For our clients, appointment setting phone calls are recorded and saved. Dunlap Marketing has found that because of this process, we gain more client renewals. As a result, there are a number of benefits.

Client Benefits:

• Dunlap management is able to verify that a proper appointment has been set, and that all necessary qualifying questions have been asked and answered before we distribute the appointment to a client
• Our clients are able to properly plan and prepare for the upcoming conversation with the prospect
• Maximizes the time of our clients and their sales team
• Dunlap is able to establish a “trusting” relationship with our clients

Dunlap Marketing Benefits:

• The practice is a necessary step in maintaining a quality control process and it’s a great tool to hold our staff accountable to following campaign requirements
• It is a great coaching tool used to develop and provide advanced training with our staff – both individually and as a team
• It allows productive 2-way communication with our clients when the need is present to brainstorm specific prospect opportunities or strategies

Appointment setting and telemarketing (teleprospecting) are very productive methods of developing new customers.  Often these new customers are not currently on our clients’ radar as potential opportunities.  For this reason, these new customers represent growth that was not expected.

In summary, the best benefit of all is client renewals.  Our clients renew our services because they receive value in the appointments set and the qualified leads that we produce.  Dunlap Marketing benefits because we enjoy the relationship with repeat business.

For more information, please contact Mike Dunlap or Kaitlin Cuevas.

Mike Dunlap – miked@dunlapmarketing.com – 281.496.9870 x 140

Kaitlin Cuevas – kaitlind@dunlapmarketing.com – 281.496.9870 x 180

Cold calling has a very specific purpose: to have a human-to-human interaction with your prospects. Often, this purpose is forgotten – not because it’s unimportant, but because most sales people don’t like doing it.

As a matter of fact, telemarketing and cold calling remains an important discipline to apply to any sales role. In many business-to-business sales organizations, old school “door knocking” might be unproductive, especially with large territory assignments. However, prospecting via phone calls remains a great complement to your overall appointment setting and lead generation activities.

With this being said, the importance of cold calling boils down to this: it’s a cost and time efficent method of targeted, human-to-human lead generation.

As discussed in The Difference Between Qualified Leads, leads can be broken down into two categories – buyer-generated and seller-generated. Buyer-generated leads generally advance through the sales cycles more quickly because a potential buyer is actively searching for your product or service. However, there are a finite number of buyer-generated leads.

This is when the importance of seller-generated leads is presented. Telemarketing continues to prove itself as a tried and true method of seller-generated lead generation.

When you can clearly define and identify who your prospects are, cold call telemarketing is a great way to hustle for new business opportunities. It becomes even more effective when advertising and marketing budgets limit or prohibit other forms of lead generation. Cold calling remains a cost-effective lead generation method, giving you control over growing your business, while not depending upon inbound generation methods.

Customer Testimonial – Proof of Cold Calling Success

Recently, Dunlap Marketing scheduled an appointment for a software technology client.  The telemarketing call was made inside a targeted database of potential users.  It was a successful call, and likely an opportunity that would not have surfaced unless a cold call had been made.

Listen to this snipet of a conversation inside our client’s salesteam about the success of the cold call.

Get Cold Calling To Work For You

Cold calling is a tool that can be used to continuously add new prospects to your pipeline of selling opportunities. Typically, cold-call-generated-prospects are not the ones you find through inbound methods; because of this, they complement other lead generation strategies, giving your pipeline both buyer-generated and seller-generated leads.

Having a plan of how to execute a cold call campaign is the first step in implementation. For more information, check out our “6 Steps to Implement a Telemarketing Campaign” series or eBook.

Contact – Mike Dunlap, miked@dunlapmarketing.com  (281) 496-9870 x140

 

Are you trying to get your foot in the door with new selling opportunities, but the door gets slammed in your face when your prospects don’t honor the meeting time you both agreed to? It’s frustrating when this happens, and unfortunately, it happens to all sales people. You might find yourself wondering if there’s a trick is to increase the number of appointments honored by prospects? The good news is the solution is simple – calendar invites.

Calendar invites are an easy, yet effective way to increase the number of appointments honored by prospects. There are a few keys to being successful with calendar invites.

1. Timely follow up
2. Jog your prospect’s memory
3. Be on time
4. Attempt to reschedule when necessary

Timely Follow Up

Timely follow up is a fundamental aspect of the sales cycle. With calendar invites, timely follow up achieves two things:

1. It earns you trust from your prospects
2. It gives you the best chance at your prospect remembering why they committed to meeting with you

Remind Your Prospect Why They Committed To Meeting

Although you will follow up timely, it’s important to remember that your prospect has 100 other things on his/her plate. In your calendar invite, it’s helpful to mention something to jog their memory. It can be as simple as:

“Thank you for speaking with me today. I’m looking forward to discussing your interest in {product/service your company offers} and how {your company’s name} can be an asset to you and your team.”

Be On Time

For a phone meeting, if the prospect either confirms or does not respond to your calendar invite, make sure you are on time for the appointment. It’s important to show your prospect you respect their time and appreciate their willingness to accept an appointment.

For a face-to-face meeting, if the prospect does not respond to your calendar invite, you have a few options, depending on how important the opportunity is to you. If the opportunity is of high importance, show up on time for the appointment. However, if it’s a less important opportunity or a lot of travel is required, attempt to reconnect via phone or email before attending the appointment.

Attempt To Reschedule If Prospect Declines Invite

If your prospect declines the calendar invite, don’t worry. Respect the fact that something unexpected might have come up on their end and send them a message suggesting a few dates/times for rescheduling the appointment.  

At the end of the day, calendar invites are a simple way to increase the number of appointments honored by prospects. Not only does it remind them of their commitment, but it also shows them that you are on the ball.

For more information, contact Mike (miked@dunlapmarketing.com) or Kaitlin (kaitlind@dunlapmarketing.com).