Appointment Setting Tips – Dealing With Technophobia

Suppose that, like any business software group, you believe that technology is only moving mankind forward. That is the message you send from the start of your appointment setting campaign and you are not afraid to repeat it during your sales meeting. It expresses your hopes and embodies the vision that both your company and your industry have for humanity.

Alas, you also feel that there are businesses out there who refuse to accept this vision. And worse, they do so irrationally and close themselves off when it is clear to everyone (from competitors to customers) that they are on the path to decline. You feel that these are the businesses who need your help the most and cannot just abandon them to ignorance.

Making B2B Leads Out Of Them

Well if you really think that you can talk sense to these people, just make sure you take precautionary measures. For example, if you were marketing accounting software, do not let your zeal blind you from the basics. Remember, their lower level of interest would already disqualify them if you were treating them like normal accounting leads. If you cannot do well with the basics, your conversation with them will only take a turn for the worst if you try something more advanced.

Related Content: B2B Software Leads – Telling You How To Teach

• Gain more information – How sure are you that a certain business has an owner that is averse to using software? Is it because of their industry? Is it because of their location? Did they have negative past experiences? Plenty of these things can tell you a lot about a prospect so use subtle means to learn about them beforehand. You can also consult or outsource appointment setting companies for ideas.

• Stay humble, be open-minded – Obviously, avoid coming off as arrogant (especially when your marketing tactics are more direct like email). You fear a close-minded attitude? Avoid being close-minded yourself. Not all prospects are as averse as your initial information made them out to be. You will only know if a prospect has just been misunderstood or is in fact exactly what you assumed if you hear their side of the story.

• Challenge their fears – Being humble and open-minded does not mean you should deny the facts. Investigate the logic or the so-called evidence behind their views. Some forms of hesitation towards accounting software could be valid (data security, compliance issues) while others are clearly misinformed (Luddite philosophies, influence of fear-mongers, slanderous tabloids). If it is the former, be more engaging and have your salespeople discuss ideas on how to handle these concerns. If it is the latter, start clearing things up immediately.

Related Content: How Lead Generation Can Create Or Clear Up Misunderstanding

Technophobia still exists in this century even if those who suffer from it deny the term. There is also the possibility of confusing it with valid criticism of your product as well. But if you feel that it is your calling to fix these problems, you now know what to do. Make sure your lead generation services know how to gather more information, remain humble and open to exchange, and challenge people’s fears about business technology.

New Lead Generation Tactics Aren’t Always That New

When one reads articles about the so-called revolutionary forms of marketing and lead generation, there will be one, occasional comment that basically says: “This isn’t really all that new.” And at such times, people who make these comments can make a really good point. You can go as far as to say the logic behind every so-called ‘new’ form of marketing is, in reality, the same logic that older forms ran on.

B2B lead generation isn’t all that different (just look at your typical B2B sales funnel).

In fact, there’s a whole article from Business Insider that drives this same point by drawing strong similarities between Facebook advertising and classic, TV advertising:

“How Facebook has sold ads for most of its history: Advertisers tick off a bunch of boxes on the type of people they’d like to reach and then Facebook shows their ads to these people.

That’s the ‘old-fashioned way,’ because that’s basically how advertisers have been buying TV ads for decades. Advertisers have a group of people to whom they would like to market their products, and they look for the TV shows that have that audience.”

If you’re a CRM vendor, you might realize that despite the all-new channels provided by the internet and social media, articles like this show that those channels were the only thing that were truly new. The sales process itself has remained the same. You just have more ways for customers to enter it. What does this mean though when it comes to attracting your own CRM leads?

How do you attract prospects with something that would truly define you as unique (in terms of both marketing and beyond)? The answer is another question: Do you really have to?

Think about it for a second, even the article concludes saying that Facebook has spent too much time in that vain attempt:

“It’s ironic—and a little tragic—that Facebook spent so much time chasing a “new and improved” form of advertising, when an existing online tool works so well.

The good news is that re-targeting should be a growth engine for Facebook, which desperately needs one, even if we don’t think (ahem!) FBX meaningfully boosted Facebook revenues in Q3.”

Instead of just focusing too much in making every marketing strategy original or innovative, why not focus on the common, tried and true strategies and apply them on all marketing channels?

Furthermore, even the strategy that underlies advertising has come under criticism and another kind of marketing poses as its rival: customer engagement. Ironically, this type of engagement isn’t all that new either!

Perhaps in B2C, it isn’t so direct but in B2B marketing, customer engagement has always been a norm in the sales process. You need to actively communicate with prospects in order to determine their needs, conduct small negotiations, learn about when they’re free for an appointment etc. This is the type of process that B2B lead generation services have been doing for years.

At this point, it would just make more sense to not bank so much credit on a marketing tactic simply because it ‘appears’ revolutionary. The truth is they could all still be operating on the same principles that have been used even in ancient times when merchants shouted out to get buyer’s attention and conversed with them actively. Just like Facebook, maybe such tried and true principles are all you ever needed instead of wasting time ‘trying something new.’

Generate ERP Leads With More Effort From You But Less Effort For Your Prospect!

On Search Engine Watch, blogger Alex Cohen wrote an article listing five ways to boost conversions for B2B marketing. You can read all 5 methods here but what’s interesting to note is the very first method he mentions: ask for less.

“The least you can ask for is time, usually to read a blog post or article. From there everything you ask for has to have an increasing amount of value to the reader.

Want an email address, name, and phone number? You better be giving away a great e-book or webinar.

Want a credit card, even if it won’t be charged? Your trial better be worth it.

The more you want, the more you have to offer. Create multiple ways into your brand all the way from free to paid customer.”

Why this is interesting is because another B2B marketing blogger (G. David Dodd) has also written something that’s connected to the subject of asking more from a potential B2B customer. In this blog post, he talks about a three-part series on the Harvard Business Review which discuss misconceptions marketers are having about consumers. Dodd however writes about seeing this from the B2B perspective:

“For me, the most significant finding in the CEB survey is that consumers are overwhelmed by the volume of information they’re exposed to and the choices they’re presented with, and as a result, many are making purchase decisions differently than in the past. The authors of these blog posts refer to this condition as ‘cognitive overload.’”

So what points do these two bloggers have in common? Well, when both their insights are put together, one can conclude that marketing not only demands more effort on your part but you should also make sure that effort reduces any effort on the part of your prospects! As Cohen says, if you want something from your target decision makers, then you need to give them more value for it. Part of that value comes from not asking too much.

Cognitive overload is the result of asking too much. It exhausts the prospect by giving too much information and too many options to digest. How else can you explain the fact that, despite how well-written and detailed your marketing website describes your software, you barely convert enough visitors? That’s because no matter how hard you put effort into creating content, that effort only raises the effort your prospects must exert to understand and appreciate it.

Simply put, if you’ve asked for their time then you need to make sure they don’t exhaust themselves in giving it to you. For example, if you’re using B2B telemarketing to promote your enterprise software solution, don’t overload your prospects with too much information and technical jargon. It will just make it harder for them to make a decision. Keep the call simple and quick.

Exert more effort only when the prospect specifically consents to it and still isn’t straining themselves afterwards. The negative effects of marketing no-nos such as information overload and dry content are usually the result of exerting too much effort only to result in the target market exerting the same amount of effort just to comprehend. As a matter of fact, Cohen’s article describes how a conversion is the result of a relationship. A part of that relationship is proper give-and-take. Carefully nurture a prospect by sharing information only when they can take it. That’s something you should put more effort into while asking for less effort from prospects.

Medical Leads – Learn From Your Prospects So That They Can Learn From You

Of the many fields that have expressed much hesitation towards IT integration, health care is a usual dissenter. Despite encouragement in the form of stimulus money and federal agencies demanding compliance, many hospitals and medical institutions only accept the changes half-heartedly. They have yet to really appreciate the benefits of new technology such as EMR systems and how they streamline and manage their records.

As such, those who are tasked with providing and implementing this software should do everything they can in order to educate them on its advantages. Otherwise, they’ll just be wasting money (and in some cases, people actually say it’s tax money). However, the tricky part is knowing exactly what to teach them about your medical technology and how it’s worth the money they’re spending. That way, they in turn can say the same to other dissidents.

This is where lead generation services come in. The value of software leads is not just in the opportunity to make a sale. It’s the information itself and what it can tell you about the prospect. And if you’re familiar with your prospects, you’ll have a better idea of what to teach them.

You see, a common mistake in the lead generation process is overloading potential clients with too much information. They might find some of it useful and relevant to their own circumstances. But if it’s heavily mired in useless data and features they don’t care for, they’ll be too overwhelmed to fully appreciate your offer.

One thing that today’s businesses now keep in mind is that a sale is no good if it didn’t provide a service. Simply put, you don’t just sell. You serve. That’s the challenge and acts as the counterpart to medical institutions who buy but don’t really use what they bought. For your products (and of course, your business) to truly realize their value, you need to learn more about what they can give to the world.

Hence, it’s important for prospects to learn about what your technology is supposed to help them do. And before that, you need to learn more about how they do things so you can show exactly how your products can make it all better. It’s not enough for governments to step in, pump in some monetary incentives, and establish laws that push for implementation. Counting on that will only increase the political bitterness that often follows such actions. If anything, learning about your prospects can make things easier when they feel like they’re being bullied by the ruling powers that be. After all, they’re being forced to implement and integrate something that they have no utter clue about. With the knowledge you have on them from qualified leads, you can ease their frustrations by showing them how your technology can actually help and why they’re being pushed.

The good thing about lead generation is that it’s not just an acquisition of information. It’s an exchange of it. It’s a process that brings companies together so they can learn from one another. Institutions have needs (just like individual patients) but they don’t know how to address them. Meanwhile, providers have that knowledge but they don’t know where it is needed. Use lead generation as a means for both parties to learn from another and complete what’s missing.