Prospecting 2.0 Webinar Q&A

We had a huge crowd participate in yesterday’s How to Improve Lead Generation with Prospecting 2.0 webinar and we will announce the winners of the 3 free books shortly. Thanks for all the excellent questions everyone submited, this relevant topic struck a chord for many and I’m glad to help lift some of the confusion cloud. Listen to the audio version and download the slides.

In this session, I started painting the picture of the sales realities in this Prospecting 2.0 landscape and how to capture the attention of a busy, distracted, risk averse, opt-out crowd. I addressed the burning question of Voice Mail- Dead or Alive? and talked about my Dynamic Duo= VM+EM = Higher Response. Next, I talked about Power Search, the hierarchy of power that sits on org charts and the social hierarchy of power and how it looks on a LinkedIn profile. I warned everyone to get out of the No-Po zone and how to identify the Power Buyer. Another controversial question, is B.A.N.T. dead or alive and I introduced my winning qualification criteria. Finally, some initial Prospecting Predictions for the New Year.

Thanks for all the fantastic questions, I selected a few that directly related to this topic. See my answers below:

Q: How important is branding with these emails? Our marketing department insists on specific font colors for emails and won’t allow deviation because of their perception of our brand. Does this make a difference?
A: I think branding is fine as long as it doesn’t dominate the email content and it doesn’t take too long to upload as many browers cannot see the same image.

 

Q: What if you are sending an email follow up after a presentation where you are summarizing the discussion and what they wanted from us? Does the one paragraph rule still apply?
A: The one-paragraph rule mostly applies with new outbound introductory emails where you want to keep it short and succinct. If you have already established a relationship with your prospect, you can bend the rules a bit more.

 

Q: How should you start an email if you have not made contact with the prospect?
A: The first sentence of your email is incredibly important. Don’t waste it by writing, “Hi, my name of Bob Smith and I want to introduce myself….” or with another common weak lead sentence that says, “I’ve tried reaching you but have been unsuccessful.” Instead punch out your opening sentence with something such as, “Congratulations, I understand you recently have taken over all global operations and believe that ABC is lucky to have you at the helm.” or “I understand your oversee the products division and work closely with Susan Smith, Bob Jones and Erin Thames..”

Q: I send out 2000 emails a week and follow up with 1% to 2%.  It would be impossible to email and call at the same time.
A: I agree with you and suggest that you organize your outbound prospects and rank them as A-B-C prospects. You can rank these by company size, lead source, etc. You might want to consider combining your email and voice mail efforts with your A prospects only.

 

Q: Do you suggest email followed by call or call followed by email
A: I don’t think this matters as long as they are delivered together and synchronized.

 

Q: If voice mail is dead, how do you recommend having a customer getting the personal touch feel from you?  I find this very hard to do in an e-mail
A: Oh yes, we cannot forget about the personal touch. I don’t think voice mail is dead- it just needs a little help from it’s friend, email. Both of these combined increase chances of response and reinforce your personal touch rule.

 

Q: How can you bypass a NO-PO diplomatically  without him feeling bypassed (and potentially creating an enemy)
A: It is a very delicate situation if and when you decide to bypass the No-Po and you must be careful. First off is don’t leave tracks such as voice mail and email which can potentially be forwarded back to your No-Po. You must build out the org chart to understand the hierarchy of power and once you contact them always mention the name of your No-Po and complement their efforts but give a reason why you are working around them.   

 

Q: What about power outside of the company hierarchy? What about reaching out to prospects other trusted vendors that you can partner with and piggy back on their good will with the top contacts?
A: That is a good idea as long as their influence is positive and substantial. If not, you might make things worst.

Q: This isn’t any differnt than See-more from VITO
A: The VITO concept and a No-Po is very much like the “Seymour” person. It dives deeper and explores how much the No-Pos really keep you out and how their prestigious titles are fancy disguises for their lack of power.  

 Q: What is the current average for number of decision makers involved in typical sales cycle? 
A: This depends on the average size of your sale cycle and product/service offerings. On average, you must be ready to convince 6-8 people within the buying cycle.

 

 

Q: If my software technolgy is directly geared to the “no po” shouldnt i start with him?  Cant he be my champion to get us inside and convince the committee?
A: Many lead qual and lead gen teams are geared to begin their prospecting journey at the No-Po level and they are a very necessary part of the sales process. The DANGER comes when we stick to them and believe they can actually do something and eventually they don’t. The message is clear, spend time with the No-Po’s but know when to gracefully move away from them.  

Q: What does BANT stand for again?
A: BANT stands for = “Budget, Authority, Need, Timeframe” it’s normally used as part of the lead qualification / lead generation process.