Step Three: Talk to the prospective leads

The use of the phone in modern lead generation is often overlooked by companies. This is misguided, because high quality outbound calling is by far the most effective mechanism for qualifying leads—especially for a complex sale, in which it is the best option for contacting high-level decision makers.

There is a quote from a book called “Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter’s Guide” (Simon and Schuster Free Press, 2005) by authors Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway and Jon Warshawsky which sums up this point:

“The deluge of e-mail today has brought a different dimension to phoning. The live human voice makes significant things happen. There is perhaps less economy in a phone exchange than an e-mail message, but economy is not necessarily a good thing when the need is to connect with people. In another sense, phoning implies effort. People appreciate effort. That five-minute conversation requires you to dedicate that much of your time to the person you are calling. You talk. The prospect listens. The prospect talks. You listen. It’s an amazing thing, knowing that someone is paying attention and then returning the favor. Amazingly different, anyway.”

Having a live conversation confers a value much higher than ten emails in today’s world of no-contact communications. A skilled telephone operative is able to build a relationship with a customer much more quickly and effectively than a thousand emails. If you are dealing with an important issue, the investment made in a live phonecall is soon rewarded. A phonecall provides you with the opportunity to respond in real-time, put across the quality of your staff and product and pick up a mass of unspoken information.

It is easy to be seduced by newer, ‘dynamic’ methods of lead generation, which has led to a drop in the perceived value of the phone call. Remember though, no other channel is as concise when it comes to collecting the information sales staff require to decide whether a lead is worth pursuing. The phone is instant, interactive and personal—the perfect combination of assets for building a relationship.

The phone call is very useful for qualifying a prospect who is part-way to becoming a true lead. Qualification calling is designed for:
• Reducing time spent pursuing unqualified leads;
• maximising time spent on true sales opportunities;
• sticking to to the agreed lead definition;
• pursuing events leads;
• pursuing web inquiries;
• pursuing direct mail responses;
• pursuing all other inquiries.

The phone, useful as it is, must be supported. It is the convergence for all other methods in the lead generation system, the meeting point for qualifying leads of any type.

There is an acronym for helping you decide what makes a good lead, it should meet the BANTS test:

Budget. Is the client aware of the required budget, do funds exist and can they be signed off?
Authority. Who makes the decisions, and are they involved?
Need. Has the client recognised the need for the product or service? Is there a desire for it?
Time frame. Has the time frame been discussed and agreed on?
Sales ready. Is the client ready for the sales staff?

If your company is committed to providing genuine, sales-ready leads to your sales staff, make sure you have a dedicated teleprospecting function as a priority.