Magnus Marketing Blog

One of the reasons why I am successful in business development is because I take a very strategic approach to identifying the right candidates to do business with. I don't mindlessly approach a list of companies and just dial down hoping to hit the right person or whatever. I research, target, and intelligently craft messaging designed to map to the prospective need of the company. It is strategic, consultative, thoughtful, and solution oriented and, most of all, this approach presents a consistently level of performance across clients, across products and services, and across time.

It amazes me how many professionals do not seem to understand this fundamental concept of prospecting. Recently, I was on a conference call with a prospective new client - one I sourced through LinkedIN, by the way. One of the partners was on the call. Both owners were relieved that I wasn't a "telemarketer" and didn't do that type of approach. Yet, amazingly, toward the end of the call - the partner asked, "so, how many companies do you call in a day". To which I replied, I don't track that metric, nor how many dials, connects - the only thing I focus on is connecting with the right people and how many qualified leads are produced. So, even though they don't believe in telemarketing - they STILL were concerned about VOLUME.

I was shocked also to see someone from Cap Gemini. CAP GEMINI. A very well respected and known IT consulting firm, asking how many calls their reps should make to sell SAP related support services. Then, equally as shocked, to see how many enlightened reps and telemarketing owners were citing numbers - YAH man, call 100 people, 10 appointments, 1 will result in a sale. Really? If I call 100 CIOS, I will get 10 meetings, and 1 multimillion dollar sale? Sure - over 2 years maybe. The guy from CAP Gemini was taking a volume, telemarketing approach to something that:
1. Should be a carefully planned strategic initiative using smart, well trained, consultative people who will qualify and open accounts. People like me need to be used to open business.
2. Should really be part of prospecting for internal sales reps. MY guess is that the sales team is evidently more account management, than business development oriented. Maybe they should consider retraining or incentivizing.
3. Develop strategy to approach different segments: 1) existing customers (sales reps), 2) partner opps (sales reps), 3) SAP "owners" (biz dev), 4) work with SAP?

Yah. I interacted with a business development company recently also who subscribed to a consultative approach. I was talking about how I always get emails for people and send out a "cold call email" first, follow up with call, wait some time, do another round, craft targeted messaging, etc. The owner of the lead gen company was: 1) shocked that I get all these qualified emails, "because NO ONE gives out emails" and 2) that the people involved in their company "wouldn't waste time researching or looking for emails because they have to make more calls". Again, volume, not strategy. I bet this company will drive a lot of appointments, because they will create appointments - not opportunities. By the way, you should see the lists I create - 99% email quality rates. It can be done.

The only thing that should be measured today is "how many leads were generated by marketing and business development that were qualified and converted to business" and which tactic or combination of tactics thereof were successful in creating the most ROI. An appointment or demo without qualification is an outright waste of time. Consider CAP Gemini and how utterly stupid that company can look if a bozo calls up and pitches SAP services with 5 qualifying questions and a script. I wonder how successful they will be. Call me, I will teach you the ways of Sales Intelligence and smart prospecting and you'll get lots of business! :)

Taking a more strategic approach is more time consuming, but it overall will yield much higher and more qualified opportunities. In the economy we are in today, only true hunters will succeed - the hunters with strategy as well as tactics.