The 'Lost Art' of B2B Sales Prospecting
Stuart Allen
I provide ‘digital age' sales training that explodes the common myths of professional B2B sales. I'm also Head of Business Development at IASME. Founder of #WorcestershireHour & The Worcestershire Festival of Business.
According to McKinsey & Company the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic has "Changed B2B Sales Forever" and Accenture state that "Historical customer insights are irrelevant. What matters is the here and now!" Despite these clear warnings I see little change in how most Sales Teams and Salespeople are operating, in terms of tactics and approach.
We've all learned to use Microsoft Teams or Zoom for existing clients but sales prospecting appears to be stuck in 2019. If the ability to cold call a prospect was an animal, it would be top of the World Wildlife Fund endangered species list.
In just eight years my business phone number has gone from receiving ten cold calls a day to one or two per MONTH! Now don't get me wrong, getting ten cold calls a day is a pain in the neck, apart from the obvious business leads they gave me as a sales trainer. Because businesses were inundated with cold calls they set up more and more elaborate ways of blocking them. As a result salespeople opted for easier, alternate approaches like email, LinkedIn messages and other social media.
My point is this, the more a particular prospecting method is used it becomes increasingly impotent. I've been working with clients to reintroduce cold calling and the results are excellent. When done properly, targeted prospecting by phone is well received and even appreciated by the recipient. Once rapport and interest is established we organise a video conference, changing the dynamic from a call to a meeting. These are businesses that previously ONLY used the telephone to sell.
How quickly you adapt your sales teams back to the telephone is critical, leave it too long and everyone will be doing it! At that point its effectiveness will again diminish. If you need help in re-skilling then call me on 01905 384314, before I call you.
Thanks for reading.
Stuart Allen FCMI AdvAPS
The Sales Performance Company. Worcestershire based and working with B2B client's across the world through live virtual classroom. Helping clients adapt to selling remotely.
Sales Training. Sales Coaching.
Helping partners understand the revenue and operational advantages of using a truly independent billing provider in Telecoms, IT, MSP and any incident based invoicing system !
3yit has actually thrown up a new challenge for me - because customers aren't used to receiving these types of calls, they've forgotten how to handle them them and revert back to the old fashioned blurting out of - "im not interested sorry....."