Hi, this is Scott Channell. B2B lead gen and appointment setting programs can under-perform for a variety of reasons, but there are three core reasons I see again and again, as the root cause for failure. If you fix, or don’t make these mistakes in the first place, you greatly increase your odds of creating new qualified opportunities.
Here is a 4-minute video discussing what to fix first, or avoid in the first place.
Number one: Not calling the right targets. If you get this wrong, I don’t care how many other things you are doing right, the odds of lead gen success plummet. I get a lot of appointment setting 911 calls and by far the biggest reason for failure is that too much time and money was being spent on low value, no value targets, while high probability high value targets were not being touched. Having a tight profile of your most likely suspects and prioritizing segments by value are critical. It only takes a few hours of time to make sure you get this right. Do it before you spend hundreds of hours of call time sifting through muck trying to find something worthwhile. The greatest leaps in productivity I see come from getting this right.
Second core reason for underperformance? Not communicating your credibility and benefits delivered in your call scripts or email messaging. Sadly, shockingly, I see again and again companies that have a lot of great accounts, a solid record of results and success stories to tell, communicating as if they were just starting out and calling from their parents’ basement. Don’t make it easy for them to lump you in with the idiots. If your pitch is essentially “Hi, this is Scott from Mega Industry we do stuff and save companies like yourself 20%, we would like to come by and learn more about your business and provide you a free quote, would Wednesday at 10 or Thursday at 2 work for you?” Please, just shoot me. Pathetic. Particularly if you have something to say that could communicate credibility, experience, and results. Many companies are sitting on this stuff and not using it at all. Work it into your messaging and your meetings and conversion rates will go up.
The third core reason for underperformance may surprise you. It is simply not doing the basics well. I see far more quantum leaps in results from just getting the basics in order than I do from use of the latest tech gizmo or current strategy of the month. Basics. Have a tight profile of targets, be setup to work efficiently, work a process, communicate with impact and follow-up follow-up. Most of the time, just doing the basics well is enough to enable you to run circles around the competition.
So, if your team is underperforming, ask yourself. Have we done the best job at defining our top prospects and allocating our time? If not, just a couple hours of effort can provide a massive bump. Is our messaging effectively communicating our hard earned credibility and value, or is our messaging weak and lump us in with lower value competitors? And last of all, are we solid on the basics, are we working from a solid foundation with purposeful actions or just running around crazy with activities for activities sake?
If you need help, reach out.
