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Priority 3 – Externalise business development efforts 129
‘I did it with a waxed moustache and hundreds of pairs of spectacles. The
commercial world can be grey and boring. Make sure you stand out and you
are noticed.’
Direct targeting by telephone
Despite all the wonders of the internet and social media business devel-
opment revolution, there are still many businesses out there producing
signicant results by directly targeting via the telephone. Yes . . . telesales.
It might be seen as dated and generally unpopular but I still see this work
very well in certain circumstances. There is an elegant simplicity in calling
up prospects very openly and asking them if they would like to do business.
My own personal view is that in the volume-driven business to consumer
(B2C) market, telesales is a highly labour-intensive method with a high
level of wastage and poor proportionate return. Where I still see good
results, however, is in the B2B world where organisations are sensible
enough to cherry pick specic businesses to approach.
Here are a few tips, traps and general comments to take on board if you are
considering this activity.
Be very selective
Only decide to use this strategy if you can produce a list of business targets
that you absolutely know for sure need your goods or services.
For example, if you are in the cleaning business and specialise in the hotels, guest-
houses and residential care homes sector in a particular city, then this kind of
approach can work well if done properly. It absolutely makes sense simply to produce
a list of very relevant target establishments and make direct contact with them with
a view to doing business.
Go for quality not quantity
Some years ago I heard a telesales trainer ask his audience, ‘If you get four
appointments having telephoned 100 targets, how many targets do you
have to call in order to get eight appointments?’ His answer was 200. He
then told his delegates that the secret was to ‘double your failure rate’.
What absolute nonsense.
Surely, the best strategy and aim is to improve the quality of the approach
and of the target base in order to double your success rate.
130 The Financial Times Guide to Business Development
Should you send a letter before calling?
My own preference is not to do this. I have rarely seen any real benet,
despite the logical arguments often put forward in favour of this approach.
If you feel you must, however, then make sure it is a really good and well-
written letter from a business development copywriting point of view. (See
the writing skills section in Chapter 8.)
The other thing you must do is to make sure that you follow it up quickly.
There is no point in waiting three weeks and then making a telephone call
referring to it.
Turn your target list into a league table before calling
Before you make any calls, organise the list of your targets so that your
most desirable prospect is right at the top and you have the rest in rank
order. You should then start making the calls from the bottom upwards.
This way you have the opportunity to develop the most effective content,
structure and style before you get to the juiciest possibilities.
Get great strikers
One of the great problems with telesales campaigns is the perception that
anyone can do it. It is not unusual for organisations to bring in inexperi-
enced, lowly paid, part-time people and have them ring as many people
as they can on the list and quite literally read out a script. This strategy is
rarely going to produce great results.
If you want to maximise the business development potential of this
technique then make sure you have got some strikers. These are people
who are seriously committed and professional. Working around a central
theme driven by your objectives they are literally able to call your carefully
selected target list and engage prospects in a conversation. With this in
mind, if you are tempted by telesales then make sure you have the right
people in place to do it for you.
Do not use xed scripts
How often have you heard people who call you simply reading from a
script? The great problem with having a totally inexible script written out
for telesales people to read is that the people you are calling don’t have
their bit written out as well. The truth is, it is impossible to script a real
conversation and unless you are having a proper dialogue, your chances of
success are massively reduced.
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Priority 3 – Externalise business development efforts 131
Let me be provocative. If the people you are engaging to make your calls for
you aren’t bright enough to do so without a script, don’t use them at all.
While I absolutely do not believe in xed scripts, however, I do believe in
having a prepared structure that your caller is able to steer people through.
Do not lie
How many times have you heard callers give you the ‘I’m not trying to sell
you anything’ line? They know it’s a lie and so do you. I hardly think they
are ringing 1,000 strangers to chat about their health. The call may be
dressed up as a survey, or information about a competition, but we all know
it is part of a sales process.
If you want to be successful with telesales, or indeed any kind of sales, then
don’t lie. How much respect and trust is going to be communicated if the
opening line of the sales approach is a blatant b?
Be open and use the PARA approach to calling
I obviously can’t tell you what you should say relating to your business, but
let me give you some guidance on the general approach that I have seen
produce excellent results. To understand and remember this approach and
structure, think of the acronym PARA.
P = Pre-frame
Pre-framing is a simple linguistic technique, where you tell someone at the
beginning what is to come and sometimes how to react. This operates as a
softener or as a way of removing objections before they arise. For example,
by recognising very early on in the call that you are aware that the busi-
ness you are calling is almost certain to have an existing supplier of the
goods and services you sell, it immediately shows your understanding of
the sector and removes that most obvious objection.
A = Aligning
This is the process of saying something that shows you absolutely understand
how your call is likely to be received from the recipient’s point of view. For
example: ‘I really appreciate you taking my call, because I know when it’s the other
way around how frustrating it can be taking sales calls totally out of the blue.’
R = Review
If you have been smart in your selection of a target list then all the busi-
nesses you ring ought to have an ongoing requirement for your type of
132 The Financial Times Guide to Business Development
goods and services. It therefore becomes a very valid question on the back
of pre-framing and aligning to politely ask a question along the lines of: ‘As
I said, I know the likelihood is that you have an existing supplier, but I wonder if
you would mind sharing with me if and when you will be reviewing contracts?’
A = Action
Whatever the outcome of the call, take some action. If you have promised
to send the recipient some information, then keep your promise. This
might sound like a statement of the obvious, but keep in mind some past
research I did which revealed that only 50percent of organisations which
promised to send follow-up information actually kept their promise.
Avoid the gatekeeper problems
Whenever the subject of telesales comes up, I always get asked the ques-
tion: ‘What’s the best way of dealing with the gatekeepers?’ There are whole
books written on this subject, so if you are really interested by all means dip
into them. Let me save you a lot of bother, however, by cutting straight to
the chase. Do not lie, trick or manipulate your way past them.
I have found the best approach is to be as totally open and friendly as
possible. Share with them what you want and even ask them the best way
forward with their organisation. You will be pleasantly surprised (if not a
bit shocked) at just how much information you may get from a gatekeeper.
No doesn’t mean never
The head of marketing at a particular client company told me recently,
‘There’s no point in targeting property developers in the region because we did that
and they all said no.’ When I asked when these approaches had been made
I was told, ‘Almost three years ago.’
Just because you have had ‘no’ in the past, it doesn’t mean you will get
a ‘no’ for ever. The most important thing to bear in mind here is that
things change. The people your business approached may now have left,
the person who made the call may now be different, your target’s circum-
stances and requirements may have changed too. The message therefore is
clear: be persistent.
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Priority 3 – Externalise business development efforts 133
Keep records
However many businesses you approach by telephone, keep detailed notes
of who made the call, to whom, what was said and what was agreed in
terms of action.
Re-dene success
One of the biggest problems I encounter with this technique is that
businesses automatically regard it as a failure if they don’t come off the
telephone with some business or at the very least an appointment.
If you feel like this, then I would like to take the pressure off you. You
should regard the initial phone call as the rst step of several contacts. In
the B2B world it is the norm that several contacts will be required before
you get a ‘yes’. With this in mind, don’t give up at the rst hurdle.
Sometimes just gaining useful information should be regarded as a success.
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