15 weeks.

    That’s the amount of time you have after today to meet or reach your sales goals for 2020.  Congrats if you’re that rare breed who has already reached those goals by mid-September!

    I was looking at my own sales goals and activity and something popped out at me.

    Never say never but it looked extremely doubtful that I could reach my goals unless I increased the number of leads I’m generating.

    I thought of telemarketing as a way to potentially supplement my other lead generation activities.   And I think it’s worth looking at for a particular service I offer (Accountability by Voice or AbV).

    I contacted a telemarketing company to discuss a potential telemarketing campaign.  They said they’d call on a particular day.  They did not.  But they were apologetic when we talked so I let that one slide.  I said to them that I was prepared to pay them for an exploratory conversation – even if the campaign did not proceed.

    Yep – you heard that right.  I explicitly told them they’d get money just for teasing out with me whether or not a full campaign would be worthwhile.  My only stipulation was that the exploratory conversation happen this week. 

    I haven’t heard from them.

    Now maybe they didn’t want to work with me.  Maybe my style turned them off – I’m definitely not everyone’s cup of tea.  But I humbly don’t think that’s the case in this instance.  Their initial reaction was that a campaign for that service could work.  And they said they were eager to talk.  And they thought it was generous of me to offer to pay.

    So the tip?  Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth!

    If someone’s ready to buy, and you’re a potential provider, and they’ve contacted you, then you’re well along the road to making a sale. 

    It seems ridiculous for me to have to say this but the reality is that it’s not uncommon for businesses to have flawed sales processes.

    One example: I’ve a client who is great at getting prospects into his funnel but was not timely enough in sending requested quotes.  He’s improving though – he now has response time to deliver quotes as a KPI to be tracked and he has seriously reduced it.  Well done to him.

    Another example: I’ve a friend who sometimes acts as a sales director for hire for his clients.  One of the items he sees a lot of is people sending requested quotes and then never following up.  Their logic?  If the person who has received the quote does not call them back, then they do nothing.  Crazy.  Imagine if the proposal went to SPAM?  Or imagine if the person left the company?  Or died?  Or just is human like the rest of us and sometimes misses things?

    How you sell can be at least as important as what you sell.

  • Do what you say you’ll do.
  • Send quotes that you’ve been asked for. Fast.
  • Follow up on those quotes.

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