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Teleprospecting in Today's Economic Climate

Posted on Aug 30, 2011 by Laura Johnson, Senior Program Director

The recent federal budget crisis and S&P downgrade have had a very interesting effect on teleprospecting over the past few weeks. Our conversations are showing just how much contacts react—and possibly overreact—to what they hear on the news. I have seen and heard the tone of our conversations change literally day by day. When the market is down, no one has a budget, not a penny to spare, no spec of hope in sight. The very next day, if the market it up, it’s a whole new story of possibility and planning. We’re talking about the same companies; it’s a completely different picture from one day to the next. Here are a few ways to address this situation:

  • Recognize a stall for a stall. Sometimes “Haven’t you seen the news?!? There’s no more money anywhere!” just means “I don’t feel much like talking today.” You have to ask a few more questions to really get to the real story. If you aren’t getting the opportunity to continue the conversation, try calling back another time.
  • Find out about the company’s budget planning cycles and fiscal year. This is not so much just to find out when to call next year as it is to get them thinking about the reality of the current budget. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t just decide today how much money I’m going to spend on groceries tomorrow. That amount is based on many complex factors in my household and it remains fairly consistent from week to week. I may be more careful about it some weeks, depending on outside circumstances, but a girl’s gotta eat, right?
  • Use a multi-touch approach. Because the financial outlook can change literally from day to day, a multi-touch approach will improve your odds of making contact on a good day. Integrate email and voicemail. Stagger your touches to avoid contact overkill, but touch base periodically to test the waters.
  • Make sure you’re talking to the right person. It seems a bit unlikely that the person who is so easily driven to fear and frenzy by the morning news is really the person holding the wallet. See what you can learn about how, when, and where budgeting decisions are made.
  • Understand your prospects’ priorities and situation. Be realistic in your pitch. If you try selling a Bentley to the guy whose 1990 Camry just died, you’re not going to meet with a lot of success. Instead, offer options that might provide cost-effective solutions to fill in the gap until the economy does stabilize.

Perhaps most importantly, don’t be a fair-weather friend. Continue to talk to your prospects in the bad times, so they’ll share the wealth with you in the good times. If your sales team will not engage with a prospect who does not have a defined budget, move that function to marketing. Continue the dialog so your customers and prospects understand that they matter to you.

Tagged: teleprospecting, lead generation, targeted lead generation, lead nurturing, telemarketing sales leads, telemarketing lead generation, teleprospecting economy

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