Scheduling high-potential appointments

Do you find cold calling difficult? If so, you’re not alone. Most companies regard it as one of their least-favourite activities. And let’s be honest: many people find it daunting to approach completely new prospects. Nevertheless, it’s essential. What’s the solution? 

How can you introduce your product or service to customers that you’ve never seen or spoken to before? Despite the best of intentions (‘I’m really going to make some calls now!’), there are always reasons to delay the activity: ‘I just have to finish this task first’; ‘Oh, is that the time, what a shame, it’s too late to call now’; ‘Hmm, I bet everyone’s in meetings today, I’ll call tomorrow instead’...and tomorrow never comes. Does this sound familiar? 

Techies

It certainly sounds familiar to Bert Smid from Van Lente, a systems integration company: “We offer customers in the manufacturing industry, machine building and utilities innovative total solutions and services for the entire production process – from technical automation and technical systems to technical management. We take care of the design, the implementation, the service and the maintenance of the automation solutions and the electrotechnical systems. We’re ‘techies’; we add value in the subsequent process but we’re certainly no experts when it comes to making the initial contact by phone.” Van Lente generates the majority of its revenue from existing customers. “We’re a specialist in food and feed, utilities, healthcare and high-end professional machine building, and we’re now keen to expand into other sectors. However, in theory all our potential customers are unaware that they have a need; that makes it hard for us to get our foot in the door.”

Rob Kamphuis from Labaz Hygiene Concepts is all too familiar with that situation. “We’re specialised in the development and supply of professional hygiene based on HACCP guidelines. Ideally, food companies already have a supplier for cleaning agents and most of them are loyal to the brand they use.

Bert Smid (www.vanlente.nl)

That loyalty also works in our favour but it makes the market static – it can be hard to break into it!” 

‘They speak the customer’s language’

“Cold calling is a skill in its own right,” concludes Rob. “Cold calling takes up a lot of my time and energy. I’ll readily admit that I’m not good at it. You’re often rejected, sometimes rudely, so I tend to keep delaying making those calls. But that’s not good, because I really want to find new business! That’s why we decided to enlist the help of a specialised company.” Unfortunately, the initial experience was not great. “The feedback from the first call centre we worked with, which I won’t name, wasn’t good. We had absolutely no clarity about what they were actually doing for us.”

‘Cold calling is a skill in its own right’

Bert continues: “To me, it’s important that the telephone operators speak the language of our potential customers. That’s why we also examined MarketCall’s references closely. I was sceptical at first, despite their experience in similar sectors. I believed that technical knowledge of the product was an absolute necessity for success. However, I now take that back; it turns out that the right choice of words and intonation are more important than product knowledge when making the first appointment. The ladies approach our customers and contacts in a professional, polite and targeted manner. After receiving a detailed briefing, they have more than enough basic knowledge to achieve successful results for us.”

Driven and competent

“What do MarketCall actually do for us? They set up appointments – which is exactly what we hire them to do!” laughs Rob Kamphuis. “They gain an in-depth understanding of their clients’ organisations and activities before setting to work, and it was no different with us. Once the target group was clear, they came up with a usable list of prospects. MarketCall also prepared the script based on input from us and it then we all fine-tuned it. The ladies are very driven and competent in their approach. They don’t explain much about what we do but they don’t need to; I’ll do that myself once I’m face to face with the customer.”

Cold calling 1,400 prospects has generated 188 appointments for Labaz. “I think that’s a lot,” says Rob. “Plus we’ve got a good database now thanks to the detailed reports they send us. We know which companies they’ve called, who they’ve spoken to, who the decision-maker is and what they’ve discussed. You just have to be realistic – the cold-calling process takes a lot longer than following up on warm leads.” Bert echoes that. “We ourselves would never have managed to call 1,472 contacts in the space of 11 months. They made 138 appointments with potential new customers, resulting in 10 short-term requests for a proposal and 23 longer-term ones. Needless to say, we hope that at least a couple of them will lead to concrete orders. In any case, it’s also generated brand awareness for our company and we now have a real reason to call people again, so the leads are considerably ‘warmer’ than they were.”

www.marketcall.nl