you are not the  president of your company and you are wanting to go to this level, create multiple streams of income for yourself.  Not by doing more but through leaders you created.  Develop a great board of directors for yourself.  Get advisers in your life and continue to advise yourself.

Go through these levels of leadership success.  Let me know what you experience.  What would you modify or add?

Leadership is what makes a person, a company, and a nation great.  It expands your influence for good.  It enables you to help people and customers that you cannot help by yourself.  It is worth the effort and the journey.

Cold Calling B2B: Part 3

"What you focus on is what grows"

I recently let a sales person go.  It was a bummer because the guy had so much potential.  So much.  When he was reassigned to be under my care versus his previous boss, I pulled out a 90 day plan to turn his sales around.  It obviously didn't work.  Why?

I could not get him to see that he needs to measure his own activities.  His low sales, according to him, was the fault of operations, the low economy, tight budgets, everything except his performance.  I asked him to measure just three activities and report them at the end of the week to me.
         #1, how many cold calls are you making a day?
         #2, how many appointments are you setting a week
         #3, how much business was closed that week.

Since he didn't want to track his own activity, he refused to send in his weekly reports and therefore, the amount of activity that generates sales was far too low.

When we track what we do, we can set goals for expansion and determine how effective our activities are.

I have studied systems of cold calling ever since I worked in a cold call center in 1994.  Unless you are a large company designed for cold calling with the technology to back it up, the best system is not a 100% technology based system.

At today's current technologies I haven't seen a software or web  application that can tally the result of the call as fast as the system I will give you.  Most of them require at least two clicks of the mouse.  My system is a swipe of the pen.

Many of the small and midsize companies use applications like ACT!, Goldmine, and Saleforce.com. Larger companies Microsoft's Dynamics CRM, Oracle CRM, and SAP.  I'm a BIG believer is using these applications.  One of the biggest reasons for failure of sales reps is not utilizing their CRM program.  They fail to put the results of meetings, conversations, and scheduled activities in it.

The objection I hear over a manual tally system is, "Mike, our software can pull the reports so we can find out how many attempts, conversations, and follow up activity or appointments were mad.  Why should we bog down the sales person with a manual activity tracking system?"

First, the system I am about to share does not bog down the sales person.  It is as fast as a slash with the pen on a piece of paper and can be done while the sales person or computer is dialing the next person.

Second, a computer generated report does not push the sales person to make 5 more calls.  After you have called 20 people you don't know if you have made 20, 25 or 15 dials.  If the daily goal is 50 dials a day or 10 contacts a day the report generated an hour, a day, or a week later, does not help the sales person know how many more calls they need to make right NOW!

So here is the system 

This system I found in the book Prospecting Your Way to Sales Success by Bill Good.  Highly recommend the book to you.  One of my sales mentors, Jim Leslie, once said, if there was only one book on phone selling or cold calling that he would recommend to his kids, this was it.  I agree.

I have a template I print out that has 20 columns and five rows.  Thus in each space I record a call.  I can dial 100 calls and know what my results are.  If I dialed a full row and three on the next row I immediately know I made 23 dials.

In each space write a "/" for each dial you make.  When I get a hold of the person I am calling for I slash a "\" across the first mark making an "X". 

• If the contact says, "Not interested," I thank them for their time, I write "NI" for "no interest" next to their contact information on my list and go on to the next call. 
• When the contact tells me they want more information sent to them, I draw a box around the "X" to signify this became an "information" lead and write "Info" on my contact list.
• When the contact agrees to an appointment, I write an "A" in front of the "X" showing  "AX".  I then write "A" on the list and the date and time of the appointment.

At the end of the day I can quickly, and "quickly" is the key word here, see how many dials I made, how many information leads were generated and how many appointments I made.  Depending on your companies needs, those numbers can either be manually entered in a spreadsheet or you can run a report from your CRM software to get your weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual numbers.

At the end, and "end" is the key word this time, of your cold calling time, go back to your contacts and start entering only those leads you made some contact with.  Enter them as no interest with a future call scheduled at a time appropriate to your business.  Enter them as an information lead and send that information to those leads.  Enter your appointments and sales with those who set appointments or bought from you.  Do all the follow up activity produced in during your cold call time after your calling activity.  If you don't you will get side tracked in your calling and will not make as many calls.

Before you trash the system, try it.  If you would like a copy of my template I am happy to send it.  Simply connect to me via LinkedIn by clicking this link:  Mike's LinkedIn Profile and send an email asking for it.

Let me know how it goes.  Next time we will discuss whether you should use a script or not and how to figure out what your are going to say to get them to buy.

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.