1. Gauge your prospective new lead generator employee on his/her attitude and your feel for the new employee’s personality, not just on experience – although less experience means more training and should always be considered. A person with no experience who is personable and has an innate ability to develop rapport can surprisingly often be a more productive salesperson or lead generator than the seasoned pro with decades of experience.

2. Prepare your lead generation people well, with a script guideline, objections and rebuttals to quickly help them capture the essence of what they should be saying and start them on the right path. A member of our Executive Team is happy to take a look at your script guideline if you’d like to run it by us! Email info@MarketReach.biz to inquire.

3. Keep your people accountable by giving them benchmarks. Have an idea of how many appointments you expect from them in a day or week. Sometimes, the only way to determine these benchmarks is to make some calls yourself or hire an outsourced team like MarketReach to provide those benchmarks for you. We can help you determine how many appointments can be expected in a week based on number of hours dedicated and the list you are targeting, before anyone gets on the phone!

4. Along those lines, expect at least 15 to 25 dials per hour if calling is the employee’s only task for those hours. If you don’t have any sophisticated tracking system, you can ask your phone carrier how to track dials. Most phone carriers have a tracking system in the phone itself, allowing you to gauge the lead generators’ dials per hour. Of course, if you’re reviewing their metrics spreadsheet weekly, you can likely gain an idea of numbers based on the spreadsheet. A lead generator must be skilled at balancing the quantity of dials with the quality of their conversations.

5. Keep them on a tracking system, and be sure they can use Excel to update prospect records with notes and decision makers’ name. If you have a contact management system, that’s even better. If not, Excel acts as a good entry level substitute. Insert a column called, “Last Results/Next steps” to record the summary and next step for each record. Also, inset a column for notes on each record so that a running list of notes indicated by date can be recorded after each call. It is key is to capture all information about each call. If your lead generators are not working in your office or online, it is important to have them submit their spreadsheets to a manager at least once a week. There is nothing worse than having years of work done on a prospecting list, only to have it disappear with the employee!

6. No in-house caller should be permitted to make calls without recording every bit of information into your system. If an employee leaves tomorrow, make sure that you have captured all the market insight they had gleaned in their months or years of well-paid hard work. They should be required to edit each record, add email addresses and updated contact names to use in your direct mail, future lead generation, and newsletter, (even if you do not yet have one) and of course, record notes of all conversations.

How A Good Sales Call Is Just Like An Elevator Pitch

Cold Calling Techniques From A Professional Lead Generator

Special Offer for attendees of NAMA OneShow 2012:
Sign up for a 75 hour appointment setting pilot campaign in May 2012 and receive a FREE Prospecting list! (a $200 value)

YES! I attended NAMA OneShow 2012 and want to take advantage
of the special offer from MarketReach.
[contact-form]

How does MarketReach help?

MarketReach team

• Have boatloads of experience calling for Coffee & Vending operators.
• Can call from a past customer list – recapture lost revenue!
• Can help you expand into new, more profitable areas such as MicroMarkets.

Here’s what our clients have to say…

1.  Pick a couple of your best clients, and write a brief case study about them for future use. Really consider your competitive advantages towards that market and include how the client benefitted from your service- and be sure to include the ROI realized from your service as well. This case study can be used in print as well as condensed and worked into a phone pitch.

2.  Obtain a prospect list for that industry. Consider obtaining a trade association list for your target market, but also remember that the list you compile yourself often has the most value. Start right now to develop that list. If you can’t find the list you need, consider purchasing one through MarketReach for as little as $200. Need a template? Call us at MarketReach and we’ll send you a FREE example of how to build your list field headers!

3. Work the list. Phone calls and direct mail will get your list qualified. Dogged but tactful persistence will earn you a clean and valuable list.

4. Write an article for a Trade Publication. It’s an excellent way to increase your name recognition. Don’t like to write? Hire a ghost writer! Or at least consider advertising to this targeted audience.

5. Go to trade conferences or trade shows. Become an exhibitor. Walk the floor. Getting involved in shows allows you to become educated within the target market, build a warm list of prospects, and meet your prospects face to face!

6. Become a Speaker. Giving a presentation to your target market’s membership association is another good way to increase your visibility and credibility. Associations are often looking for speakers, and if you can build your brand and expertise around your topic, you will be sought after! Programming people enjoy bringing in speakers who are well-recommended or whom they have heard themselves. Make it easy for them and become proficient at speaking.

7. Which Linked-In groups do your prospects mingle in? Folks in the B2B space are still determining the value of Twitter and Facebook, however most B2B marketers can agree on the value of Linked In. LinkedIn offers a superb way to show your credibility and expertise. Make sure the posts you write are value-based additions. Hard sales are not well received in this type of social networking.

8. Build your email newsletter, phone, and social media list from all this marketing activity!

9. Do more phone calling and appointment setting. WARM calling is where it’s at! Congratulations, you are now an industry-specific expert! You have developed volumes of credibility from working with other companies “just like them.” Now, you will find it much easier to get in the door, spark interest in your introductory call, and get the meetings with your prospects!

10. Rake in the business!

Use these tips to spend less on shotgun marketing and earn a greater ROI because you’ve identified a target market, and gone after it with a single minded, laser-focused approach!

Have some giveaways to attract conversation and business cards: First, what can you offer of high enough dollar-value to attract people to your booth? When you can’t talk to everyone at the show, what giveaway will capture attention? Consider something that will interest a wide variety of people, such as a massage or tickets to a popular, local event. If you’re really creative, you can partner with a restaurant or hotel, for example, and give away a free night’s stay or a meal as the prize (publicity for that company and it cost you nothing!) Accompany the prize with an incentive related to your business; for example, a free, one hour consulting session or the book you wrote.

Memory aids: You will be meeting a lot of people at a show. Be sure to write a note on the back of each business card where a conversation takes place so you can recall the details more easily. Do you want to be a sales extraordinaire? Write “A” or “B” to signify who the best prospects are to yourself! Your top 10 will require little thought of the conversation, post-show, because you will have taken copious notes, real-time! Some may argue that you don’t want to collect business cards for the sake of it, however, with the proper filing of those business cards, remember, you can discern “A” priority prospects from the rest.

Consider your purpose: As you have conversations with prospects, consider what information you want to gather. A trade show is a chance to gain information to follow up with an especially warm call since you’ve done some fact finding at the show. What questions will you ask of the prospects, and how are you training your trade show colleagues to ask those questions and present your compelling advantages?

Plan a follow up strategy: About 80 percent of trade show conversations are never followed up with. Even if you only send an e-mail, you’ve already distinguished yourself by being in the 20 percent category.

If more than one person from your company is attending the show, plan ahead on how to divide the prospect calls when you return. Assign someone to put all the business card information into a contact management system right away so calls, emails and other marketing can start immediately. For those of you with a smart phone, the phrase “there’s an app for that” couldn’t be more accurate! For less than $10, you can find an app that allows you to take a picture or scan a business card that can then be added to a list and exported from Excel.

Do you really want to stand out and see an ROI? Consider MarketReach to further engage all prospects and get maximum impact from the thousands of dollars you spent to make the trade show successful! Trade show follow up is one of our specialties and we are excellent at it.

Even if you don’t have a regular newsletter, make sure you send out a thank you e-mail after the event. It should thank the person for stopping by the booth, announce the raffle winner(s), and present a couple of paragraphs or bullet points about the benefits of your service. Also consider adding YouTube and website links, and of course, your social media links. Plan this post-event email before the show so it’s ready to go two days after it has ended.

Fellow exhibitors could be your best prospects: It’s very important to consider a marketing plan for the other exhibitors at the show, both pre-show and post-show. In addition to direct business, there may also be strategic alliance opportunities. Exhibitors have already proven they have the dollars to take booth space so there is also a good possibility that they can do business with you! The best time to talk to other exhibitors is before visitors arrive, so plan to arrive early and make your rounds.

Trade shows are expensive and time-consuming. By planning ahead you will be able to make the most of your experience, and sales will roll in. Above all else, be sure to follow up post-show!

Date & Time: Jan 26, 2012 6pm

RSVP and location details http://whoscoming.com/njawbo-monmouthocean/

Amanda Puppo, CEO of MarketReach Inc., runs a 10 person call center in Lawrenceville, NJ. Services center around methods of increasing clients’ sales initiatives through lead generation and appointment setting, past customer win-back, direct mail/trade show follow up, surveys and introductory call training. She has been awarded the SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year & Staples Cherry Hill store dedication. Most recently, Amanda completed her 2 year term as President of NJAWBO, Mercer Chapter.

Have a handle on these numbers and you’ll have a better idea of the potential investment dollars you need to acquire those new clients. If your average revenue opportunity results in $300 for a once a year sale, then of course investing in a $5K marketing program needs to be very well thought out. For this rate of return you need a large volume of sales to make the campaign pay for itself. There’s no exact science, but most marketing experts agree that marketing requires a well planned strategy, to a targeted audience, in a consistent manner.

How Warm are Your Leads? As with any investment you make in your business, ROI is perhaps the most important index over the long term. Taking a careful look at your cost per lead, conversion rates, sales history and forecasting will help you determine just how much you should expect to spend on a lead-generation campaign that meets your objectives. You can set yourself up for a successful launch by tackling some key components of a successful lead generation program. For example, you can increase lead flow with a highly competitive offer, either because of cost, uniqueness, or overall quality of goods and services; another technique is using a warmer, in-house developed list or association list, rather than colder, purchased prospect lists. These are just a few of the things you need to think about when developing your campaign, but there is much more!

Long-Term Consistency. Throughout our ten years in business as lead generators, we have noticed that our most successful clients are the ones who believe in consistent, long-term marketing – especially in industries with long sales cycles. Are your marketing efforts consistent? Do you work to provide yourself with a steady, dependable flow of new leads so that your business has constant forward momentum? Or do you experience a roller coaster with sales? One month you’ve got plenty of work and the next month you pick your head up and say, “I better start marketing again.”

The sales closer (or small business owner) who gets quality leads and then puts lead generation on hold for a while to see how those leads fare a few months down the line, ends up with a roller coaster ride and unpredictable commission checks!

Are You Marketing to the Right Target? If the target for your lead-generation campaign isn’t focused on the most qualified group, you are wasting a lot of time, energy and money! We ask our clients two questions to determine their target market to put money into: 1. Where is your experience? When you can “talk the talk” to prospects based on having worked for their competitors, then your credibility and expertise will shine through and you’ll come out the winner next to others that can’t speak of a similar experience in your clients’ industry. 2. Who has the money to pay you? Target the market segment that can provide the ROI to justify what you spend to gain the client group in the first place. For example: An insurance firm wants to target small contractors. At first, they thought staff size didn’t matter. But after getting some leads, it was apparent that to make the marketing investment pay off, they needed to target up-market companies with a minimum staff of eight – even if that meant fewer leads. If they made only two sales from a $3000 investment, it would be profitable and smart. Theoretically, with consistency, the ROI increases and cost decreases. We came up with the staff size range that would substantiate large enough sales to justify the financial output.

At MarketReach, we ask the questions to explore YOUR possible return on investment- particularly, how it relates to getting sales teams out selling rather than making that introductory call. Call us today at 609-448-6364 to learn how many appointments you can expect from a telephone marketing lead generation campaign, and the potential ROI just waiting to be captured!

2.  Obtain a prospect list in that industry.

3. Work the list- with phone calls and direct mail. Get a couple more clients.

4. Write an article for the Trade Publication. Consider advertising.

5. Do a speaking engagement in the target’s Membership Association.

6. Go to their conference/ trade show. Take a booth.

7. Build your email newsletter, phone, and social media list from all this marketing activity!

8. Do more phone calling, only now it will be WARM calling!

9. You now should be considered an expert, having gained volumes of credibility from working with other companies “just like them”.

10. Rake in the business!

Spend less on marketing but earn a greater ROI because you’ve identified a target market, and gone after it with a single minded, laser-focused approach!

from Amanda Puppo’s presentation Multi Channel Marketing Program

The theme of this meeting is “Starving for Clients”. Our guest speaker will be Ms. Amanda Puppo, CEO of MarketReach, Inc. in Lawrenceville, N.J. Amanda’s topic will be “Planning Now for a Successful 2012 Multi-Channel Marketing Program”. Attendees will learn how, in choosing several targeted marketing techniques toward a specific industry, a greater ROI is realized.

In addition, Amanda will discuss combining phone, postal mail, email, and voice mail to round out prospecting efforts.

Location: Tuesday, November 15, 2011, 12:00 noon, at the Holiday Inn Somerset, 195 Davidson Ave., Somerset, N.J.

Reservations required:  View and print the event flyer using this link. (pdf)