Demand Generation DEMAND GENERATION: And The Cold Call STAR-Pro Methodology There s a new era in marketing. Did you notice the paradigm shift? Or more importantly, have you actively aligned your marketing strategy to meet the new challenges inherent in changing times? Traditional marketing called for brand building following the lead of retail giants; a strategy that relies on public relations and massive advertising to create new business. That might work for retailers, but what about your business? Companies are increasingly focusing on integrating marketing specifically, demand creation with the sales funnel because this is where the real battle for customers is being won or lost today. This need is accelerating a revolution in marketing particularly in business to business sales. The traditional notion of marketing as a brand-building exercise relying on public relations and advertising is giving way to a Demand Generation era focused on measurable revenue creation. Demand Generation requires marketers to embrace process-oriented thinking in the development and management of revenue opportunities, backed by relentless marketing campaign measurement and analysis. Demand Generation is a process which can be measured, optimized, repeated and automated. The focus of Demand Generation is measurable revenue creation. The process of Demand Generation involves integrating marketing with sales traditionally thought to be on opposite ends of the business development spectrum. Today, by unifying the efforts of marketing to filling the sales funnel, you maximize your marketing investment more effectively where the real battle for customers is being waged: won or lost by you or by your competitors. There s a revolution going on in the marketplace, especially in business to business (B2B) sales. Instead of massive advertising campaigns of unknown results, Demand Generation focuses on developing and managing revenue opportunities that can be measured; opportunities that can be optimized; and finally, opportunities that can be repeated and automated. The Cold Call Enter the Cold Call Demand Creation professionals and the art of B2B sales lead generation; smart and effective on-demand B2B lead generation. Let the Cold Call be your resource bandwidth for your specific business development requirements. Leverage our proven performance based B2B lead generation services for your campaigns of any size, large or small. The Cold Call delivers on time, under budget B2B sales lead generation performance without long-term contracts and hidden costs giving you flexibility and predictable turn-around times. 2/17/2008 1 of 6
Take advantage of the Cold Call and our pool of multi-skilled web researchers, teleprospecting professionals and account managers to deliver strong sales pipeline activity on a weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis. Simply put, the Cold Call professionals deliver B2B sales lead appointments providing our clients a foundation for ensuring sustainable growth and predictable market share. Demand Generation is the de facto rule of engagement in this new era of marketing. Sales lead generation is at the heart of any successful company s sales effort and is the foundation for ensuring sustainable growth. It is one of the most challenging processes to execute on for any company, it is often overwhelming and it constantly needs fresh thought. We believe lead generation is perceived to be overly complicated beyond its basic reality and we work with our customers to untangle the complexity and create simple scientific plans to execute on. We believe that lead generation is a science with a tinge of psychology and once you understand this aspect it becomes much easier to create lead generation programs that deliver results. The Cold Call generates demand for your products or services by creating new customer awareness through key people touch points that offer compelling, interactive brand experiences tailored to critical stages in the decision making process. Each experience is calculated to take the customer to the next stage, and ultimately, to make a purchase and long-term commitment to your brand and solution. With Demand Generation you don t merely vie with your competition, you preempt them. You don t just talk with customers, you captivate them. You don t simply inform them, you influence them. STAR-Pro Methodology Utilizing our proprietary STAR-Pro methodology, the Cold Call executes our demand generation program that is designed to augment your sales and marketing outsourcing solutions by connecting you with decision makers and influencers to generate quality sales lead opportunities. Our program is unlike traditional lead generation campaigns. We define and discover the best functionality up front and then use a customized database to define targeted opportunities. We then develop a creative multi-touch marketing campaign with a follow-up cultivation element to capture additional opportunities. Throughout the process, you receive updates on progress, quantity and quality of leads. Key Personnel One of the key fundamentals of our STAR-Pro methodology is to understand the functionality and critical concerns of key personnel within prospect organizations. The Cold Call professionals are trained to structure their conversation with key personnel with these concerns in mind to affect a more meaningful dialog with them. An example and discussion of those concerns follows. 2/17/2008 2 of 6
The Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance are primarily concerned with the profitability and financial growth of the company. The Controller for the company is responsible for the proper financial strategy and forecasting to support the CFO and VP of Finance. The Chief Operating Officer on the other hand, is charged with ensuring that the different departments within the company are executing their responsibilities and functions and that revenue and production measures are being met. They are constantly weighing whether implementing a procedure is cost effective and how it impacts revenue. To that end, they are engaged in business planning, developing business models and structuring guidelines to accomplish the goals of the board of directors. The Vice President of Supply Chain is responsible to ensure that there is a process in place to manage the raw products coming into the business and the finish products going out of the business. To that end, sufficient stock must be maintained and inventory must be effectively managed. There is an often uneasy truce between the Vice President of Marketing and the Vice President of Sales, even though both are charged with the future development of business and the growth of the company. The VP of Marketing is constantly looking at various campaigns and different marketplaces in which to invest company dollars. In other words, they are most interested in finding out who to market to, what to market and how to market. The VP of Sales on the other hand, is more concerned with immediate results. Meeting sales quotas per quarter and ultimately, per year; how to find and develop new business. Recently, the role of Demand Generation is to bridge the gap between marketing and sales. The Vice President of Manufacturing is primarily looking at immediate costs of producing products for the company. Also, how rapidly can they get product to market and maximize the productivity of the people and machinery/equipment of the company. The Chief Information Officer is charged to ensure that the business vision of the company and the technical vision intersect to make sure the company is able to move forward for growth envisioned by the board of directors. These are just a few of the examples of what one needs to understand before you approach prospective clients. Extensive training puts our demand creation representatives in the best position to execute a meaningful dialog and start a productive relationship. Partnering with the Sales Rep Another critical element in the process of demand generation is the relationship between the professional person executing STAR-Pro and the sales representative who will be making the actual sales call. As we all know, not all sales representatives are created equal. Some of them are hungry; the go-getter types. For them, get them in the door and they will make it happen. Half the representatives, on the other hand, are good sales 2/17/2008 3 of 6
people but not necessarily good closers. As long as everything is going right, they will write a certain amount of business. Then, there are the order takers. They expect to walk in and write an order without having to do any selling. It s important that we understand the type of salesperson we are working with when setting up the initial sales appointment. Often times that requires training on our part; we need to coach the sales representative on what to expect and how to execute the initial sales call. Our tele-professionals undergo ongoing training in the area of working with sales representatives and developing strong rep relations. We have found that the stronger the bond between the person making the cold call and the person going out on the sales appointment, the more successful our lead generation campaign will be for both parties. The key is communication. The goal for a sales organization is to accelerate sales pipeline by creating a more consistent flow of new sales opportunities. We accomplish this by executing our proven STAR-Pro methodology, designed to gain access to targeted executives and key functionaries the decision makers and influencers who have the most to gain by our clients value proposition. The Cold Call s STAR-Pro prospecting methodology coupled with a focused selling technique enables our clients to build dynamic, executive relationships designed to expand brand identity and deliver solutions to their targeted accounts. STAR-Pro Methodology II The Cold Call s Strategic, Tactical Activity Ramp-Up Process is a straight forward methodology whose sole purpose is to schedule quality, focused time for your sales representative to deliver their message to a key functionary in a targeted account. There is no hidden agenda to up sell clients on other marketing schemes, sales training or any other stratagem. That s it. We help companies who are selling high value solutions more effectively build strategic sales pipeline. Our proven methodology provides our clients the opportunity to engage in relevant sales activity. STAR-Pro allows you to create critical mass by engaging your sales representatives in high frequency activity in a designed period of time. The success of STAR-Pro is incumbent on a number of key factors. The first of which is targeting. It s not enough to know the companies or kinds of companies you want to target for your solution. Knowing the key functionary within the company to reach is vital to the success of delivering your message. Having identified the appropriate decision maker or influencer the next step is gaining access, in other words, how to engage the person and schedule quality, focused time for the sales representative to deliver the value proposition of their solution. Throughout the process, we provide visibility allowing for a measurable, accountable methodology that can be easily repeated quantified and tracked. We secure the key functionary s time and attention, you deliver your solution s value proposition. It s a partnership designed to create demand giving you a proactive system to provide your sales force an ongoing pipeline activity. 2/17/2008 4 of 6
To execute STAR-Pro, our Demand Creation Representatives use their expertise in performing day to day tasks designed to deliver the highest degree of success possible. These tasks can be enumerated as follows: 1. Researching targeted accounts to identify key functionaries who are most likely to benefit engaging in the solution value propositions. 2. Navigating through the accounts to identify the targeted individuals and making timely and persistent cold calls. 3. Composing and sending informational emails and pertinent correspondence. 4. Responding to call backs, requests for information and anything else required by the potential prospect. 5. Scheduling an introductory sales appointment with the key functionary. This can be in the form of a face-to-face meeting, a conference call or an online web conference, depending on the preferences of the sales rep and the prospect. 6. Follow up after the meetings with conversations with the prospect and sales rep to document the outcome of the engagement and reporting back to the liaison. Once our tele-professional schedules a meeting with a prospective, key functionary, they will contact the sales rep with the meeting particulars, including the time and date of the meeting, the type of meeting, who and what function of the prospect, any pertinent competitive information and a brief synopsis of the company. The information is emailed in the form of a meeting alert. For organizations trying to bring new solutions to the marketplace and create sales opportunities for their products and services, STAR-Pro methodology as employed by the Cold Call, provides them highly effective, proven, low risk prospecting approaches. Our approach offers a measurable and quantifiable solution to demand generation and our approach will energize your sales team while maximizing your investment. We take the pain out of cold calling. FAQ Why can t I just have my salesperson or team do lead generation? Not all sales people are created equal talent wise. Some are closers. Some are relationship builders. Others are hunters and farmers. Prospecting for new business is something all salespeople should do but they don t. Why? It s not where their talent lies. Or they don t have the time; or maybe it s being done, but not consistently which makes it ineffectual. The bottom line is you want your sales team in front of qualified opportunities. We excel at lead generation, it s what we do, it s the only thing we do. Are you a call center? No. Our Demand Creation Representatives are highly trained and skilled tele-professionals. They are dedicated to your company and work closely with the field representatives to form a mutually beneficial sales partnership. The high level of experience required ensures that they can communicate with management and executive level prospects. 2/17/2008 5 of 6
Why don t I just hire someone myself to do lead generation? Lead generation over the phone is very demanding and difficult to do effectively on a full-time basis. By having a dedicated tele-professional from the Cold Call for several hours a week, to just focus on your lead generation, you are getting fresh, skilled energy on a weekly basis. By outsourcing this skill you gain the following advantages, an individual with a higher level of B2B sales skills, no permanent increase in staffing overhead expense and flexibility to ramp up or down depending on your business development needs. Do you provide lists? Yes. We have different list sources. We can target your list by industry, revenue, decision maker, geography, number of employees, etc. How successful is your program? We have found that clients with hungry sales reps who are well versed at solution selling and uncovering pain points during the initial introductory meeting, who do not expect interest to pre-exist when they get there, are the most successful. How many calls do your tele-professionals make each day? On average, our Demand Creation Representatives make between 150 to 200 calls a day. It can take a hundred or more calls to schedule a meeting. How difficult is it to schedule a meeting? Rarely will a key prospect schedule a meeting without voicing an objection, often several. Prospects are busy and usually are getting many calls from a lot of companies trying to schedule some time with them. There needs to be a compelling reason for them to meet with you. When do we get paid for a meeting? We are truly, a pay-by-performance company. Nobody gets paid until a meeting occurs. It s in everybody s interest to make sure these meetings occur as scheduled. What happens if a meeting gets canceled? Unfortunately, there are times when a meeting gets canceled by a prospect, a prospect no-shows, or sometimes, a sales rep is unable to make a meeting. We do everything in our power to make sure a meeting occurs including an intensive confirmation process which includes written and verbal confirmations. Our tele-professionals are well trained in an aggressive reschedule process. There are times when up to a third of the meetings are rescheduled from the original date. A small percentage of the meetings get canceled and cannot get rescheduled for any number of reasons. What percentage of meetings ends up in pipeline activity? On average, our client reps have been able to move about a third of their meetings into a second meeting or pipeline activity. Our STAR-Pro methodology can give your organization a competitive advantage by quickly uncovering the opportunities within your marketplace, building a dependable pipeline, shortening your sales cycle, and consistently growing your company with a steady stream of new sales opportunities in the industries you want to target. 2/17/2008 6 of 6