Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 77: BD-BOK...Chapter 12, Three Ways to Contact Prospects

Transcript

Episode 77: BD-BOK...Chapter 12, Three Ways to Contact Prospects · What is Business Development?

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So if you're in business development, you know this feeling, right,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: this constant tug of war between just sheer volume and
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: real precision.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: It really is the fundamental question, isn't it. Do you
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: hammer the phones or do you take that time for
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: the deep thurgical approach?
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, efficiency versus effectiveness and just guessing or doing what
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: you've always done. That's probably not cutting it anymore.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Definitely not. The market's too crowded for guesswork. So today
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: we're going beyond anecdotes. We've actually gathered some pretty solid data.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: We're looking at studies from connect and Sell revenueo HBr
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: LinkedIn good stuff. Yeah, really trying to get hard numbers
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: on the main tactics cold, warm, and hot calling.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Right, So our mission here isn't just to read off stats.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: We want to run the conversion calculus, as we're calling it,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: exactly to give you, the listener a real strategic edge,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: show you where the best ROI for your time might
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: be based on actual evidence and spoiler, there's no single
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: best way.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: That's the crucial point. It really depends and the key
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: difference between these three methods boils down to one thing,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: the prospects level of intent Okay, cold calling, that's unknown intent.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Warm calling works with perceived intent, and hot calling, well
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: that's the gold standard confirmed intent.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Understanding that difference is step one.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Basically, absolutely, which bucket therein changes everything.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's dive into that first bucket then, the
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: one most people start with, that high volume grind cold calling.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Ah, yes, interruption marketing.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Right, you're reaching out because someone fits your ideal customer profile,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: your ICP or persona. But critically you have no real
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: idea if they're interested. Intent is totally unknown.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: And the stats really lay bare. How tough this is.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Usually the goal isn't even to sell right away, it's
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: just to sell the meeting.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Exactly, get them into that next stage what we call
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: the activation phase.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Right, the activation phase meaning you know, getting them to
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: agree to a demo or maybe a proper needs assessment,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: call something measurable.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: So how hard is it to get that activation through
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: just interrupting someone's day? What do the numbers say?
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Well, they're low, unequivocally low. W Connect and Cell did
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: a big study. They found only zero point two percent
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: of all cold calls actually booked a meeting.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Zero point two percent.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one meeting for every five hundred calls. It's
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: purely a numbers game at that rate.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Wow, okay, point two percent is is brutal, but ang on.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: We also looked at revenue dot io and they came
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: back with six percent six percent booking meetings. That's like
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: thirty times higher. How do we make sense of that difference?
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: That's a really important question. That gap, that point two
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: percent versus six percent, It tells us a couple of things. First,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: it screams list quality matters a lot, and probably scripting too.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: That six percent figure, it likely comes from really targeted list,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: maybe using some intent data that makes it barely cold anymore.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Rple's cool calling at that point kind of And.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: The point two percent that's probably the reality. If you're
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: just using a huge, unrefined list and a generic script,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: you're basically relying on luck. It means cold calling alone
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: isn't really sustainable. It's more like a filter, a very
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: expensive filter. Yeah, trying to find that one needle and
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: a massive haystack.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: And that needle and haystack thing. That's why persistence is
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: so key. Here, HBr added another tough layer. Gather it.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: They only ten percent of B to B decision makers
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: even respond to cold outreach, and then only five percent
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: of those conversations lead to an actual follow on meeting.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: The funnel's just incredibly.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Narrow, exactly, it shrinks fast. But uh, there is a
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: glimmer of hope in the follow up data. The sources
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: all stress this follow up calls are vital.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: How vital?
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Well, persistence increases the meetings you book by one point
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: seven times, And if you look at meetings book per
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: total dials made including follow ups, that jumps up two
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: point three times.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: So quitting after one dial is basically leaving more than
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: half the potential success behind.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Pretty much. Yeah, you have to follow up, but even.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: With persistence getting tougher, isn't it Regulations are tightening people
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: of call screening AI gatekeepers.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, definitely, the friction is increasing. Running a pure volume
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: play is getting harder and more expensive.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Which naturally leads us to well the next step up,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: moving away from interruption towards more informed engagement.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Warm calling Exactly the bridge tactic.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: This is where intent is perceived. They've done something right,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: downloaded content, sign up for a newsletter, attended a webinar,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: likes your stuff on social.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: They've left you some digital breadcrumbs. This is where you
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: hear terms like social selling, conversational prospecting, community marketing. It's
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: all in this realm.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: And the key is you're not starting completely cold.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Right, and the payoffs Statistically, it's noticeable the comparative success
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: rate moves up to medium. That revenue dot Io data
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: showed warm calling getting roughly double the success of cold calling,
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: about twelve percent of calls booked.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Meetings twelve percent versus that maybe six percent best case
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: for cold That's significant.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: It is, and it really compounds if you build this
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: into your process. So that LinkedIn data was pretty stunning.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, tell us about that again.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Prospectors who really use social selling techniques they create forty
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: five percent more opportunities than their peers. They're fifty one
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: percent more likely to hit quarta fifty one percent. Maybe
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: the most striking, they out sell seventy eight percent of.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Their peers seventy eight percent.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Wow, it's huge. And it's not just about having a
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: better script when you call, it's the groundwork you've laid.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: So what are the advantages specifically, Well, first awareness, the
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: prospect already knows your brand, so no costly outbound ads
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: needed for that initial intro, second, initial trust you're not
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: a random interruption.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: And third you have an engagement profile. You have those.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Breadcrumbs so you can tailor the conversation. Yeah, show you've
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: actually paid attention exactly.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: It proves you didn't just scrape their name off some
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: giant list.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: This feels like a shift away from what some sources
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: call mercenary prospecting just transactional cold calls, towards missionary prospecting,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: where the focus, the sort of north star, is always
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: delivering value, being buyer centric.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: And that buyer focus explains why even though conversion is fire,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: it's still resource intensive. We have to talk about the
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: forester five.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a big number.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: Prospects conduct on average twenty seven interactions with content and
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: prospectors before they actually signal purchase intent twenty seven.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Twenty seven. That really reframes the whole sale cycle, doesn't it.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: It's not just one or two touches, not at all.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: Think about it. Before they even talk to a sales rep,
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: they might watch a couple of webinars, read some case
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: studies like ten social posts, download seven different guides.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: That's a lot of engagement to track.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Precisely which is why the warm outreach process isn't some
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: simple three step sequence.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: It's more complex like that example sequence we saw.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: It starts small, exactly low friction prospector follows the prospect
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: on LinkedIn. Prospect accepts, maybe offer some useful content next day,
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: not a sales pitch. Then you analyze the signals it click,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: watch the whole thing right, analyze that intent. Then maybe
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: you propose a meeting. It's incremental trust building.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: And managing all that. That's where adaptive marketing or behavior
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: marketing comes in.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Yes, you need a system something that tracks all those
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: signals across channels to figure out the next best action.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: You really need omni channel automation here.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Because no human can manually track twenty seven touch points
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: across email, social, website exactly.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: An email click might trigger a social ad or maybe
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: pin a salesperson for a timely personalized call. The goal
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: is just to add value at every single one of
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: those twenty seven steps make it worthwhile for the prospect.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, so warm calling builds trust, but it takes time
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: and effort, which brings us to the final category where
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: trust and intent are basically handed to you. Hot calling.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, now we're talking peak efficiency. This is the race
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: against time.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Intent is confirmed. These are people who have actively raised
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: their hand, filled out a request demo form, maybe use
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: a chatbot asking for specifics. They've come through as a referral. Right.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: The comparative success rate high. But and this is a
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: huge butt. Success hinges almost entirely on response time. Speed
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: kills here, or rather, lack of speed kills the deal.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's hit that HBr SAT again, the one about
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: corporations responding to leads.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: It's pretty damning. They survey thousands of US companies. Forty
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: seven percent took twenty four hours or more or just
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: never responded at all to a hot inbound lead.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Nearly half. That's just leaving money on the table, gold
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: in the streak, as you said.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Literally and the cost of that delay is catastrophic when
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: you see the impact of speed. This is the stat
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: every single bead person needs burned into their brain. Respond
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: within one hour. One hour and you are seven times
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: more likely to have a meaningful conversation with a decision maker.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Seven times. That's massive, and it gets even more dramatic.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: Compare responding in an hour to waiting twenty four hours
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: or more. You are sixty times more successful. Sixty sixty times. Okay,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: that changes everything.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: It has to that number two. If an inbound lid
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: hits your desk, you stop whatever else you're doing. It's
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: not just a task, it's an emergency priority. That's the
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: time dividend in action.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: And within hot calling, we have to talk about referrals.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: They seem like the ultimate combination of high intent and
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: high quality.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, Andrew Z. Brown's research really backs this up.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Referred leads they have fifty nine percent higher lifetime value LTV.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Fifty nine percent higher value over the customer lifetime Wow.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: And they smooth out the process internally too. Sixty nine
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: percent of companies say referrals shorten their sale cycle. Seventy
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: one percent find these leads have a higher PWI in
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: probability of win, so they close faster and more often.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: Exactly higher LTV, shorter cycles, higher win rate plus. Seventy
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: four percent of companies say referrals are their cheapest way
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: to get new business.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: High intend, high value, low cost. You can't beat that.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: It's the trifecta. But just a small caution, even with
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: a hot lead, especially a referral, take like two minutes
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: do a quick LinkedIn check, maybe ping the person who referred.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Them right speed it is key, but don't go in
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: totally block exactly.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Make sure that first call still delivers maximum value. Confirm
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: their intent, cater to it.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, fantastic. Yeah, so let's try and synthesize all of this.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Boil down this conversion calculus into maybe the top three
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: takeaways for our listeners.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Sounds good. Take one Number one has to be the
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: core principle. Intent defines strategy, right, There's no single best tactic.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: It depends entirely on the prospect status. Unknown intent you
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: grind knowing the odds like that point two percent perceived
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: intent you nurture, You build trust through those twenty seven interactions.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Confirmed intent you act fast, urgently.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Makes perfect sense.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Take away number two, let's.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Call it the warm bridge. Warm calling demands resources. Yes,
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: remember those twenty seven interactions, but it offers huge leverage.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Why because prospectors who master this, they build that initial
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: trust before the hard cell even starts. That's why they
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: hit quota more often, create more opportunities. It provides long
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: term benefits. Cold calling just can't replicate.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, building trust pays to it ends, Yeah, got it.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: And the third takeaway.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: It has to be about speed. The time dividend, especially
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: for hot leads. Time is literally money, or maybe sixty
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: times the money.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: That's sixty x Stata again.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the sixty x better success rate for responding in
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: an hour versus waiting a day or more. It proves
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: immediate action beats trying to get everything perfect before you call.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: When intent is confirmed speed Trump's.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Polish execute immediately, got it? Intent, The warm bridge investment,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: and the time dividend for hot leads great takeaways.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: So thinking about all this, it raises a final question,
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: maybe something for everyone listening to chew on.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's hear it.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: If prospecting is moving towards this dynamic adaptive marketing model
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: where every little signal, every one of those twenty seven
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: interactions matters, how well are you actually using automation right now?
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: How effectively are you tracking all those touch points to
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: make sure your team is delivering the absolute maximum value
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: at every single step? Are you set up to capitalize
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: on that warm bridge and that time dividend.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: That's a powerful thought to end on. Really challenges us
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: to look at our systems.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: Definitely something to consider.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Well, this has been incredibly insightful. Thank you for digging
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: into these numbers with us today, and thank you for
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: joining us for this deep dive