It’s astounding just how many IT businesses we speak to that still adopt this attitude to reaching out in order to get new business.
Now, let me state now that I have the utmost respect for good tele-sales professionals, in the correct environment, or in leveraging existing relationships, they can be a very cost effective way of moving your business forward; but it appears that there is a critical over reliance on this process, when the phone to the sales department stops ringing, and a state of mind that says, “Well, it’s always worked in the past!”
Unfortunately, times change and the behaviour of the people we need to reach out to has also changed, and if we want to continue to reach the decision makers that will commit to our goods or services, then our approach has to change and above all, be RELEVANT!
This is what far too many organisations don’t do; they give no thought to who is likely to make the purchasing decision, how to engage with those individuals, via what platforms of engagement, or what their pain points are likely to be?
In the busy world we live in now, understanding this process and approach is critical to your success. If you are an owner of a business, just like me, and are the decision maker within your organisation, give this some careful thought and you will begin to get an understanding of the challenges that face us all as business owners.
To help bring some clarity to this, I will let you into my busy day, (which will probably be very similar to yours and your customers), and you will get an idea of why, if you want to sell successfully to new customers, you are going to have to change your approach.
Firstly, I have been in sales, operations and business development for over 25 years and like your customers, I am very busy and everyone in my organisation knows not to put a sales call through to me. Like you and your customers, I will come into contact with over 1,000 opportunities to be sold something every day, whether it be via email, social media, printed media, TV or commercial radio. It is a very busy market place, I call it “White Noise” and to get my attention, you have got to be different and separate yourself from the crowd.
Like your customers, when I get to work I am focused and structured on the challenges facing me today, with very little time to think about anything else! So the first thing I ask you to appreciate is this; “if you wanted to contact somebody at a worse time, to try and sell them something, or in a more difficult environment, well it would be a challenge to find a more challenging time than as an interruption to my busy working day!
Should a telesales individual get through, I will be cross that they are interrupting my day and wasting my time, when I should be generating opportunities for myself; not a good start or a positive sales opportunity. If I am feeling mischievous and have not immediately terminated the call, I might throw in a challenge? It will go something like this, “OK, well done, if you can show me the VALUE and WHY in your proposition, you will get my attention! You’ve got 30 seconds, good luck!”
This part of the process invariably fails, mainly because the individual on the other end of the phone can’t speak my language, (they are likely to be in their early twenties, whilst I am in my late forties), and does not know the problems I have that need solving. If they had taken the time to understand my business and the sector within which I operate, they could’ve got my attention by building empathy and then desire; instead they will invariably start “Feature Dumping” their proposition, in the hope that something will resonate.
I’m sure I do not need to go on in highlighting the challenges we all face; investing in cold calling as the “Do All” strategy for any sales environment or marketing process. It is akin to trying to sell type writers today; type writers were great, they had their time, but the moment the “Home Computer” came along, it was all over.
In the last five years more and more companies have reverted to this approach, not because it works, but because it is cheap to get 20 interns in a room somewhere to pound the phones, “Wolf of Wall Street” style. Well as strategy for growth, I ask you to think, is my business in the environment where this approach will be appropriate and successful? Will this approach get the attention of the people who need to hear my proposition? If so, will the people who have got access to these potential customers, be the people I want to deliver my proposition?
And let me give you some personal statistics; in the last 15 years I have never bought any product or service from an organisation that approached me via a cold call. Only 3 people, (and let’s give them credit), have got through to me on my personal mobile number. Only one individual lasted longer than 30 seconds; this was not because I was interested in his proposition, not at all. I liked him because he reminded me of myself, he didn’t take “No” for answer, he showed tenacity and persistence and never gave up. Did I buy from him, absolutely not; did I recognise raw talent that I could use in my organisation, if channelled and developed correctly? Yes I did, so I offered him a job.
Lastly and most importantly, let me shatter some myths about IT and other services sold to businesses, because this is key to empathy with your customers. They don’t care about their IT services or infrastructure, not until they are not working! Owners of businesses invest in goods and services for only 2 reasons; they are obliged to by legislation or because they understand how they can leverage these investments to make money.
Like the majority of business owners, I only cared about my IT systems when they weren’t working, because I knew it was costing me money. When this happened I would reach out quickly to find someone to repair this problem as soon as possible! The commercially aware and sales orientated IT sales organisation would’ve appreciated that they needed to earn my trust and respect, so at that moment, my moment of commercial weakness, I would pick the phone up to them!
If like me you are a busy owner/senior director of a business and this resonates with you and the challenges you face, I ask you to think about this: There is another way and if you would like to work with an organisation that can help you to grow your business, via an approach that is relevant to your target audience, is targeted at decision makers in your target verticals and offers the “Value and the Why” to your target audience; then I would be delighted to hear from you and discuss how we can work together and grow your business.
In this instance please do not hesitate to contact Andrew Banning at andrewb@virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk or on 0118 947 1010; I look forward to hearing from you.
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