Jim Logan

Here's your very limited, but real scenario:  You are a sales rep in a mid-size company.  You sell telecom equipment to F1000 companies - a complex sale with an average value of $500K that takes approximately four months to close.

Your territory is the Western US (undefined).

You have an annual quota of $3M and your marketing department doesn't provide you a steady stream of qualified sales opportunities.

How do you generate leads necessary to meet and exceed quota?

UPDATE:  It should go without saying, which is why it should be said -  I will give my answer to this question in a few days...a real world answer to an all too common sales challenge.

• Reduce the number and dollar value of aging accounts
• Increase cash flow to enable business growth and provide financial stability
• Increase email lead generation response
• Increase the value of an average sale
• Create a tradeshow plan to attract and generate qualified leads
• Identify prospective joint marketing partners and opportunities
• Identify a competitive position to insulate an offer from price sensitive buyers
• Create a sales tracking tool to more accurately forecast booking and revenue and quickly identify stalled sales opportunities

I've found I enjoy my copy review service more expected when I first offered and more recently re-launched the service.  Not that I didn't think I'd enjoy it.  I just didn't think I'd have this much professional satisfaction as a result.

Part of that joy comes from the overwhelming positive feedback I've received.  Not long ago a customer bestowed what may be the greatest compliment someone in my profession can receive: 

You changed the entire way I think about my business Thank you!!!

It's always nice to receive positive feedback, but a pleasant and somewhat unexpected benefit has been meeting new people, discovering new markets, and tackling varied challenges to communicating with target markets and named prospective customers.  If you like solving problems or riddles, you know what I mean.

As I enjoy this service and the feedback is extremely positive, I'd like to expand it.

If you have a haunting feeling the copy you use should be more effective - maybe a feeling there's something missing, the thought people just don't get it, or you'd like a sanity check before you launch your next communication - I likely can help.

Here are several reasons you should consider buying my copy review service:

Sales Orientation:  First, I'm not a copywriter.  I write a lot of copy, but I don't consider myself a copywriter.  The copy I write isn't written to win an award or be praised for its technical merit.  I'm a guy who has crushed quotas and built overachieving sales teams around the world.  The copy I write, the style I've adopted, and the methodology I follow are the very things I've personally used to generate leads and close sales with major corporations worldwide.  I don't care about technically correct copy, I want copy that motivates its reader to take appropriate action towards making a purchase.

That's the perspective I have when I review your copy.

Unbiased Feedback:  I don't live in your day-to-day world, which means I'm not blinded by internal discussions, past experience, or compromises which may influence the way your copy reads.  I look at your copy the way your intended reader does, looking for three key elements proven to motivate people to act.

Expert Opinion:  Sales letters, white papers, case studies, and other marketing communications are not a theory business for me - I've had to create and actually use those tools to open sales opportunities and close business in some of the largest and most fiercely competitive accounts you can imagine.  I don't care if the way I do things are textbook or not; I only care if it works.  And that's the exact eye and approach I lend your copy.

I've actually used lead generation letters, white papers, case studies, and related MARCOM to open opportunities and close sales - selling multimillion dollar solutions to F1000 companies, including a number of F100 enterprises.

Bang for the Buck:  This service is priced within the reach of every company.  You're spending thousands of dollars on your next campaign, both in real and soft dollars.  The opportunity cost is likely in the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.  For a fraction of the cost you're investing in your campaign, you can get my best thoughts, ideas, suggestions, and experience to increase its response.  This service is an incredible value.

Here is where you can learn more about this service:  CLICK HERE!

While I can't guarantee the results of improving your copy, customers have reported noteworthy increases in inquiries, meetings, opportunities, and sales.  If the copy you're using now is not living up to your expectation of response or action, please look at this service.

Thanks!

Here are some thoughts and experience to share on cold calling - drawn from the comments of a previous post.  I thought those who didn't read that thread may find this of interest.  Just food for thought.

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Looking at the commonly agreed shortcoming of cold calling - rude people, random calling, interruption - they're process and execution oriented. In other words, they're complaints against poor form and technique. When I say form and technique in this case, I don't mean having a poor script and being well rehearsed in objection handling - I mean not doing their homework and acting too much the stereotypical salesperson.

Being interrupted is fine, if the interruption is something we value. And if the company contacting us profiled their market and target accounts, the odds of calling us because we're the person they need to contact are great.

I'm not a big proponent of cold calling, I prefer calls in follow-up to direct mail campaigns...which could be argued as merely semantics.

I've created and led many lead generation campaigns targeting executives in F1000 and public sector organizations. There are limited means to reach such people directly. What I've found is cold calling is pretty effective.

When you profile the purchase cycle and people involved; determine their biases, interests, concerns, challenges and opportunities; position your offer in business terms, addressing a recognized opportunity or challenge; and use your first contact as an introduction and offer to discuss the opportunity to work together in a meaningful way...cold calling works.

If you call people randomly, attempt to sell your product or service on the call, tell the person on the phone all about your features and functionality, ignore their business concerns, and press them to take an action outside of the purchase cycle...cold calling fails miserably and merely becomes an interruption not worthy of our time. The equivalent of email SPAM.

Although I'm not fully prepared to explain it, I've also found cold calling senior executives at larger companies results in greater response than calling large-company mid-level managers or small business executive teams.

In the public sector, I've found most anyone can be cold called - large and small organizations alike, including elected officials - IF AND WHEN you do your homework, position yourself as a peer, and call about something the receiving party really cares about....that's the rub.

Cold calling is a hot button topic of sales and marketing. My sincere opinion is it's poorly used and abused. I see it as a legitimate tactic that should be used when it makes sense...nothing more or less. Like all marketing tactics, it has a place and fits in some situations better than others. When it doesn't fit, it should be used.