VO Group

Lead Generation

admin — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:24:31 +0000

It has been our experience that effective Sales Prospecting has a few elements that seemingly are argued about among marketing and sales people.

The term “low fruit” comes to mind. ”Low Fruit”….those that are in the current buying season, those that have BANT (budget authority need and timeframe) defined before you call them, and then looking at your competitors.

Then there is the situation where you have a strong financial play and your offering can save a company money. Sometimes we run across accounts that did not realize that your offering existed and that they could save with an offering like yours. Sometimes we need to Provoke the Buyer….or as we say…Provoke the Economic Buyer with your Financial Play. In this case…we might not see BANT …or at least “allocated” budget and/or a defined timeframe because they actually were not looking for a solution at least as specifically as your solution is.

Is low fruit really the best sales situation?
Is a customer that you have provoked in the buying season? Do they have a budget?
If you find a BANT situation, are you late to the party?
Would you rather be early to the party to set criteria…..if your sales cycle is 6 months or better?
Low fruit, BANT, and those in the current buying season many times are called Tier 1 leads. But are these really the best sales opportunities? It seems in a perfect world, most sales people would like to be first, not last. But we all know this world is not perfect.

Prospecting IS Sales, not Marketing

admin — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:46:58 +0000

Is it no wonder that telemarketing has a black eye.

We call it Sales Prospecting. This is different than doing email blasts, which could be called Marketing.

What we find is that most technology companies have their lead generation programs sitting under Marketing, yet they wonder why their solutions that sell for $200K plus are not properly qualified. There seems to be a fence set up or turf war between Sales and Marketing. Gartner did a study …..70% of Marketing people thought that leads (in the tech space) were adequate, yet 70% of Sales people thought the leads were not adequate…yet 70% of the lead gen programs were operated by Marketing people.

There is a disconnect here that should be resolved…or could be resolved easily. Have the (SALES) Prospecting effort fall under Sales. Or simply embrace a philosophy…“Hired by Sales, Supported by Marketing”. Sales people that deflect Sales Prospecting efforts to their Marketing people are the first to complain, when they ought to be the first to embrace that “Sales” Prospecting IS Sales, not Marketing.
- Stephen Zarick

I have no budget….

admin — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 19:35:06 +0000

Do you or your sales people hear the words in this soft economy “I have not budget”?. If your offering has a strong financial play, do you let these words slow you down, or do you actually welcome them. I walked the floor of a trade show recently and I hear many attendees say the words “I want…..but how can we figure out how to pay for it.” Many people may want your offering, it’s your job to help them figure out how to pay for it….if they say they have no “allocated” budget. - Stephen Zarick

Prospecting vs Selling

admin — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:27:21 +0000

What we find is that even the best sales people do not wish to prospect. When we say this we are referring to prospecting for net new accounts. Prospecting to find all the buyers is a tedious task; finding the User Buyer, the Technical Buyer as well as the Economic Buyer is something that requires tenacity. Many sales people have a hard enough time prospecting within their own account to identify new buyers and new opportunities. Prospecting is a separate skill set than Selling. Most sales people want to be paid to make sales and think that prospecting is a less expensive task. - Stephen Zarick