Outsourcing your cold telephone acquisition? Why not!
Many entrepreneurs tell me that ‘cold calling’ has nothing to do with sales. I do not agree! For the continuity of a company, a well filled sales-pipeline is very important.
Of course I understand that not everybody enjoys cold telephone acquisition, or that not everybody has the time to make a good ´cold call´. This is why outsourcing of telephone acquisition is an option. Obviously this is not always an option for services: in certain professions in the advisory area, such as lawyers, tax advisers, etc. I feel it is better to do the telephone acquistion yourself.
Outsource your cold telephone acquisition!
With products, however, telephone acquisition can be outsourced easily. An advantage of outsourcing the ´cold calling´ to an external company/specialist, is that they spend time on a weekly basis recruiting your potential clients. In short: the potential clients get the attention they deserve!
Before you outsource your telephone acquisition, ask yourself the following questions:
1. What do I expect the end result to be?
What do you look for when outsourcing your telephone acquisition?
There are three requirements in order to outsource ´cold calling´ in a good way! When you outsource your ´cold calling´, you want this person or organisation to have a telephone conversation with your potential client, which has professional content and is result driven. Besides that, it is very important that this person or company has a connection with your potential client. Finally, this person or company needs to have a good understanding of your product and have an affinity with it.
What is it you would like to achieve by outsourcing your cold acquisition?
If, as an enterpreneur, you outsource your ´cold calling´, you would like the specialised company to get more return out of the telephone acquisition than you would if you were to call yourself. However, do keep your expectations real. As I have explained in earlier columns, cold telephone acquisition is not selling your product. The aim of the phone call is to make an appointment with your potential client. It is important that only appointments are being made with the correct decision maker. The appointment for a face-to-face conversation, which this person/organisation makes for you, improves your chances to sell your product. However, this is only the case when you sit down with the person who makes the final decision.
Even if that person or company is not successful in making an appointment, cold acquisition can still generate something: information, such as the answer to the following questions:
What should a good ‘cold calling’ generate?
Outsourcing telephone acquisition to an external company/person involves trust. An intensive collaboration between you and the ´cold caller´ is a prerequisite. Outline what your expectations are and which information you would like to get out of the ´cold calling´.
Do not expect that one phone call will result in an appointment. Most of the time it can take up to 3 or more attempts to get to speak with your potential client. Cold telephone acquisition is a successfull sales method, but even if you outsource it, patience remains a virtue!
Of course I understand that not everybody enjoys cold telephone acquisition, or that not everybody has the time to make a good ´cold call´. This is why outsourcing of telephone acquisition is an option. Obviously this is not always an option for services: in certain professions in the advisory area, such as lawyers, tax advisers, etc. I feel it is better to do the telephone acquistion yourself.
Outsource your cold telephone acquisition!
With products, however, telephone acquisition can be outsourced easily. An advantage of outsourcing the ´cold calling´ to an external company/specialist, is that they spend time on a weekly basis recruiting your potential clients. In short: the potential clients get the attention they deserve!
Before you outsource your telephone acquisition, ask yourself the following questions:
1. What do I expect the end result to be?
- extra revenue or a larger market share
- expansion of your sales funnel of potential clients
- introduction of a new product
- exploring your chances in the market
- do you have the company and contact details of the potential client
- do you work with an online CRM system or with Excel files
- does the potential client fit in your current portfolio of clients
What do you look for when outsourcing your telephone acquisition?
There are three requirements in order to outsource ´cold calling´ in a good way! When you outsource your ´cold calling´, you want this person or organisation to have a telephone conversation with your potential client, which has professional content and is result driven. Besides that, it is very important that this person or company has a connection with your potential client. Finally, this person or company needs to have a good understanding of your product and have an affinity with it.
What is it you would like to achieve by outsourcing your cold acquisition?
If, as an enterpreneur, you outsource your ´cold calling´, you would like the specialised company to get more return out of the telephone acquisition than you would if you were to call yourself. However, do keep your expectations real. As I have explained in earlier columns, cold telephone acquisition is not selling your product. The aim of the phone call is to make an appointment with your potential client. It is important that only appointments are being made with the correct decision maker. The appointment for a face-to-face conversation, which this person/organisation makes for you, improves your chances to sell your product. However, this is only the case when you sit down with the person who makes the final decision.
Even if that person or company is not successful in making an appointment, cold acquisition can still generate something: information, such as the answer to the following questions:
- who is the decision maker in the organisation
- which objectives does the potential client have
- how can the client best prepare for the appointment
- why is the potential client not interested, what could possibly be improved
- a reason for contacting the potential client at a later stage
What should a good ‘cold calling’ generate?
- It helps with identifying the needs and wishes of your potential client
- It improves your selling chances with new clients
- It results in a qualified sales-pipeline
- And qualified appointments: you will sit down with the final decision maker
- It provides you with relevant client and market information
- And all of this gives you an advantage over your competitor!
Outsourcing telephone acquisition to an external company/person involves trust. An intensive collaboration between you and the ´cold caller´ is a prerequisite. Outline what your expectations are and which information you would like to get out of the ´cold calling´.
Do not expect that one phone call will result in an appointment. Most of the time it can take up to 3 or more attempts to get to speak with your potential client. Cold telephone acquisition is a successfull sales method, but even if you outsource it, patience remains a virtue!
More blog articles
- Doing cold telephone acquisition yourself?
- The top 25 tips to improve your telephone acquisition!
- Speaking at SPARK 2016
- Cold calling during the school holidays
- Does cold calling give you cold feet? It doesn’t have to!
- Telephone acquisition: preparation is half the battle!
- 7 tips for cold calling
- How do you stay true to yourself during cold calling?
- Cold Acquisition is a Process
- The Quality of Appointments