- Blaire Group

Consulting & Professional Services





 

Cold-Calling Observation

Blaire Group analysts observed 3,750 cold-call presentations made from twenty (20) different Professional Services / Consulting firms prior to Must-React training. The research clearly shows that Professional Services sellers, when cold-calling, adopt a cold-calling presentation style and scripting that incorporates value-proposition and product-benefit language into its messaging approach. Our research further shows that target buyers are not responsive to presentations that are interpreted as "unsolicited sales calls". What's more, their executive assistants, i.e. gatekeepers, are trained and held accountable to insure that these target buyers are never "bamboozled" into unsolicited sales calls. Our research concludes that middle and senior-level executive buyers, i.e. CFOs, Functional Business Unit Heads, etc. have neither the time nor the inclination to respond to solicitations for new product introductions. Presentations that are centered in value-proposition language must be de-constructed, and reconstituted into a language of persuasion for Professional Services sellers to achieve better access to its target buyers.

Cold-Calling Pressure Points

The research indicates that there are six areas of vital concern for sales professionals who cold-call within the Professional Services / Consulting industry.

  • Introductory Statement - Professional Services / Consulting sales professionals wrongly adopt value-proposition, product-benefit scripts. This type of selling language is at the expense of true persuasion (see paragraph below The Pitfalls of Value-Proposition Language).
  • Objection Management - This group of sales professionals, including seasoned veterans, are unable to manage both simple and complex objections in the context of cold-calling.
  • Voice Mail Greetings - Professional Services / Consulting sales professionals receive voice mail greetings more than in approximately 50% of all outbound dials. The average callback rate is less than 1%.
  • Inability to Close - In the context of cold-calling, this group of sales professionals do not demonstrate an ability to close for a meeting with a date & time certain.
  • Lack of Call Structure and Viable Technique - Professional Services / Consulting sales professionals do not possess a coherent call structure with an organized technique that will lead to success.
  • Activity Tracking - This group of sellers is not tracking appropriate metrics / activities that will lead to successful cold-calling campaigns.

The Pitfalls of Value-Proposition Language

As value-proposition language is increasingly outmoded, The Must-React System provides a approach for gaining access to target buyers of Consulting / Professional Services.  By approaching your target-buyers on the basis of their professional mandates, you have an opportunity to engage them for an initial meeting. This is accomplished by offering research-based briefings presented on topics that are relevant, timely, and educational in nature.  Sometimes referred to as industry-briefings, or analyst-briefings, or even technology briefings – they are short presentations filled with industry facts, statistics and other relevant data that is amalgamation of third party, analyst research and is topically relevant to your target buyer.  Deliberately, these presentations DO NOT incorporate value-proposition language, or even company overview information.  Why?  Target buyers do not respond favorably to this type of presentation style or content, especially in the context of an initial meeting. An industry-briefing presentation incorporates relevant, third party research that is compelling. Below are examples of briefing presentations that we have built in a PowerPoint format for various Consulting / Professional Services solutions providers.

  • Optimizing Agent Retention and Improving Agent Productivity
  • Optimizing Admissions Process to Drive Enrollment Objectives
  • Optimizing Medical Records to Drive Clinical & Financial Outcomes
  • Optimizing Balance Sheet Integrity to Drive Financial Yield
  • And Many More
Wisely, the talk-track associated with each industry-briefing is designed to stimulate the target to talk openly about his / her corporate or departmental environment in detail. The outcome of the research-briefing is a deep level of qualification of the target's environment and potential buying needs. A percentage of the briefings then convert to a legitimate sales cycle.  It is the definitive methodology for building sales pipeline in the Consulting / Professional Services. The Must-React System is a turnkey methodology that helps build sustainable, fore-castable sales pipelines that converts to revenue quickly. 

Cold-Calling Process Consistent with The Must-React System


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