I love cold calling. I am the one that puts up my hand and waves when asked this question in a sales training session. But like you I have challenges connecting through to people. What with voicemail and our busy schedules, it’s tough getting through to a “live” person.
One way to warm up cold calls is to launch niche market prospecting. Niche prospecting is an opportunity to create clients by marketing to a group of prospective customers (in an intelligent and somewhat aggressive manner) who want to see you and/or your salespeople. It’s a method that allows you to mine for new clients in a concise and focused manner.
The topic of prospecting is vast and certainly deserving of another look. In this article, we revisit the theme and discuss research to help you develop lists of key target accounts in your own business with some cool and creative delivery ideas for your marketing effort. My clients who have used these methods approach an 85% success rate in prospecting!
I have worked with clients who often tell me they sell to every important customer within their target market. But after we do some research, we find there are many new prospects right around the corner they haven’t yet tapped into.
For example, a client of mine was hoping to get new business generated in the corporate training sector. Her sales were flat and she needed to break through the door in a more profound way. After discussing the problems related to this loss of income, my client had a choice: she could give up the business, or she could market aggressively to gain the volume back through new customers. This client actually chose the second option, though she believed she knew (and in many cases did business with), all of the major prospects within a 20 mile radius of her office.
Our first step was to see if this was true. Using the Internet, we identified 43 companies with more than 500 employees within 20 miles of her location. We were able to pinpoint the companies that she was interested in approaching and wanted as clients.
Do you know all the key prospects in your area?
I often find that as small business owners we don’t spend enough time doing research. We sometimes think we know and sell to all the key prospects in our city or region only to discover after a little homework that we really only know a few and haven’t even tapped into the wealth of prospects out there.
To check your prospect IQ, try two search tools to discover the names of the largest employers in your area. I like Scott’s Directory (though you may find a local online directory listing businesses on an economic development website). Also if you go to your local Chamber of Commerce or Economic Development Office they can present more listings as well.
Target the campaign
Now that my client could identify the prospects with which she wished to do business, she developed a campaign to reach those companies by marketing to 15 contacts in each of several campaigns she ran annually.
The campaign was typical of a well-planned niche market direct prospecting program. The objective was to reach sales management and human resource management of these companies and present the distributor as an expert in team building training programs. We believed all companies who have 500 or more employees would likely have team building training programs for their staff.
A new company copy line was created. “Let’s Get Engaged” was printed on letterhead and envelopes just below the company name. Two letters along with two engagement-related products were included. Each series of letters was targeted to the VP of sales and the VP of human resources in eight companies from the 43 companies identified in the research. The letters were delivered two days apart and followed up by a telephone call two days later. We sent two gold foil chocolate truffles in a blue (Birks-like) jewelry box (this represented two gold wedding rings) and in the second mailing we sent a photo frame for that “special” day (of training).
The process was repeated every six weeks until all companies had been contacted. In less than 90 days, this client got to meet 30% of those we sent out mailings to and obtained five new training gigs…
Finally, here are some tips to use when you create the enclosure letters.
- Use short, two-paragraph letters with no more than three brief sentences in each paragraph. Managers have limited time and attention to focus on new promotional material.
- Choose a theme. Themed letters with graphics increase effectiveness.
- Tie the copy directly to the product to be enclosed. The connection can be simple. If you want someone to “look over a new service” then enclose a magnifying glass. If you’re going to follow-up with a telephone call then enclose a real working telephone imprinted with your logo.
- Consider including short references. Call your clients to get their comments about your products and services. Create a page of one or two-sentence statements from several of your clients. Include their names, titles and direct telephone numbers. (Make sure you get the clients’ permission first!)
- Package your presentation. Always use an envelope for the letter and gift-wrap the promotional product with attractive paper and ribbon.
Warm prospects who really want to see your salespeople are the key to sales growth for you and your sales staff. Try this out for yourself; it really works plus it cuts through the noisy marketplace and online social media clutter too!
