When you work in sales, it’s nearly impossible to go about your day without constantly thinking about the numbers. Should your sales reps invest their valuable time on in-depth calls, or focus on calling as many prospects as possible?
The answer is that you should have a strategy for both: call as many prospects as possible, as quickly as possible, so that you can connect with a decision-maker for a quality call.
At York Consulting, we define quantity calls as those we make to gather information about your list of contacts, identify the decision-maker, and try to connect with that person. A quick 30- to 60-second Internet search to gain a basic understanding of who the client is and what they do will focus the call. When you get that contact on the phone you will be able to introduce yourselves as knowing something about the company you are calling.
If this search doesn’t provide that information, save additional research for later. They may not actually be a prospect. What’s not productive here is that many representatives will over-research the prospect, spending 10 or more minutes on the prospect’s website, resulting in a very low call volume. The end goal when making quantity calls is to find and connect with as many decision-makers as possible. Depending on the industry, the size of the company, and the seniority of the decision-maker, it takes us an average of eight calls before we reach the contact.
While quantity calls must also be made with care, we define quality calls as the conversations with a decision-maker. With a tailored script in hand that reflects your brand, your company’s personality, and the business issues that your products or services solve, the quality call begins once you connect with the decision-maker. The objective then becomes to schedule an in-person meeting, discovery phone call, or web meeting. Resist the temptation to get into too much detail – save it for the meeting. It’s rare that a contact will have enough time on this call to give you proper consideration.
If your representatives are too busy with their existing base to make enough new calls to enough new prospects to meet growth targets, contact us today!
