::: Contact Science :::

Specialized Automation for Cold Calling Programs
The last sales process to automate is the first process in the sales cycle

Management thinks the problem is solved. But, it's still not exactly right and hasn't really worked properly for decades. It's not as productive as it should be and sales people loath it. Yet, it starts every sales cycle. Every important task in the company has specific, efficient, productive and cost effective automation, except this one. We only think the problem of cold call prospecting is solved.

For most companies who depend on cold calling to generate 25% or more of their new revenue per year, this is the real situation.

The sales force is asked to do a painful job; well. They are not consistent in their performance. They have had moments of cold calling greatness; but due to irregular or infrequent use, their skills atrophy. They have software that is functionally inadequate for cold calling, since it came with software purchased to do another function: typically, pipeline management and forecasting. It is functional for generating reports, which is what management wants. However, management receives these reports at the sales person's expense. These systems require lots of data entry and lots of time to navigate. Often, the reporting lacks integrity. Complaints about the difficulties of cold calling are dismissed as "comes with the territory, just do it." Cold call prospecting is the elephant in the sales bullpen.

Cold calling is a rote process, unlike the pipeline process which has variety, creativity and challenge. In cold calling, there are not a lot of steps and they are very prescribed. These steps need specific automation to improve efficiency and performance, plus modify sales behavior to create a sustainable prospecting program that sales people will embrace.

Just because you have contact management software doesn't mean you have a solution for cold calling. Just because you can get an activity report doesn't mean you had efficient, productive activity. When reporting is disconnected from a process (especially an unpleasant process), it's not likely that the effort to report on the activity improves the performance of the activity.

Further, the activity report probably doesn't contain information you really need. For instance, were those 60 calls this week three calls to 20 companies or 20 calls to three companies? Were they all prospecting calls or were some working the pipeline? Were any of these new engagements or have all of the companies been on the call list for weeks? How many companies did you stop calling and where were they relative to being in the market for our product? How well did you follow the prospecting process we agreed upon? Did our tradeshow leads result in anything? Which are better, the leads from the direct mail campaign or the web campaign?

The sad truth is that most reporting is not used to improve the process; we ask for them so we can say we have them. We don't use them to manage the process, because they typically don't tell us enough and we question their integrity anyway. I got a report, so they must be doing something, and something is better than nothing. That I don't know what they are really doing has been status quo forever.

This is what you really want in your cold calling program.

The sales force is asked to do a painful job; well, and consistently. They prospect on a regular basis, keep their skills sharp, plus regularly discuss Best Practices with their sales peers. They have functionally correct software for cold call prospecting. 95% of the time, they use only two screens to prospect and they are prospecting with a mouse. Most keyboarding is done to record comments. There is a noticeable change in the consistency of appointment setting and in the sales person's behavior towards the process of prospecting. And, activity and performance reporting is a by-product. Sales people don't enter anything; but, their activity generates reports automatically and delivers them to your desk via email.

The key to a long term solution to cold call prospecting is behavior modification of sales, which means creating an environment where behavior can change. Mandating change has not worked, so it is time to try motivation.

For sales people, motivation starts with having what they need to be successful, consistently. Ask a sales person what it would take for them to be better at cold calling and you will hear three requests: tell me exactly what process to follow to be successful, make it fast and easy to follow that process and give me some names to put through that process.

Those are reasonable requests. Who wouldn't like to tell a new sales person, confidently, "follow this process, using this tool, to this list of suspects and you will set enough appointments to make quota."

If you deliver on these requests, you will have taken the first step towards creating a sustainable prospecting program that sales will embrace. Let's look at each of these requests briefly.

" Making 40 calls a day or prospecting for 2 hours twice a week is not a process. A process has specific elements which define the number of calls you are willing to make to a single suspect before moving on to the next one, the messaging during the call (including the voicemail if you cannot connect), tools to get the attention of the suspect and how often you should call. Finally, the process should define how long before you want to prospect again those suspects not contacted.

Once management defines the process, the real question is how many suspects you can put through the process and how productively.

" To make the process fast and easy, you need automation built specifically to manage the calling process you design. Doing data entry into a contact manager, SFA or CRM is not process automation; it's activity logging. It is not productive, much less motivating, to spend more time doing record keeping than calling.

As we already know, if it's not easy to use, sales people won't use it. Therefore, software that does not help sales people be successful is actually adding to the problem.

" There are a mathematically finite number of names that a sales person can prospect in a year, given the design of your calling process and the amount of time they commit to cold calling. The better the list, the more productive the use of cold calling time.

The list of suspects is the property of the company and needs to be prospected regularly. They should be specifically assigned to a sales person with the expectation that the call program will be faithfully executed.

Giving the sales people what they need is the first step to change the attitude and behavior needed to achieve a sustainable cold call program. The second step is for management to provide leadership in a quest for the Best Practices.

This step starts with recognizing, then leveraging, three facts: cold calling is rote, it is a shared experience and there is one best way to prospect any given product into any given market. Let's look at those three items briefly.

" Every cold call has the same exact same steps, as defined by your process. The messaging to the suspect is the same. Each suspect response can already be anticipated (Not Interested, Happy with Current Vendor, Too Busy or Send Literature) and every response prepared in advance.

" All sales people are doing basically the same rote activity, prospecting the same product into the same market. Their activity is measured the same way. They all walk the same path and feel each others pain.

" Every product and market has characteristics which can be recognized and pre-addressed to improve cold calling performance. For instance, the sales person might always be asked "What does this cost?" The sales people, as a team, can discuss how best to deliver a response which will help them set an appointment.

For management, this is the perfect opportunity to facilitate the development of Best Practices for appointment setting. A part of every sales meeting agenda should include a review of cold calling performance reports, then a discussion of Best Practices, and then a role play of responses to typical suspect responses to the request for an appointment.

The focus of sales meetings changes from "are you cold calling" to "how can we make this process more productive." The sales force is more motivated to participate because the process is clear, the automation makes it palatable and productive, plus a list of suspects is readily available. Further, the skill set to be successful is finely tuned, since it is regularly practiced and improved.

With current cold call automation, mandating works no better than mandating usually works. With appropriate automation, motivation will work, consistently, and over the long run. With specialized software, problem solved.