‘It’s OK – we’re safe now!’

By Ciaran McGuigan

Joint Managing Director

As a teenager I remember growing up fully addicted to The Hammer House of Horror movie series. The plots were almost as complex as a 70’s porn movie. The sets were obviously made by the local drama club and held together with spit & greasepaint. As for the talent, they were more frightening than the characters they were trying to portray and could often be recognised from one film to another even though they were magically transformed from werewolf to vampire to Frankenmonster!

But to this day I still love watching horror movies and thrillers – even the bad ones. Actually come to think of it, especially the bad ones. Sitting on the edge of our seats, holding our breath we can see the monster about to attack and wish that if they only turned around or didn’t go through that door they would be OK. Then after avoiding near death, there was always the classic line; you know the one. The one where the young hero would put his arms around the girl, she would nestle her head on his shoulder and he would say [in a John Wayne sort of a way] something along the lines; ‘it’s OK we’re safe now’.

At that moment and right on cue – the mad axeman would pop up from behind the sofa with crazy mad axeman eyes and start fiendishly making impromptu sashimi from our heroes’ foreheads. Why am I telling you this story? Well, I sense that the Australian economy might be about to do an ‘its OK we’re safe now’ type of move in terms of avoiding the full weight of the GFC monster’s axe.

I don’t think it’s OK and I certainly don’t think Australian Businesses are safe – by some margin. As sales professionals and business owners we have to remain vigilant and keep our business engineering tight and effective. Now is not the time to relax, it is the time to stay focussed and driving value and accountability in everything we do.

The Simple Truth

By Darren Llewellyn

General Manager Sales and Operations

It is the new financial year and for many sales teams the slate has been wiped clean. As a result we have new, and sometimes higher, mountains to climb to achieve the sales targets set for us over the coming period.

In most cases 2008/09 was a less than stellar year, with many clients and prospects reducing their spend in light of the economic climate. There is however optimism that the new financial year will see a reversal of fortunes as businesses emerge from a period of uncertainty into the glare of new opportunity. This is your chance to shine.

Whilst the ‘good old days’ may take a while to return, there are some simple strategies you can put into place to create new wealth for your business: 

• Expand your offer – many businesses have been set in their ways and have developed a preconceived idea of who their ideal client base is. While the larger organisations have been dormant, many small and medium businesses have taken the opportunity to show some initiative and increase their market share and exposure. Now is the time to make connections with these businesses to seek a mutually productive relationship whilst they are looking to expand
• Industry events – as the market turns positive, so does the return of the free breakfast. Many industry organisations are committed to improving your chances of success by showcasing your offer to a broad audience. We’ve all been impressed with speakers at these events and wondered whether we could replicate their success in drawing a crowd of potential buyers. Develop a compelling topic and contact your industry association for upcoming events. This is the ideal way to present yourself to prospects en masse to maximise your exposure
• Social networking – this is not a generational trend; it is an effective tool for promoting your business to an expanded circle of prospects. Whilst you may not believe your day is interesting enough to log every step on Twitter, creating a presence on sites such as LinkedIn can assist in creating opportunities. Whilst you are able to promote yourself and your organisation, you also have the ability to research your prospects and create new contacts with organisations you believe would benefit from your offer

 The simple truth is that as sales people we need to see ourselves as the drivers of the recovery of our business. Through our initiatives we will demonstrate to the rest of the business that there are bright days ahead. Now, where are my spikes – time to get climbing.

Managing Your Boss

By Rachel Poon

Client Services Manager

Most of us think of management as managing subordinates. However if you want to have real impact, then managing your boss is an essential skill you should develop in order for your career to thrive and obtain the best outcome possible for yourself and the business. It is not about office politics or “sucking up”, but how to use your time in the most efficient and effective manner. With unemployment currently at 5.8% and trending upwards, it is important to understand how to make your ideas heard and communicate what you are doing. Here are three ways you can increase your visibility and worth in the workplace by managing upwards.

1. Perception: The way others (especially your managers) view you and your role is critical. How you interact with your peers, your team members, external clients etc all creates a sense of who you are.  Your ideas and work will seem more credible and people are more likely to pay attention to you when they have a positive perception of you, your work ethic and personality.  Remember however, that perception does not mean you change who you are or what you believe, but manage the expectations of those around you. Consistency and reliability are key.
2. Anticipate: Ensure that you are always ready for a question, change of heart or to be able to stand up for your analysis, work or opinion.  Being able to provide a confident answer and opinion with justification for your work whether you are right or wrong will always work to your advantage. This means asking questions when you are unsure and making sure that your managers, staff and peers are accountable to you where necessary.
3. Listen: This may appear counter intuitive to making your ideas heard, but often is the first step towards achieving success. Understanding what is required of you and knowing the relevant context and how to deal with difficult managers is integral to successful relations. Find out how they like information presented to them and play to this style regardless of how illogical it may appear to you. It is not in your power to change who they are, but you can adapt to their style(s). This may mean presenting/pitching the same information in different ways and with different emphasis on different areas of the business to different managers.

Times are tough at the moment, but your working relationships don’t have to be. By keeping the above three points in mind it will not only help you it will also help your managers and ultimately the business succeed, not just today, but in your future career as well.

St Patrick was in Sales

By Ciaran Mcguigan

Joint Managing Director

 

March 17 is Saint Patrick’s Day. The traditional patron saint of Ireland’s day is usually celebrated around the world with green beer, fried food and bad Irish accents. I thought this year as we are in the season we could all benefit from a little more background on why he was so successful when so many had failed before hand.

 

Before St Patrick went to Ireland there had been many unsuccessful missions [read sales trips] attempting to bring Christianity to pagan Ireland. Ireland, like many other parts of pagan Europe, consistently resisted attempts to convert the population. Now back then as a missionary if you were unsuccessful it generally meant that you were dead; so we can assume that every missionary prepared thoroughly and was personally committed to the outcome. So what did Patrick do which was different?

 

There are three lessons for us all.

 

Lesson One: He spoke their language

 

All previous missionaries arrived speaking classical Latin which naturally no one in Ireland understood. Because of Patrick’s years in slavery he could speak in the local tongue and he understood local customs and behaviour. At a fundamental level he could engage with his prospect base. Ask yourself how many of your sales team can speak CEO or Marketing, Finance or Distribution. Learn how to speak your customer’s language and you will write more business.

 

Lesson Two: He worked for the long term solution

 

Patrick was after long-term fundamental change – he wanted to convert core beliefs and systems which had been established for millennium. He knew that simply to arrive, build a church and start converting would not work over the long term. His predecessors had arrived with this strategy and had approached local chiefs and tribal elders with the goal that if they converted the chief then everyone in the tribe would follow. That’s fine – the only problem is if the chief then changes his mind – so does everyone else. No one was ever really converted. Rather than follow this, Patrick looked for the people who looked after the future of the village or tribe; the children. Patrick specifically targeted and spoke to the women in each community knowing that if he can influence them then they in turn will bring up their children, male and female, with their beliefs; beliefs which will stand the test of time.

 

Lesson Three: He leveraged existing symbols

 

In Ireland, as in many parts of the ancient world, the Sun was worshipped as the main diet. It made sense, after all the sun brought life everyday. It was one of the few constants in a dangerous world. Patrick knew that he could not replace the sun symbol which was worshiped and symbolised in art, jewellery and custom. He had one symbol; the crucifix and what he did next was one of the smartest marketing strategies I have ever come across. He combined them. What we now know as a ‘Celtic’ cross is in fact the pagan symbol for the sun in combination with a cross. Here is our lesson; We should all ask ourselves – How does our product or service compliment our competitors. If we can change our pitch from either / or, to ALSO then we can win more business and grow accounts.

How Do Marketers Screw-Up Outsourced Telemarketing? Let Me Count the Ways …

By Michael A.Brown

© 2008, Michael A. Brown
www.michaelabrown.net

A while back, DMNews International carried this extraordinary quote: “Where you may want to use a service bureau is in the making of programs. They already have a pool of talent and are a way you can get good results. And you don’t have to pollute (italics added) your offices with a telemarketing department.” Pollute! I can’t recall a stronger verb applied to a legitimate business practice. 

The person quoted, a European publisher, has it all wrong of course. The “making of programs” is up to the marketer, not the service bureau. And the “pool of talent” too often isn’t.

 Nevertheless, the misguided publisher does provoke an interesting question: what other mistakes do marketers make when outsourcing telemarketing? In my work with many companies that outsource telemarketing, and several outsourcers themselves, I have identified six “killers” … three each strategic and tactical.

Strategic

1.       Inherent business mismatch: they don’t really do what you really need done. Examples:

• Your marketing strategy calls for sustained opportunity development and lead nurturing but the outsource provider is better at stand-alone campaigns.

• Their history and their hearts are in b-to-c, but because of National Do Not Call Lists in the USA and elsewhere, they pretend to be knowledgeable and experienced in b-to-b.

• Inappropriate technologies such as predictive dialers, and rude behaviors such as pitching during the call opening and failing to ask, “Is this a suitable \ good \ OK time for a conversation?”

• Wrong metrics such as dials-per-day and talk-time rather than ratios of results v. efforts and generating enough viable opportunities.                                                      

• Their labor market, education base, and turnover rates will not support the right types and levels of calls to the kind of people you need to reach. For instance, they hire high school grads to contact C-level prospects.

• They are offshore, and their reps cannot understand what your prospects and customer are saying and vice versa.

2.       Undisciplined outsourcer selection and default of oversight. Examples:

• Some marketers fail to screen the outsource provider themselves, much less conduct due-diligence in selection. Rather, they have purchasing put out an RFI or RFP. To me, that’s a firing offense. (Are you reading this, really large technology companies?)

• Ignoring or not even acknowledging an absolutely crucial outsource selection criterion … the outsourcer MUST forecast to staff, NOT staff to forecast. If the latter, their “stable” of callers and the callers’ quality will fluctuate widely. Also, their management will spend more time recruiting and interviewing than attending to your projects. Conversely, forecast-to-staff generally yields a more dependable group of permanent callers, meaning a greater likelihood of continuity and success for your marketing campaigns and projects.

• Allowing more than 30% of the callers to be temporaries. You need to know who is calling on your behalf at all times and that they are trained and competent to do so. That cannot happen with a room full of temps.

• Not conducting constant high-level management of the business relationship and the conduct of the calls, and then expressing surprise when callers say odd, ineffective stuff and results fall short..

3.       Not recognizing that besides catering to your marketing requirements, the outsource call service bureau also has their own business to run, and it’s not yours. They have to turn a decent profit, exactly as you do. Beat ‘em up over price and you will pay the price.

Tactical

1.       Failure to integrate telemarketing with other marketing and sales media and\or to tell the outsourcer about the others. Here are the penalties:

• The outsource callers do not know about, nor have they seen, the webinar content, mailing, or offer that their call is based on or supports.

• The outsource callers are supposed to read from marketing “scripts” that were originally written for visual media such as web sites or print, not the ear … and they sound awful!

• Out-of-context campaigns and offers that under-perform. Customers and prospects want whatever we present to them to make sense in their business life and timetable, not ours. The “call from out of the blue” confuses and annoys and does not sell. What callers speak about must be relevant and timely to the prospect, not the marketer.

2.       Allowing the outsource provider to conduct undifferentiated calling. Examples:

• The “one call fits all” approach, without prospect research or call preparation.

• Generic, undifferentiated calls to high-level contacts fail, unfailingly.

• Asking outbound reps to make 100 dials a day. Dials without resulting conversations mean nothing. Talk-time without qualified leads, positive next steps, and orders causes poverty.

• Over-automation. In their attempts to reduce costs, some marketers want to replace live callers with automated messaging systems. And don’t we all love automated messaging systems.

• Narrative phone mail “ads” (some over 2 minutes long!) left overnight for prospects to listen in the morning. After clearing 83 spams from their e-mail and hearing “you have 24 new messages” on their phone mail, the last thing prospects want is an infomercial.

• Disguising sales calls as surveys. Deception eventually destroys the deceiver regardless of the economy.

3.       Not listening to what is being said and done by the outsourcer on the marketer’s behalf. Examples:

• Inability to monitor calls from anywhere on the planet. If you cannot hear them, you cannot assess them. And marketers never should leave monitoring solely up to the outsourcer. Hey, it’s your stuff!

• Their technology is incompatible with yours. Their data input, throughput, and output is on a different platform and\or in a different format. While it is not necessary to replicate every technology aspect, you do need consistency and continuity so everyone in marketing and sales and the outsource company “reads from the same page.”

The good news is that every one of these mistakes is entirely avoidable! If you avoid them, you’ll do much better despite our economic woes. May you prosper!

The Dollar Value – Increasing the value of your marketing dollar

By Sali Lu

So, we have the inevitable headlines… as jobs are being axed in the tens of thousands at a time. And, of course, enterprise spend is under increasing scrutiny (if not completely frozen). This is equally true for marketing budgets, as cost cutting seems to take resounding priority over growth. In fact, (ideally) cost cutting will need to happen despite growth.

 

Quite simply, every single dollar, from an outcome point of view, needs to be leaner and meaner. The main advantage of outsourcing lead generation is to help both your Management and Sales Teams achieve greater cost savings by reducing the overhead costs associated with hiring and managing your own internal teleprospectors.

 

There are a number of variables that you are able to control when delivering any type of marketing campaign:

1)      The market

2)      Branding (how will your brand hold up as competitors become more fierce?)

3)      Positioning (is your brand positioned to be attractive during a recessionary period?)

 

More specifically in outsourcing teleprospecting campaigns, the elements that we can take control include:

1)      Good Data

2)      An attractive offer

3)      The right pitch

 

The one thing that we can’t control is Macro-economic factors (legislation, inflation, interest rates…)

 

We are in a time when the variables we cannot control are proving to be a challenge. Thus, the elements we can control (like the operator and the pitch) become increasingly important.

 

How will the operator respond to all of the above factors, intuitively, and articulate value professionally and convincingly?

 

1. Unscripted pitch means that operators are trained to engage naturally with each prospect. Prospects especially decision makers are highly resistant to scripted calls, simply because they sound artificial and insulting. A well executed, unscripted campaign can ensure that calls to prospects which don’t yield an immediate result will present your company’s brand in a positive light, building long term value.

 

2. Market intelligence includes immediate and actionable feedback, as well as the ability to incorporate market research into sales mix. Anecdotal feedback and building strong qualifying questions is the key in achieving better results and value in lead generation.

 

3. Visibility occurs when there is interaction and participation between the client and our operations team at SFS. Clear visibility helps us to better understand the needs of our client.

 

A tighter marketing budget may not necessarily mean shrinkage in the outcome of your next campaign. However, this is only possible when all the controllable factors are taken into good care.

The $28,000 sandwich

By Ciaran McGuigan

 

Free for lunch? You may not have given today’s lunch much thought – after all it’s pretty routine. Pop into the sandwich bar and five or six dollars later lunch is taken care off. I also usually grab a bottle of cold water from the fridge. My perception of lunch changed recently when I was powerfully reminded, by two different news reports, of just how much more important Value is rather than Price when it comes to selling.

 

Let me illustrate: How about paying US$455. for just a few teaspoons of twenty seven year old water. Or, if your budget will stretch to it, how about US$28,000 for a ten year old grilled cheese sandwich? – With a large bite taken out. In 1977 Wade Jones kept a plastic cup which Elvis had been drinking out of and froze the remaining contents. This was six months before Elvis died. In the autumn of 1994 Diane Duyser, from Florida, made a toasted cheese sandwich and was surprised to see an image of the Virgin Mary looking back at her.

 

Both of these items were auctioned on ebay recently and their former owners were delighted to find that there were hundreds of people from all over the world happy to bid what may seem at first ridiculous amounts of money. Let’s take a look at these in more detail:

 

Value and price are NOT the same

Our customers act on what they perceive as value. We don’t know what that is until we start to engage them in conversation and listen to their responses and the meanings behind them. Sometimes our greatest challenge is setting aside our own perceptions of their needs. The reality is that customers have demonstrated time and again that they will buy what they want before what they need. Find out what those unique wants are and relate your product to move them towards their outcomes.

 

Technology can create new markets

One of the major reasons why these sales were possible and profitable is the internet. ebay have combined a global reach and a niche focus to empower people from all over the world who can  now buy and sell products and services which would be impossible on a local and regional level. A major feature in the sale of these items was their ‘newsworthiness’. The ‘sandwich’ customer, Richard Rowe, CEO of The Golden Palace casino, is already using it to market his establishment.

 

This is a perfect example of supply and demand. If there are a group of interested and keen people bidding for a unique item and there is a deadline (like an auction) then prices are going to go up – irrespective of how ridiculous it may seem to those who have no interest in the product.

 

So what can we learn as sales people?

1.      Don’t use your own value systems to qualify clients

Start you client interviews with a blank slate. Ask plenty of quality questions and listen to the answers. Take lots of notes and try not to jump to conclusions. I like to almost act as if I were a family Doctor and ask what may seem obvious. But more often than not yields important information.

What we think of as expensive / cheap is just that; what WE think. It is not uncommon for sales people to believe that their product would sell more if it cost less. If you focus on the VALUE your product could have for your customer, then price will not be an issue.

 

2.      Find out what is truly unique about your product

Do you know what is truly unique about your product? It is not what you think, it is what your prospect thinks is unique about your product that matters. Once you understand their perspective you are in a powerful sales position. The way to do this is by constantly asking them for their opinions on features and characteristics of your product class. Something else that you may not have considered; YOU make your product unique.

 

3.      Make it easy for them to Buy

Finally make it easy for your customers to make buying decisions and to actually buy from you. Can you offer proof, guarantees, easy payments etc? Can they purchase online, over the phone, by mail order or any other way they chose. One of the factors of an auction like ebay is that each prospect can see in real time just how easy it is for their competition to buy. This helps ‘fuel’ the competitive atmosphere and drive the price higher. Although I still think that US$28,000 is a bit over the top. Now if there had been ham in it, well that’s another story!

 

Show Me the Money

By Chris Moriarty

You might have heard there is some sort of financial disaster unfolding around the world that means sometime in the next few years we will all be back to using horse and carts.

This is great news if you are a farrier, a cart maker, or really really good at chipping small flints off large rocks.

The point is one person’s disaster is another’s opportunity.

And at Strike Force Sales we are in the opportunity business.

That is why we are planning the 2009 Purchasing Intentions Omnibus – otherwise known as ‘Show Me The Money!’

For while the sale of Zenia suits and Mont Blanc pens in and around Martin Place might be down next year other areas are going to boom.

For example, anything that helps companies control, monitor and cut costs as well as improve their balance sheets or lift general governance and visibility standards.

There is going to be a massive economy-wide drive for efficiency and productivity gains.

Whole new industries are going to emerge; industries that today are only nascent or may not exist at all.

Be the first

That is why this omnibus is so important — you can be among the first to find out exactly where the spending hot spots are going to be.

Strike Force Sales, working with procurement specialists Ariba, has built a fantastic database of procurement executives inside more than a thousand companies with 200 or more employees.

As soon as the dust starts to settle – in about eight weeks, we are going to ring them all up and ask at least 200 of them 20 questions.

Then, just as you return from your New Year break, we are going to serve you up the answers – the definitive guide to what people will be spending money on during 2009 – possibly the toughest business year in a generation.

We will only be offering a few questions for sale – and the price of each question will start from $3000 (ex-GST).

Not only do you get to set the question… but you get first access to the answers. The general market will not get access to the report until mid-April 2009.

To be involved call Kevin Bogdanov on (02) 8080 3892 or Sali Lu on (02) 8080 3689.

What’s new in the SFS world: Web Based Appointments

By Rachael Poon

In the last few months, Strike Force Sales has been developing a new avenue to deliver appointments to our valued customers. What we have done is set up a web based system for a team of approximately 80 independent consultants throughout Australia, allowing them to purchase packages of top quality Strike Force Sales appointments through our website.

The concept of web based appointments is quite innovative as it provides each consultant with an interactive interface, including a personal login and password to manage and view all appointments. Additionally, individual consultants have the ability to purchase appointments at varying qualification levels (dependent on the propensity to purchase) at different price points in their own states.

The directive of the campaign has been to set appointments with various Business Owners and Managing Directors of SME’s throughout Australia who are open to the opportunity to have a closer look at their business and improve on it with the help of an external consultant.

The registration is free, and the process is very simple. Once the appointments are ordered, they are put into a queue system, and our tele-prospectors get on the phone and uncover opportunities for that consultant. The consultants are provided with a dedicated website which is easy to navigate and includes a dedicated Account Manager on the other end to handle their ad hoc requests and questions if needed. In addition to the registration, the members are given the opportunity to put down their experience, qualifications and areas of expertise, which allows our team to better match the appointments with the right consultant.

Although this is a newly developed initiative, it has been increasingly successful, with new purchase orders almost daily! The best news is that we have many returning consultants, purchasing more appointments once their first lot has run out, and for some, even before they have finished their first set of appointments- many of which have converted these appointments to actual business.

At Strike Force Sales, we envision that the web based appointment model has the ability to be rolled out to many businesses with a large sales force (possibly nation wide) to provide staff with an interactive tool to receive quality appointments, while at the same time, provide managers with visibility to what their staff is receiving. It also allows a business to measure the cost per acquisition at a more detailed and accurate level. The price per appointment varies with the specific nature and difficulty of the campaign, product or service, and will be determined after a pilot program with Strike Force Sales.

Command, Control, Script, Structure, Labour, and Result

By Darren Cox

Allow me to be blunt. Being a Tele-prospector is tough work. I’ve spoken before about how our operators are in the job of collecting no’s, and that’s not an easy task for anyone to handle eight hours a day, five days a week.

Having worked within the call centre industry now for over fifteen years, I’ve worked with some of the most gifted and talented of operators. I’ve seen them come and go through the business like there’s a perpetual revolving door. Turnover is high.

So, how, as an Operations Manager, do I retain this talent, and more importantly, how do I cultivate it? These are some of the things I’d like to talk about over the coming weeks.

In order to create, and develop the best team, one must have processes and procedures which provide the Operators with the training and tools to achieve their goals.

One of Strike Force Sales key differentiators would be that we do not use scripts. To call prospects in an unprofessional, stilted, and jagged manner would be counter productive for all parties involved.

As a means of ensuring our Operators are capable of calling on behalf of our clients, in a clear, succinct, and professional manner, we utilise one of our primary tools – the Proof Pain Gain Model.

The Proof Pain Gain Model – commonly referred to as the PPG – provides the Operators with a structure to quickly and easily assimilate our client’s pitch, to have conversations with targeted/qualified prospects, and at the same time add value to each call.

Essentially, having a tool like the PPG, not only provides our Operators with the knowledge and capability to close qualified and quality appointments for our clients, but also to take the pain out of their day to day grind of collecting those no’s.

Consequently, the ability to know how to pitch, and close appointments, without getting shot down in a blaze of glory sounding scripted, will help slow the revolving door and ensure the Operator gets more enjoyment out of their job; to feel like they’ve made a difference. To give them purpose.

What do you do to give your team a purpose? All businesses should check their balance:

The balance between Command and Control

Are you issuing commands to get your sales guys to perform – by perhaps writing them scripts to use? Or are you giving your team their own ability to control their calls, in order that they can develop conversations?

The balance between Script and Structure

If you’ve written a script, is it a structure you have determined each call should flow? Or, have you provided a structure that’s open enough to offer enough for a conversation to develop, for rapport to be built, and affinity to be gained?

The balance between Result and Labour

Are you focused on the need to produce results by hard labour; whipping your team to bang out the calls in the hopes of stumbling across an opportunity? Or are you focused on the result, and the processes and procedures required achieve those results?

Have you found the balance needed to provide your team with a purpose of their own?