The Evolving Role of Telemarketing in MSP Lead Generation
In this podcast episode, hosts Adam Morris with Daniel Welling and guest Luke Doyle discuss the current relevance and strategies of telemarketing in the MSP (Managed Service Provider) industry. The guest shares insights into the evolution of telemarketing, balancing traditional and modern marketing techniques, and provides an overview of their company’s approach to lead generation, including data quality, targeting, and effective prospecting. They emphasise the importance of well-crafted scripts, continuous client onboarding, and follow-up strategies to enhance results. The discussion also covers the necessary qualities for successful telemarketers, managing client expectations, and the importance of reliable data to reach decision-makers. The episode concludes with reflections on optimising calls and integrating telemarketing into broader marketing strategies.
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:05 Debating the Relevance of Telemarketing
00:44 Lead Generation Strategies
01:38 Targeting and Quality Conversations
02:10 Challenges and Misconceptions in Telemarketing
02:42 Creating Ideal Customer Profiles
03:37 Effective Prospecting Techniques
04:26 Strategies for Competitive Markets
06:18 Warming Up Cold Lists
08:04 Webinars and Thought Leadership
10:11 The Importance of Strategy
10:49 Personal Experiences and Insights
13:14 Setting Realistic Expectations
15:24 Qualifying and Confirming Meetings
22:06 Tips for Effective Telemarketing
24:01 The Role of Data and Scripts
32:37 Concluding Thoughts and Future Topics
Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
Connect with Luke Doyle on LinkedIn by clicking here –https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-doyle-bravura-digital/
Connect with Daniel Welling on LinkedIn by clicking here –https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-welling-54659715/
Connect with Adam Morris on LinkedIn by clicking here – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcmorris/
Visit The MSP Finance Team website, simply click here –https://www.mspfinanceteam.com/
We look forward to catching up with you on the next one. Stay tuned!
Transcript:
Adam: [00:00:00] Welcome to the podcast.
Luke: Hi, Adam great to join
Adam: Yeah, no, really good. Really good to have you on, on the show and, and, um, telemarketing or telesales is one of those things that’s banded around all the time and there seems to be two camps as far as I can understand. Those that say it doesn’t work. It never works. It’s a waste of time.
You know, it was fine 10, 15 years ago, but now you’ve gotta focus on social media or something else. And there’s others that, uh, still, still still use it, still think it does work, still think it, it has a place. Um, so what are, what are your kind of thoughts on, on where the industry is, um, you know, where it is today, kind of where is, and is it still relevant, you know, from an MSP uh, perspective?
Luke: Yeah, sure. No, that’s a great question. So, uh, originally when I started the business, uh, this was three years ago now. Um, we started off as a lead generation company. I. So we [00:01:00] looked at all sorts of different options, which include LinkedIn, you know, automating LinkedIn, you know, direct messages using sales navigator or email marketing.
Can you automate that or do you personalize it and what, what are the best results and what data do you need? Um, and then we stumbled across, uh, uh, someone who was doing. Telesales and telemarketing who was getting better results from, uh, outreach in terms of telesales, and there was some key bits of. Insight that we gathered, then use that to generate better results for ourselves. And we started using that process and we could see that that was generating the best results. Um, something I’ve always been keen on is, is, uh, I improving the targeting so that you’re actually talking to less people. But having [00:02:00] better quality conversations. And I think that’s something that’s, uh, in interest a lot of people as well. Um, although we are in lead generation, it’s the, you know, we don’t want to target and spam everybody. We wanna be as specific as possible. Um, so that’s where telesales actually has, um, a positive spin on it. So actually you’re speaking with less people, but getting better results. So that’s what we found
Adam: And I, and I guess, I guess totally marketing or tow sales gets a bad press in some ways because it isn’t targeted and you get calls where they’re just completely irrelevant. Um, and, and, and so that’s, that’s a waste of time for everybody, isn’t it? And so, so that’s a, that, that, that’s a definite. No, no.
Right. The sort of 1 0 1 telemarketing would be to make sure you’ve got a clear target market that you’re offering value to, and that you have something, um, there’s some sort of connection at least, or the chance of some sort of connection in that [00:03:00] conversation.
Luke: Yeah, definitely. So what we do with our customers is we’ll write down the ideal customer profile and we really focus on this, and everything that we do is based around that profile. So, uh, that will be the industry, the job title, the location I. and lots of other factors as well that go into this. Um, so we use this information, we create a profile, and then we use that to collect very good, uh, GDPR protected. about the people who we want to speak with. once we’ve got a very good list of that, then we can prospect against that list. Um, but it’s, yeah, it’s really important to try and remove as many customers from that list that aren’t the right fit. So that could be a million reasons, but there’s, there’s, uh, you know, lots of reasons why that wouldn’t be a good fit, you know, and, uh, trying to get a great list is a, [00:04:00] is a really important place to start.
Adam: And so in your experience, who would you turn away if they came knocking on your door looking for your help? Who would you say, do you know what? I just don’t think TE sales is, is the right strategy for you.
Luke: Sure. Um, uh, an interesting question ’cause it really, there’s, there’s lots of businesses we can help. So most business to business customers. Know who they want to speak with, uh, know the job titles they wanna speak with, and know the companies, know, roughly they wanna speak with. So we, our job is to help start a conversation and open up the door with, um, the right people, uh, that match that ideal customer profile. So it really is quite difficult to say, oh yeah, who would we
Adam: Mm-hmm.
Luke: Who would, wouldn’t we? Uh, the one thing I would say is that. There are different markets that we’ve tried that are more difficult than others, and [00:05:00] depending on the industry and the market depends on the strategy. Strategy that you should use to generate the most leads and the best leads for you. Um, I. It’s not just, yeah, it’s not just about the most leads. It’s like the
Adam: Mm-hmm.
Luke: the leads really important. If anything, it’s the, it’s the most important thing. And a lot of, uh, a lot of our industry, they do focus on the number and the quantity of leads, but actually you just want, you know, if you could get a few great leads that are high converting leads, then brilliant.
That’s, that’s actually what we all want. Um, uh, so yeah, we’ve, we’ve come across different industries. Um, so there might be a highly competitive industry. So like the MSP space is usually highly competitive, so, um, although you can niche into different areas as we’ve seen, so, um, uh, but if you take a an MSP that can supply their services to any industry, then that definitely [00:06:00] is highly competitive. the difficulty with that. Is, when somebody needs those services, they can go, they can find it quite easily online, or they go to their network and they find a trusted supplier and they find it that way. Um, so it’s highly competitive, we would look at a much more, uh, sort of targeted approach. So that could look something like and advertising online, using paper track advertising. Drawing traffic to your website, tracking those visitors to the website and then prospecting against those visitors is an example of how you go from, you know, a huge market and you’re bringing it down to a, a narrow list of people who are likely to be interested in your services. So that’s just one example.
We have like, you know, a number of different
Adam: Yeah, so, so what you’re saying is, uh, make, make, make the cold list a little bit [00:07:00] warmer,
essentially, uh, through the. People that have visited your website through, you know, previous conversations, people you’ve met at events you may have, if you’ve done a good job in building your CRM, you may have four or 500 of these over the years.
Right? So in which case, um, we can now telemarket to that list. Um, and, and that is in and of itself starting to be, uh, more targeted and more and more specific because the, it’s, it’s not ice cold.
Luke: Yeah. Yeah, that’s exactly right. Yeah. So if you take the normal, uh, marketing funnel, you know, you’ve got the brand awareness bit at the top, then you’ve got a bit of nurturing, and then you go to conversion, and that’s the, that’s the kind of process that you’re going through when you do that. Pay click advertising, you’ll getting your brand awareness out there.
You’re getting people to interact with your, your website, um, the nurturing bit. May come from, yeah, them visiting your website, but engaging with it in some way. It could be subscribing to your, to your website, to your [00:08:00] newsletter, and then it’s focusing in on, well, who’s actually engaging with your company.
Adam: I’ve always been a big fan of, uh, if you’re sending out either physical mail or, or email. Um, and by the way, I think physical mail n nowadays is probably head and shoulders above. Email, but I, I’m happy to be corrected on that, uh, Luke. But, uh, um, but, uh, uh, I’ve always been a big fan of following that up with a call,
Luke: Yeah. Yeah.
Adam: you know, again, you’ve warmed them up in some way with some kind of material, some kind of content.
- And now you’re seeking some kind of, um, you know, call to action with, with, with a, with a telephone call. Um, so, so, so thoughts on then if, if, um, you know, what, what, what, how best might, I guess, summarizing what we just talked about here, how best might an MSPO in a position themselves to, to, to make their investment in telemarketing s successful?
Luke: Yeah, sure. So I think, yeah, on the same tracks [00:09:00] then, uh, there’s things, uh, we’ve done for our clients, which include, uh, signing people up to a webinar. So it could be a, a hot topic, um, an industry specific webinars. Good. I. With a hot topic. Um, so we’ve done that, um, and we can use telesales to, uh, speak to the right customer, so the right ideal customer profile to invite them along to the webinar itself, to let them be nurtured and let them see you and your expertise.
So there’s a bit of a thought leadership in there. Um, and then following from the webinar, we then. We then call them back and we’d like to start an initial conversation and it’s all a very sort of light touch. So it’s not trying to sell to them on the phone. What we’re looking to do with our job is to just start an initial conversation with the right person. Um, and yeah, just following that, that webinar process, you can generate, uh, more, uh, warm [00:10:00] leads and better leads as well. Um, but more of them too.
Adam: Yeah, no. Um, I, I’m a big, big fan of all those things. That makes an awful lot of sense.
Luke: Hmm. Yeah.
Daniel: just reflecting. On, on the different tactics, uh, that you’ve described there. Any one of the, the methods could come first. it’s almost like the cart before the horse. Uh, does someone attend a webinar? Uh, will, will. We’re calling them first, help them attend the webinar, and then, and then they get the, the, the, the, the education, the nurturing and, and um, it sounds to me like the key thing here is, is always that it’s part of a continual journey.
It’s not just a one time. So you can’t just send an email or a letter or make a phone call individually. They’re less effective, if at all. [00:11:00] Um, but combining them together, they, uh, uh, they accelerate each other.
Luke: that’s right. Yeah. Yeah. Spot on. Um, and there are times when we will, we will do, uh, just prospecting on its own as if you have a sales person internally, uh, on the phone speaking with the ideal customer profile. We do that job on, on behalf of our customers. Um. It’s just deciding what the right strategy is.
Um, we, we do believe that the strategy is, is a big part of the success of the campaign as well. So what is the strategy? What are we looking at? Why? Do we need more nurturing or is the offer and the, the idea of the business good enough on its own? So there’s things that we do to, we go through all these things with our customers and we decide together on the best strategy to use, uh, based on our experience as well.
And then we just, but yeah, depending on the industry, depending on how competitive it [00:12:00] is, uh, we, we make, uh, the appropriate amends and suggestions.
Adam: So, so, um, sorry, Dan. Go for it.
Daniel: I, I was, I was just gonna, just gonna reflect, reflect back on, on my own journey in terms of, uh, when, uh, uh, uh, in, in the, uh, in the dark ages, uh, uh, when I was originally in business, we, um, uh, call in was a, was a key, key part of what we did. Um, although looking back, I couldn’t actually tell you. When and when and how it became successful or more successful.
And in fact, it tended to the, the, the results came in, uh, came again, not in any de definable cycle. Suddenly the, the same thing we were doing six months ago is now working. We’re booking more meetings and those meetings are converting. And, and then, and then you do the same thing for another six months, and then nothing happens. Uh, and you’re like, well, what are, what are we doing wrong? And, and the only real thing I can sometimes put it back, put it down to was, [00:13:00] uh, just a, a level of confidence. Um, when you’re in a purple patch, you execute better those conversations, you are more positive, proactive. At the booking, at the, at the, uh, at the call stage, at the follow-ups, uh, uh, rather than if nothing’s sticking and you’re just down in the dumps and you’re like, well, to be honest, I won’t even bother booking the meeting because you’re not gonna turn up.
And even if you do, you’re not gonna be interested. And even if you are, you’re not gonna follow through. So I’m not gonna bother following you up, Uh, whereas, uh, you can talk your way in and out of, uh, out of an opportunity.
Luke: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think, um, we see it all the time internally with our sales professionals. They, um, effectively they get in the, the flow kind of state, and then they get really good. Um, so the more time they spend with the. customer, the better. Um, so the way we do it is we have a whole day of prospecting.
Rather than mixing it between different clients, we have one full day of prospecting against one account. That means, [00:14:00] like you said, yeah, you can get, I. that, that, um, that practice and just perform at their best, basically. Um, uh, so yeah, it’s, it is interesting. We, you know, some days we have, um, uh, you know, we have had days where we’ve booked no meetings for that whole day equally.
Um, you know, some of the personal best are. Like 13 meetings in one day, and that’s fantastic, you know, um, and we record all the calls, we got all the information so that we can provide it to the client, um, and give them that information. Um, but often what we’re trying to do is, you know, the reason for the call is usually just to arrange an initial conversation.
So it’s just to be able to show you and have an, have an insight meeting if, if you like. So, um,
Adam: So
Luke, um, we, we, we, we’ve done the homework. Uh, I’ve got an MSP now, and I’m, I’m ready to place, go on it. I’ve got a target market. We’re good at what we do. We’ve got some good messaging and good clarity around the value [00:15:00] proposition. So ready to go. Um, what should my expectations be here, around what you’re gonna do for me?
Um. There’s, there’s wildly different, crazy, crazy things being being said out there. What, what’s realistic? Um, what’s it gonna cost me roughly? What kind, what kind of ROI might I expect? What, what, what might you say to.
Luke: Sure. So we’ve got a standard package at the moment, which is one full day of prospecting against an account, and that would be 2005. Per month. So what that is is, uh, every week, uh, we’ll have a sales professional working on your account. So that means that they do prospecting on that day for you. Um, obviously we have every week of them doing that so that that adds up to 2,500 pounds a month. Um, but what we would do is. Look to develop a, the right strategy for you based on our experience first. [00:16:00] Um, we’d have an onboarding session where we’d learn about your ideal customer profile. Um, we have a live dashboard where we record all the information and it means that you can update the leads with, um. The progress that’s been made. So whether they attend the meeting, whether they don’t, whether there’s an opportunity there or not, you get to record that and it’s very visual and easy to see. So we share that information with you and you get an email through with the booked meeting. So this, we’ve, you know, we’ve booked you with this person, we’ll have all the information there. Um, so that’s, that’s given you an idea of one of the standard packages that we offer. Um, so within that, we usually say there’s a target of three meetings per day for our sales professional to complete. So that means that at the end of the month, you should expect around. 12, uh, meetings that have been booked. [00:17:00] Um, but from there you’ll have a, you’ll have a dropout rate as well. So it’s normal to expect around a 50% dropout rate. So you can expect there’s around six meetings left then that month. Uh, but that depends on your offer, depending on your business, how competitive it is, there’s all sorts of different factors there. but what we do is we will call. The client, once we booked the meeting, we’ll call back, um, we’ll let the, the prospect know that we’re gonna call them back a few days before the meeting. And the reason we do that is to qualify and to confirm their attendance. So the qualification part is just saying, right, some top level questions that we can ask them, uh, to just get an idea of, um, how to provide our clients with the right information.
So we use, um. Goals, plans, challenges and timelines, [00:18:00] for example. So we ask some top level questions to get a better understanding, to provide the, that information to our client, the ahead of the meeting. Um, and secondly, the confirmation call is about, you know, confirming the meeting. So we say, is it in your calendar? Everything. You know, do you, do you have any questions? Do, do you know why you are meeting and everything else? So we confirm all those things and then that increases the chances of them attending the meeting itself. So that’s what we do internally at the
Adam: And also, but also filters, right? We’re also gonna lose some of those, those meetings, whatever percentage, right?
Luke: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Because what we don’t want is our clients waiting on the end of the phone and somebody not attending. And that happens obviously quite a bit because there’s a big dropout rate. However, we tr that’s why we do this confirmation calls to try and remove that ahead of the meeting. Um. If we know, if we have a feeling that someone’s not going to attend, then we [00:19:00] should be telling the client that beforehand, saying that this person’s not not going to attend the meeting. We, it’s unlikely. Um, but otherwise, I. The only thing the client needs to do is to give the customer or prospect a call after about five minutes if they’re not attending the meeting, just to give them a quick call and just ask, you know, um, just, uh, let ’em know that, that you are, you’re waiting on the meeting.
And if there’s any problems or anything like that, if they can’t attend, that’s fine. Um, but yeah, to give them a quick call. Other than that, the client doesn’t need to do anything else apart from update their status at the end of the meeting to say whether that person attended or
Adam: Sure.
Luke: Once we
Adam: Yeah.
Luke: they haven’t, then we just go get, get on the phone and reschedule if possible.
Adam: So, so Dan, that’s an interesting point, isn’t it? Around, uh, a pre-meeting follow-up call. We, we, we’ve discussed this previously. Um, I mean, what, what, what, what are your thoughts?[00:20:00]
Daniel: Thinking back to, uh, my, my original, uh, original stint, uh, uh, before of course we had video calls, so they were all in person, uh, meetings and, we had meetings cancel, uh, on our way there, Uh, sat in the reception waiting. Uh, and uh, and we also had, um, uh, we also had that happen even if we had confirmed the meeting, uh, before. uh. So we ha we f we found a mix, a mixed bag in terms of, um, whether or not a confirmation call would in increase or decrease, because obviously one, one of the, one of the outcomes is, oh, glad you, you called because I don’t want to, don’t wanna have the meeting anymore. Um, and, uh, uh, well if we’d have turned up and we were sat in reception.
Would they have canceled? Would, would, [00:21:00] uh, uh, are, are we giving them an easy out? Um, but, uh, uh, but yeah, I, I couldn’t, I couldn’t tell you whether I’ve, I’ve followed that through and, uh, and, and worked out how, how many then went on to become customers in, I. Three months, six months, six years, et cetera. So, uh, but yeah, that, that was, uh, uh, I think there’s a, there’s a mixed bag.
Some, some,
Luke: Yeah.
Daniel: we thought, yeah, that was a lucky escape ’cause we didn’t wanna drive to Scotland for, for a half hour
Luke: Yeah.
Daniel: uh, for a cup of tea. But, uh,
Luke: Yeah, it’s in, it’s interesting you say this ’cause the, the, one of the best things about doing the qualification call is that we can give our customers some great information ahead of their meeting. So these are kind of some of the sales questions you might wanna ask on that actual call. But you’re going in prepared, knowing what their goals are, you know, what, what, what the plans are. What the challenges are and, you know, timescales and everything. So you kind of have some of that information so you can go in prepared. And I think that that goes a long [00:22:00] way as well. Um, there’s a lot of, um, um, sort of studies done to show, if you, the more you prepare for these meetings, the, the better the outcomes are.
Daniel: Would, would you have not? Establish some of that though when you book the meeting in the first place. Um.
Luke: It is a good question. Yeah. So the, the meeting, uh, when we schedule a meeting, the reason for the call is always to schedule the meeting. So it, the reason for that is that, um, we want to be able to briefly explain. What the company does and how we can support them and why we’re relevant and credible. Um, but it’s immediately, because it’s such a short conversation, it’s, you know, a case of saying that the reason for the call is to schedule, uh, a longer conversation with you to discuss this. So once you’ve scheduled that, um, then we’ve got. An opportunity to go back and, and, uh, speak to ’em. Just get some [00:23:00] information, ask in more in-depth questions. Um, on that first call, you don’t really want to get into that because, um, they may have objections to what you are saying and your, and your proposition.
So they ask, uh, those objections on the call, it’s not the time or place to answer those then and there without understanding their business first.
Adam: So, so I’m a, I I just wanna get some clarity ’cause I’m, I’m not sure I completely understand now. So when you. Making you make when? When you make your first call, is the objective of the first call to get a second call or is it to get a meeting?
Luke: So it’s to get a meeting
Adam: Yeah.
Luke: discuss, um, the whole, um, business in, in more depth than, yeah. Once that’s scheduled in, we. We will do a confirmation and qualification call. So that’s the, we’ll let the customer
Adam: But are they expecting that, that call, so you, so, so you, so you are [00:24:00] selling the meeting and then you are also selling a second call to get a bit more information to get the most from that sales meeting. Got it.
Luke: that’s right. Yeah.
Adam: Okay. Okay.
Luke: Yeah. So we’ll say something like, uh, you’re happy, um, we, we usually like to call you a few days before the meeting just to help us better prepare for that meeting. Would that be okay with you? Uh, if they say yes, that’s brilliant. That gives us sort the permission to be able to give them a call back a few days before we say, keep an eye out for our number.
We’ll give you a call. Thank you very much. And we schedule the, um. The meeting, you know, first and we’ll, we’ll make sure that qualification calls done, um, to just try and increase the attendance and, uh, just get a better, more in depth conversation going. It does it, it helps the client too because they know that you are serious and you ask, you’re asking the right questions about their
Adam: Hmm.
Luke: and you’re actually spending time to understand it before that call [00:25:00] as well.
Adam: Yeah. Um, so, so for those MSP owners out there listening to this podcast today who are doing this themselves or they got an internal person doing it, what are some of the tips you could give them, um, for getting the most from a telephone conversation with someone they don’t know? I.
Luke: That’s a really good question. We internally, we’ve actually written an ebook that we’re looking to publish soon. We’ll probably put it on our website. I would definitely say that’s a good opportunity later, uh, to say, okay, if, if someone did contact me, I’d, I’d certainly give them that information because that’s. Absolutely vital. Uh, we use it internally for training as well. Um, but there’s so many great tips in there. So that’s an example is, uh, you know, the, the really, the, the reason for the, the call in the first place, um, is to book the meeting. So you’re not trying to get into an in-depth [00:26:00] conversation. There’s a lot about sort of tone, tonality, and kind of what to say. Uh, but it, we, we really believe that there’s. You know, not to waste people’s time is key for us. So we, we don’t want to do that. We want to get straight to the point whilst being professional and clear. Um, and, and, know, let them have the decision. If it’s a no, then it’s a no. And we don’t carry on, you know, we’re not pushing, we are not pushy. We just say no. If it’s a no, that’s a no. We move on. Um. You know, um, if, on the situation, we have lots of different things that we, we have internally to just make things, improve the results basically. Um, so data’s really important as well, I would say. So, you know, having GDPR compliant data, but being able to get through to the decision maker straight away is absolutely key.
So that’s one of the most important things. Uh, without [00:27:00] that. The time you spend doing it would be too significant to justify the results, basically. But if you do have the right data and you can speak to those people, you need to immediately, then you are, you are being really time effective and you’re doing it the right
Adam: And when you say right data, I, uh, you know, the biggest hurdle is, is actually getting through to the decision maker. So are you talking mobile phone?
Luke: Yeah, so it would be A-G-D-P-R compliance, um, work mobile phone number, and that’s, that’s one of the keys to being able to reach the right people immediately.
Adam: and the key thing there, G-D-R-G-D-P-R compliant, what percentage of the, of decision makers does that filter through? How, how many are now automatically not available?
Luke: Um, so it, so there is a huge amount of data we [00:28:00] use, um, a business to business, um, GDPR compliant platform for this that we spend a, a lot of money on every year. Um, so through that information we’re able to, yeah, use, use that to, uh, speak to the right people
Adam: So you are saying it’s not an obstacle particularly.
Luke: No, not, not for us. No. So we have so many, um, of the right decision makers that we need to speak to. It’s not an obstacle for us. Um, I think this is something we’ve had to learn through, um, through the years of doing lead generation of what, what platforms to use and how to do it. Um, but yeah, it’s important that it’s. GDPR compliant, but you know, and it’s, it’s from a good source. We’re not using old data or anything like that. It’s very up
Adam: So, so if it was traditional in the sense of calling the main line into the office and getting through to reception and the reception saying, thank you, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll let him know. [00:29:00] Uh, you are saying, yeah, that’s not, that’s not gonna work.
Luke: No, no, it’s incredibly hard. Like yeah, you take a lot of work to get the same results. Like we, the results we can generate during that time are so much better, that’s how we do it. It’s because we’re getting through to the decision maker straight away. We’re being really time effective. But you put that data with a very good sales person you’ve got a good, a great combination there already.
Adam: And, uh, leave a voicemail or not if they don’t answer.
Luke: Uh, you can leave voicemails. Uh, it depends on the size of the list I would say that you are prospecting against. So if you’ve got lots of data, you may just want to move on to the next, to the next person. Um, you do leave a voicemail, it’s. know, it’s, it is probably more likely that they will respond without a voicemail.
So they’ll actually call back if you don’t have a voicemail, [00:30:00] uh, on there. Uh, because nobody wants to be sold to, you know, if you feel like it’s, you know, you’re being sold to, just like we get in our emails, you know, you would have lots of emails that will delete immediately as soon as you get the feeling you’re being sold to. Um. So that’s, you know, I think usually we, we don’t, um, include voicemails in, in, in the prospecting just to save time and to, to move on to the, the next person. take, obviously take a lot of, um, rejection on and, and we do that prospecting. So we just have to be really resilient with it as well. But really professional too.
And that’s, that’s really important to
Adam: So it’s all making a lot of sense. We’ve got the data component, we’ve got the uh, uh, the quality of the individual, and then we’ve also got the words they use or the script they use.
Factors in, in the success of this? Um, what, what does that [00:31:00] look like? Is the data 50% or, or the person 50, 50%. What, what’s the sort of ratio here?
Luke: Yeah. Uh, data is absolutely key. Uh, I would say it’s the biggest factor there that you’ve just mentioned. Uh, having a great sales person who’s able to be professional, resilient and get through what he needs to get through to be or she, to be able to, you know, perform at their best. Um. that’s really important.
And there is a big difference between, somebody who’s really experienced in this and somebody who’s taken on for the first time maybe, or has had a bit, you know, a bit of exposure to this. But, uh, you know, once in a while you’ll come across somebody who’s absolutely brilliant, um, who’s, who’s able to do this job incredibly well. So it’s very difficult. I would say that’s also a really big factor. Um. You know, there’s a lot of training involved if, if we take somebody [00:32:00] on and, and not an easy, it’s not an easy role and I don’t think everyone can do it. Um, that includes myself as well. And you know, I’m not claiming I can do it either.
So, but our team internally, got the right people in place to be able to do it. Um. And, uh, so that, that’s a, yeah. Is a big factor, I would say. So data I would say is probably 60%, I would say 40% for the person. Uh, actually that can’t be all right because we got, we got scripts. Uh, so yeah, maybe, uh, uh, 30%. Um, and then, uh, for the person, and then you’ve got the scripts, which I’d say
Adam: Okay.
Luke: yeah. And, ’cause the script is, it can be amended. And I think you learn quickly as you go through what works. So you’ll, you’ll kind of have a continuous feedback loop whilst you’re speaking to people. And I think that’s important that you amend your script based on reality of what’s [00:33:00] being, you know, uh, explained to you on the phone. you’ll feel that certain things work and certain things don’t. So I think that’s important. But we do try and. Focus our script on, you know, relevance. Um, the offer, what we’re asking them to do as well is important. But, you know, um, relevance to credibility is important. So using examples and of similar customers that you’ve helped, um, but really. Succinctly saying why you can help them and why, why you unique separates you out from everyone else, but why is it a useful conversation to have for them? And it just making it feel like a light touch, that it’s not anything’s too serious. It’s gonna take 10, 15 minutes of the customer’s time to learn about your, your business.
And you can learn a bit about theirs too.
Adam: So, so, so, so, you know, there’s a lot you just said, said there. So you’ve got, you know, 10 seconds before. [00:34:00] The, the, the client, you know, uh, puts the phone down potentially. So what is that first sentence? How would you craft that first sentence?
Luke: Sure. so. depends on the client. Um, depends on a lot. There’s a, there’s a lot of different things there. Um, what we try to do is just try to get to the point as quickly as possible. So there’s a lot of wasted words at the beginning of, of scripts often don’t really count for anything because no, people don’t really care too much about that bit. Um, and you know, a good example of that might, might even be, hi, I’m Luke calling from this company. I. And it’s just, that’s the same starting point that everybody has. Um, so I think you almost want to try and use like a bit of a pattern interrupt with, you know, calling that it doesn’t sound like a, a sales call.
- Even though it, you know, really is, you know, that’s of course what we’re doing is prospecting. [00:35:00] is ultimately a sales call. But to try and avoid sounding like that, um, and to create a script that that’s, uh, just gets to the point. Nobody wants to how your day is, for example. So if you know, our, our sales people won’t say, oh, you know, how, how’s your day going? It’s like, no, I
Adam: that’s the. Yeah.
Luke: Uh, you know, the worst bit of someone calling you, we think is the first, you know, if it goes on, uh, is, is how long it lasts. That’s one of the most frustrating things. But if someone’s quick and they can explain their products and service within. to 10 seconds. I, I think that’s a, that’s a good goal to have. I think, uh, the immediate reaction to a call is that you don’t like it. As soon as you pick up the phone, you have an immediate re, uh, emotional response to somebody calling you. So that’s negative. And then I think as you explain the reason for the call, [00:36:00] um, it, it can calm down a little bit. So then, uh, you know, more like eight to 10 seconds into the. Conversation. You start to relax you, you regulate your emotions, and then you realize, okay, actually that’s not too bad. I kind of, I’m quite interested and if you can peak their interest and show your relevance, show your credible, and actually you’re not asking for much. It’s just a 10, 10, 15 minute conversation with the right person.
And then that’s, that’s a great, that’s a good start. they’re not interested, then we just, that’s okay. We move on and, and it’s, it’s not a problem If they are interested. Wonderful. We’ll schedule a meeting for them and, uh, yeah, go ahead.
Daniel: And. Uh, I, I think we’re, I think we’re close to, close to time, unfortunately. Um, so we may, may have to, uh, uh, schedule a follow up, uh, episode to, to this. But my, uh, my next question, um, was actually gonna be around the, you know, [00:37:00] the, the, the shortness of the call that you are booking. Uh, yes, yes. It’s a lower commitment.
Um, but uh, you’re actually putting a lot of pressure on. The, the, the person executing that 10 or 15 minute call because they’ve, they’ve then got to, got to effectively, uh, uh, in that period of time book the next, the next, the proper meeting beyond discovery. Uh uh, so, um, uh, do you, uh, uh, do you, do you advise on that onwards sales cycle once that that first call has been scheduled?
Luke: Yeah, we do actually. That’s a great point. Uh, so it’s important to us that the meetings we’re placing in front of our clients turn into actual. So the ROI and the bottom line. So that absolutely is part of that. And what we do is I work as an account manager with my clients, um, so that we are looking at the whole process and we’re trying to [00:38:00] understand where things work and where things don’t work and what you can improve following that meeting.
And in that meeting too. So what, what did, what do you actually do in that meeting? That meeting and providing some, you know, realistic, you know, examples of what. What to expect. Um, so what we don’t expect is to convert somebody straight away on that first initial conversation. It’s very unlikely. It might be that that person says, look, it’s perfect timing.
It’s just hap you just happen to call and that’s great. Um, uh, and then you’ve, you know, you are, that’s a great opportunity. And, but it’s often about relationship building as well for us. So we see ourselves as kind of providing. with the right people, the right companies, the right size, the right industry, location, and so on. And, um, we’re, we’re, it’s all about networking for us and relationship building. Um, [00:39:00] of course there is a bit of sales in there and understanding what works and, uh, you know, and it might be that different industries respond differently to different sort of methods. So yeah, we, we look into all of that. We we’re able to help our clients convert these meetings as well, better. but usually it’s somewhere in between, you know, we’ll have some short-term wins and then some long-term wins as well. Uh, we like to see it as that all of it’s long-term really, because at the end of the day, if you expand your network with the right people and having great conversations the right people, then you know you are, you are on the right track.
And that’s, that’s the whole goal of what we want to do for our clients.
Adam: Well, look, we are absolutely out of time. Um, I I, I’ve really enjoyed the session today. Um, Dan, any final thoughts or, or words?
Daniel: Uh, ne. Next time we’ll have to talk about optimizing that 10 or 15 minute conversation.
Adam: Yeah, yeah. [00:40:00] Um, it, I, I think it’s a fascinating area. I think it can be really, really, um, I. The word pivot, well, not pivotal, but you know, can certainly make a big difference to, to an MSP’s marketing strategy. Um, involving telemarketing, uh, strategically within the plan. Uh, not just throwing money at it, um, and hoping something will land.
I think it’s, it’s gotta be, it’s gotta be focused and I completely agree with you about the quality of the list, uh, and all the ancillary tactics that go on around it to support, to support that campaign. Um, so.
Luke: Yeah. That’s wonderful. Thanks for, let me join you. See you again. Bye.