Even though I've been in the telesales business for over 20 years (I ran a telesales team back in 1989 for an IT services company), I'm always interested in reading books on the subject. You never know, you just might pick up a real gem of an idea.

Anyway, I was looking Art Sobczak's Telesales Blog and saw a recommended book that's not in my library called Successful Sales Managers Guide to Telephone Sales.

Cool, I thought, let's have a look at this one. But, then, something stopped me dead in my tracks - it was published in 1999!

Now, in some ways, 1999 isn't that long ago. But in the world of telesales it's an eternity.

In a way, the title of the book gives it away - "Telephone Sales".

I was chatting the other day to one of our associates who worked in one of the first telemarketing companies back in the 80's. We were talking about how the game has changed so much in that time.

For a start, there was no voicemail. Not to mention the fact that people were actually happy to chat with you :-) No email. No web.

Today, at some levels within an organisation, you can call all day and not reach anyone. And that's exactly why the tactics that worked in the 80's, and even back in 1999, just don't cut it anymore.

Back in 1999 I was a regional sales manager for a company selling IT solutions for manufacturing (the fact we were selling to manufacturing dates the story for a start!) In those days, you would ask a prospect, "do you have an email address?".

The game has changed.

The description "Telephone Sales" just isn't accurate any more.

Telephone, voicemail and email are all daily tools. Today, we set up as many appointments by email as we do by phone. Social networking sites like LinkedIn and web based research tools have become critical in positioning your approach. Web demos have become the norm for software telesales.

But in a few years time we may be saying... that's so 2009!

Labels: b2b telemarketing, cold calling, social media, telesales

I came across an interesting piece on Inside Sales from the Bridge Group based in the US.

They've published a "Periodic Table of Inside Sales Metrics", which is an interesting way of presenting many of the metrics they've researched.

The Bridge Group specialises in consulting on Inside Sales for technology vendors and their president, Trish Bertuzzi, is founder and manager of the Inside Sales Experts group on LinkedIn.

Looking at the metrics they present, there are some interesting ones from a telesales perspective (what we would typically refer to "Inside Sales" as in the UK)

Under lead generation, the average quota for appointments per inside sales rep is 16 per month. Also, the average hours per day on the phone for lead generation is 4 hours.

Now, I know from reading other articles published by The Bridge Group that many of the inside sales people surveyed are also responding to and qualifying inbound leads so this doesn't mean that 4 hours a day, 20 days a week generates 16 appointments from outbound cold calling.

To me, that's not a million miles off our experience in lead generation and appointment setting for technology vendors.

We figure that one of our team (focused purely on outbound lead generation) can generate a qualified appointment every 1 to 1.5 days for a technology proposition.

Based on The Bridge Group's figures their on quota average is 1.4 per day but, as I said, that will be a mixture of inbound and outbound lead sources. Which means I think we're broadly on the same page.

Also, I liked the metric that that average ramp-up time for an inside sales rep was 4.5 months.

If only we had that long :-)

Labels: appointment setting, inside sales, sales lead generation, telesales

I must admit, I'm not a purist about this one.

For many people "Telemarketing" and "Telesales" are inter-changeable descriptions for the role of sales lead generation and appointment setting.

I suppose, strictly speaking, you could describe them as:

Telemarketing - conducting marketing research, surveys, data-cleaning and generating marketing leads by telephone.

Telesales - actually closing business over the phone.

These are two extremes with telemarketing being the softer end of the spectrum and telesales being the sharper end (we clearly see ourselves at as the latter)

However, I've found that when most people are talking about "telesales" they're thinking about someone who's making calls to either generate leads or set up sales appointments.

Essentially, telemarketing and telesales are both seen as part of the sales process.

Interestingly, Wikipedia currently describes Telemarketing as follows:

Telemarketing (known as telesales in the UK and Ireland) is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits to prospective customers to buy products or services, either over the phone or through a subsequent face to face or Web conferencing appointment scheduled during the call.

I thought the "known as telesales in the UK and Ireland" was interesting.

Certainly, I know a number of US based "telemarketers" who would always consider themselves salespeople, so maybe Wikipedia's got that one right.

Either way, whether it's telemarketing or telesales, it's always about the same thing - opening doors and closing deals.

Labels: telemarketing services, telesales

I get approached by a lot on online business looking to outsource their ad sales.

Well, I say outsource their ad sales but, basically, they don't have any to outsource.

What they all really mean is... "I want you to sell advertising for my unproven Web 2.0 business but I haven't any cash to pay you".

There's a great article in today's Sunday Times The new dotcom boom which gives some insight into this.

Whilst drawing some parallels with the last dot-bomb bubble, most notably the growth of start-up networking events, it's recognised that there are a some differences this time round.

Today, it's typcial of Web 2.0 start-ups see their exit through a strategic buyer rather than an IPO. VC activity is up but no-where near the feeding frenzy heights of last time around. One reason could be that it's so much cheaper to actually start up a Web 2.0 business today.

"Lastminute used to cost millions of pounds every year in technology," says Hoberman [Brent Hoberman of Lastminute.com and wayn.com]. "Now it is far cheaper." How come? "Moore's Law. Everything becomes cheaper and faster." Can you set up for 20,000? "Absolutely," says Clegg [Judith Clegg of the Glasshouse, the company that runs Second Chance Tuesday]. "Less, perhaps."

Add this to the fact that most Web 2.0 start-ups' business model is based solely on advertising revenues and you start to see why we get approached by so many people to sell advertising on commission.

The problem is that none of these start-ups have anywhere near enough traction to make a CPM model pay. So, to fill the void, there's this vague idea that someone can just make a few phone calls and drum up a quick ad deal for their "next big thing".

Sure, ad spend is moving rapidly online. However, as the article points out "with lots of social networking sites all seeking advertising money, some kind of shake-out is due."

Web 2.0 businesses typically work on some low value/high volume model (which could be be that a directly listing fee, monthly or annually subscription or CPM ad revenues). The trouble for us is that these models just don't work well with telesales (which needs at the very least a medium value proposition) unless you're prepared to buy business in a land-grab.

If you're looking to self-fund and grow covering your sales costs (outsources or in-house) from revenue then you either need a higher value offering or a small number of partnership deals which will bring the long term revenue scale you need.

So, now you know, please... stop calling me ;-)

Labels: new business development, sales outsourcing, start-ups, telemarketing agency, telesales, venture capital

There was a time when telephone selling, or telesales, was considered an lower level of of sales, compared to the smart-suited executive in his top-of-the-range car. Of course, this opinion varies from sector to sector; just look at recruitment to see highly paid executives who spend all their time selling by phone.

Nowadays, other sectors are beginning to realise that the telephone, when accompanied by online tools, can be a far more effective method of selling. We're seeing telesales now being utilised as a compliment to the sales cycle, particularly in areas such as software which were once considered "high-touch" and too complex to be sold using the phone.

I think that there are three key drivers behind this:

Online Presentation & Demonstration Tools - such as GotToMeeting, and WebEx, now make it simple to handle early parts of the sales cycle remotely. With decision makers and their teams often geographically dispersed, handling initial presentations online not only saves money in travelling costs, but can also dramatically shorten sales cycles. Plus, it enables the telesales agent to collaborate with pre-sales technical support (which could be located elsewhere) to provide all the answers that client needs.

Fee-Based and Disruptive Business Models - hosted applications, "software-as-service", and other low-cost charging models have made the on-the-road sales person no longer viable or cost-effective. Utilising remote selling, usually in conjunction with e-commerce platforms or live-agent tools, is the way forward. You still need highly-skilled people, but now they can service more customers in less time than is possible with face-to-face selling. Need an example? Look no further than salesforce.com

Changing Customer Attitudes - can you remember when they said no one would buy groceries online? when it comes to enterprise sales, people have been a little slower to catch up. Partly, I suspect, because sales people have a vested interest in keeping their cars. However, decision makers have become time-starved and scheduling a 20-minute online presentation can be much more preferable to blocking out an hour in the day (plus they can fit the online meeting in while they're working from home...or even while they're on the train!). Can you remember when most of your clients didn't have email? Nowadays, most middle-managers can only be contacted via their Blackberry (see Email vs Cold Calling) You get the point, people are far more open to new ways of doing business, especially if it saves them time.

Telephone Sales, Telesales, Remote BizDev, call it what you will...it's a growing part of sales today, and a great way to shorten otherwise long and costly sales cycles.

Labels: sales outsourcing, telemarketing services, telesales

Welcome to my new blog.

I've been blogging on blogspot for a few months now with my Virtual Sales Team Blog. The focus was to look at online resources to help develop business.

Ahead of the expansion of my website here at Maine Associates, I've decided to merge the same remit with a new blog.

I'll be monitoring the blogsphere to bring you my perspective on what's happening, as well as providing a few anecdotes from the world of telemarketing, lead generation, sales outsourcing & new business development.

I look forward to your comments on my Blog.

Labels: lead generation company, new business agency, telemarketing agency, telemarketing company, telemarketing services, telesales