The turn of the calendar each winter is often reason for excitement and optimism in the business world. Companies have big goals for the upcoming year and innovative ideas about how they’re going to achieve them.
Unfortunately, as the saying (almost) goes: the best-laid plans of mice and men and management oft go astray.
It doesn’t take long to find out if you’re on the right track or not. Maybe you thought your year was off to a good start, but come mid-February and your first in-depth look at the January numbers, you realize things already aren’t progressing as you had hoped.
It’s no reason to panic, but it is, perhaps, a reason to quickly pivot and think about what you can do differently to avoid falling further behind your sales goals for the year.
One option is to consider partnering with an outsourced lead gen and appointment-setting firm, especially one with the experience, expertise, and resources to consistently connect with hard-to-reach decision-makers.
From helping you determine who the best prospects are for your services, to engaging these prospects in meaningful conversations, to following up with them in a timely manner, there are multiple ways an outside lead gen firm like VSA can ease the load on your sales team, freeing them up to concentrate on building business relationships and closing deals.
Here are three of the ways we can help keep your 2022 sales goals on track:
1. Cold calls
We’ve partnered with many businesses through the years who have abandoned internal cold-calling campaigns because they simply didn’t have enough bandwidth to maintain them … or who never attempted cold calling at all. It’s understandable—cold calling is frustrating and can often feel fruitless.
And yet every call not made is a potential missed sale. According to recent statistics compiled by global sales training company RAIN Group, 62 percent of buyers say they’d like a seller to reach out when they’re trying to solve a business problem, and more than half of senior-level buyers and decision-makers prefer to be contacted over the phone. Without cold calling, businesses might never find out who these potential buyers are.
Even if you are doing cold calling on your own, it’s likely you’re not doing it often enough or in the right manner for it to be truly effective. It takes an average of eight calling attempts to reach a prospect; VSA has the resources, experience, and technology to ensure we’re consistently making that number of attempts (or more). We also have ample data at our fingertips to determine the best times to call, the right titles to target, and the most effective messaging to use, among other metrics.
Finally, cold calling can make for some unhappy employees—63 percent of salespeople say it’s the part of their job they dislike the most. We can relieve your team of that burden.
2. Warm leads
Missing out on talking to a prospect you think might be interested in your offering is bad enough. But missing out on talking to a prospect you know is interested is even worse.
Obviously, it makes sense that “hand-raisers” who filled out a form on your website or attended a webinar or downloaded a whitepaper, or reached out via social media would be hotter prospects than those who hadn’t expressed interest at all. But that doesn’t mean they’re automatically going to convert to sales.
In fact, most don’t. Recent statistics reveal that 79 percent of marketing-qualified leads don’t convert to sales, largely due to a lack of nurturing.
Warm leads still require timely (and often multiple) follow-up calls to gauge their level of interest and move them through the pipeline. Perhaps they’re not truly the decision-maker at their company and need to refer you to somebody else. Or maybe they’re equally intrigued by one of your competitors and already engaged in serious conversation with them. Maybe their window to buy is closing fast, and they’re prepared to pursue different options.
Just finding warm leads is obviously not enough. There needs to be serious engagement, and a willingness to call as many times as it takes to get a conversation. According to Hubspot, 44 percent of salespeople give up after one follow-up call; at VSA, we never give up that easily.
3. Reaching out to past clients
Just because a client is no longer with you, it doesn’t mean they can’t offer something of value.
Ideally, reaching out to past clients could rekindle some very profitable relationships. They already know who you are and what you do, so the path to establishing trust is considerably shorter. But even if they don’t become return customers, they could still provide useful information, such as the reason they left in the first place. Maybe they’ll even offer referrals.
It’s possible that the reason they left is no longer applicable, and they’re ready to return. Or maybe there’s a new decision-maker in place who was a bigger fan of your company than the former boss.
VSA has done multiple calling campaigns to our clients’ past customers. We’ve found it to be an effective means of re-establishing relationships and generating additional revenue.
Conclusion
Life rarely goes according to plan. This is especially true in business, where there are always unexpected challenges. January’s optimism can quickly be replaced by February’s reality.
For more than 20 years, VSA has been committed to helping our partners overcome these challenges and achieve their goals. We’ve conducted multiple types of calling campaigns, customized to meet our clients’ exact needs.
If your year hasn’t gotten off to the start you anticipated, consider giving us a call. We’d love to see if we can help.