VSA was honored to be featured recently on the Targeted Lead Generation—a popular podcast for business leaders and entrepreneurs hosted by Coach Manny Nowak.
In the episode, Coach Manny interviewed Valerie Schlitt, our owner and founder, for about forty minutes. In addition to giving a general overview of our business, Valerie specifically discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected VSA’s business and the overall processes of appointment setting and lead generation.
Throughout the conversation, Valerie returned to one particular theme: just because the business environment has become more uncertain doesn’t mean it’s time to stop making cold calls!
Here are four insights she shared about why and how lead generation is still so important, both during COVID-19 and beyond:
- Sales cycles are long, and you need to keep your pipeline full. While this might not be the best time to close sales, it is the best time to ensure you’re well-positioned to meet your Q3 and Q4 goals. Most of VSA’s clients offer complex products or services with long sales cycles—in some cases, over six months. These companies realize the importance of continuing their lead generation efforts now so that they don’t fall behind when markets pick up again.
- Prospects are easier to reach on the phone when working from home. As noted in a previous blog entry, decision makers are generally easier to reach in their home offices. In fact, many director and executive-level personas are routing work-related calls directly to their personal numbers rather than having them screened by gatekeepers or assistants. Whether or not they’re ultimately interested in setting an appointment, this is the perfect time to make contact and learn about their challenges, goals, and needs.
- Rather than pausing your cold calling, consider changing how you position your company on the call. There seems to be a common misconception that cold calling during COVID will come off tasteless or inappropriate. In our experience, though, that simply isn’t true. If anything, remote work and social distancing has made prospects more receptive to phone calls—as long as the caller is empathetic and willing to really listen when they describe the challenges they’re facing. Valerie recommends changing the message of a cold call to position your company as offering a support system, or as a concerned partner willing to help. It’s a great time to call, but not necessarily a great time to recite your usual sales pitch.
4) The telephone is one of the only means of socially-distant person-to-person contact—and it isn’t going away. With almost all nonessential work being done remotely, the telephone, along with video calling platforms, is vitally important. When it comes to making one-on-one contact with anyone—either inside or outside of your organization—the phone is one of your surest bets right now. And one thing to be optimistic about, said Valerie, is that such personal connections are at the heart of how we do business. Whatever happens in the post-COVID future, those one-to-one connections aren’t going away.
Valerie went into a lot more detail about these points in her interview, while also describing VSA’s background, unique processes, and full scope of our services. If you’re interested, you can listen to the full episode here.
We’re proud to have been featured on the Targeted Lead Generation Podcast and to continue serving our clients and partners throughout this pandemic and beyond. As Valerie’s insights show, this is not the time to stop cold calling. With the right approach, in fact, now might be a better time than ever!