Turning Them into a Lead
If the prospective customer qualifies as a lead, the cold caller’s next step should be to convert them into actual leads. The caller can do this in several ways. The way you choose to do it depends on the type of product or service you are selling.
Drive them to an online experience such as a landing page: As you talk with the prospective customer, give them the URL to a landing page for signing up for your special offer. (See Chapter 6 for details on how to create a good landing page.)
Send them a follow-up e-mail: You can send the potential client a follow-up e-mail that summarizes your conversation and includes a link to a landing page where they take the next step (e.g., sign up for the offer, download a white paper, etc.).
Transfer them to a salesperson who can drive the lead into a sale.
On this last option, there are several ways to turn the potential customer over to a salesperson:
Log the lead into a CRM tool: Using CRM software, the cold caller can create a lead for the sales team. Usually, a lead in a CRM tool is a record with the potential customer’s contact information. Salespersons using the same CRM software receive the lead record, and can then call the potential customers back at their convenience to convert them into opportunities.
Set an appointment: On the initial call, the cold caller can ask customers to schedule an appointment for a salesperson to call or visit them at an appropriate day and time. The salesperson can then do a product demo, re-verify the customers as leads, give them the free trial, etc.
Transfer the call directly to a salesperson: A cold caller who confirms the potential customer’s interest can transfer the call directly to an available salesperson. This is a warm transfer, and it’s the best, most effective way to turn the customer into a lead. The salesperson can continue the conversation while the customer’s interest is still piqued. Depending on the offer, the salesperson may be able verify the customer as a lead or even turn the customer’s interest into an actual sale or transaction.
Note: The entire cold-calling process should take less than a few minutes. A cold caller should be able to make 30–100 cold calls in a day.
THE UNQUALIFIED LEAD
What do you do if the persons you call are not qualified as leads? Maybe they are the right persons at their companies. They meet your target criteria. They have a need for your type of product or service and the authority to buy it. But they just don’t have the budget to buy it right now. Or maybe the company is using a competitive product or service, and they won’t make a decision about whether to use a new product or service for another year.
These potential customers still qualify as marketing leads, in the sense that they may have a need for your products or services in the future. But you shouldn’t pass them over to the sales team right away. (The sales team should focus only on leads who are ready to buy.)
Instead, put potential customers who are not ready to buy into a “drip bucket.” Continue to do nurture marketing with them. By sending them e-newsletters, e-mails with special offers, case studies, occasional sales letters, and other materials, you keep your company and your brand in their mind for the day when they might be ready to try your products or services.
In another scenario, you might discover the lead is the wrong person at the company altogether. The person has neither the job title/position that you have listed for them on your contact list nor the authority to purchase your products or services. Or the person doesn’t even have a need for your types of products or services in their department at the company.
In this case, you should still use the phone call as an opportunity to find the right person at that company. Ask the person you’ve called if they know which person or department at their company might have a need for your type of product or service. Or, if the receptionist says the person you are calling has left the company, ask for the replacement’s name.
BUILDING YOUR COLD-CALLING TEAM
You might ask: “What if I don’t have a cold-calling team to use for lead qualification? My marketing guys are shrinking violets, and they don’t like to be on the phone. How do I use cold calling to my advantage?”
You can solve this problem in several ways. One way is to create your own cold-calling organization under the direction of the marketing department. A typical internal cold-calling organization is made up of entry-level employees who don’t require a degree or direct job experience. The callers do need to be eager, friendly on the phone, and not afraid of rejection. These types of organizations are fairly inexpensive to create. All you need is a computer, a phone, a desk, and a chair for each individual caller.
Also, many external, third-party companies will do cold calling for you. Some are located in the United States; others are overseas, in places like India and Malaysia. These companies will collaborate with you to set up a call center structure, where they will make calls on your behalf using your script, lead-qualification questions, and other materials. The callers will then pass on any qualified leads to your sales team.
Usually, when third-party callers receive leads, they will either enter the leads directly into your CRM tool or, more commonly, record the leads in a daily/weekly spreadsheet, which they then pass on to your company. If your third-party callers are recording leads on spreadsheets, your marketing team will often have to manually enter the leads from the spreadsheets into your CRM tool.
A third option is to work with your sales organization to have them make cold calls according to a script provided by marketing. However, this gives marketing less control over the cold-calling experience.