At the beginning of 2021, I decided to sign up for HubSpot's Pipeline Generation Boot Camp. Although this Boot Camp is free, it requires a lot of investment in terms of time. I was hesitant to sign up at first since in addition to a one hour per week class session, HubSpot requires an hour per day investment for 8 weeks. I signed up to help me set up a structure and keep the discipline to invest an hour of my time, every day, in business development and more specifically, in prospecting. In exchange for the necessary commitments, HubSpot informs you that more than 80% of participants generate at least 3 leads and successfully close at least one sale.
Getting out of your comfort zone and making 100 calls over 8 weeks!
What I remember most from my experience is the need to get out of your comfort zone. Right from the start, we are told that we will have to make 100 prospecting calls over the 8 weeks. For some people who can invest all their time in business development, this is not a good idea. development, this is not much. For people for whom sales is not the only responsibility, it is much more difficult. Of course, it doesn't have to be 100 phone calls, prospecting emails can also be effective. We are not talking about reaching 100 people We are not talking about reaching 100 people, but about trying to reach them. Of course, we have to follow up and follow up, but it is normal that we do not succeed in reaching everyone.
Role plays
During each session, participants are invited to join small Zoom rooms of 3 to 5 participants. Then, they have to role-play a potential client and the representative. It's a bit disorienting and I have to admit that I didn't always feel like playing the game, but in reality, since we're doing it with people we don't really know, it's not that embarrassing.
Video calls
Another disruptive sales tactic is the recording of video prospecting that is then sent out by email. It seems that this technique works much better than email prospecting. HubSpot recommends Vidyard, a tool I was already using internally, but hadn't tried it for prospecting yet. You always tell yourself it's something you're going to do, put it off and then never do it. Since this time I had to send my videos to our HubSpot representative and the trainer, I had no choice but to do some. I still got a very good response rate. I am using this tool more and more in the sales process. Vidyard connects very well with HubSpot by the way.
Warm Call versus Cold Call
Not many people want to make cold calls these days. Anyway, the conversion rate is very low and you have to do a lot of them to make them pay off. On the other hand, warm calls can really work. It's a little surprising that people say that warm calls are calls that are prepared in advance. Beforehand, we learn about the person we are going to call by consulting his or her various professional profiles, such as LinkedIn for example. We also have to go through their website and learn about the company in general. But in all transparency, I wonder who makes cold calls without taking the time to do these steps? In my humble opinion, the easiest warm calls to make are when we call people who have already had contact with our company through our blog or because they participated in an activity (e.g. Webinar) or downloaded a piece of content. That's how I did it. And that's what generated the most really interesting conversations, and more importantly, conversations that generated sales.
Results
The investment is worth it. On my side, without much surprise, I managed to generate a few leads. I generated them simply by calling contacts that were in our CRM (HubSpot). I've had some great discussions with several people and I'm convinced that this will generate referrals and opportunities. I have not yet been able to generate a firm sale that comes from these prospecting actions. However, the knowledge I have gained, the improved confidence, discipline and practices I have put in place have been very helpful in generating sales that do not come from prospecting.
Warnings
If you really don't want to call strangers in order to communicate with them, I don't advise you to register for this Boot Camp. On the other hand, if you are just a little reluctant to do so, which is perfectly normal, but the curiosity is there, I strongly recommend that you attend. It will definitely give you that little push in the back to give you confidence and get you going. Also, if you don't have a database of contacts and leads in a CRM, I wouldn't recommend signing up. Since, as mentioned above, if you only call people who don't know you, your conversion rate will be very low. Instead, I advise you to start investing in Inbound Marketing to generate leads and a database of contacts that match your target audience. To conclude, here is a series of links to the most relevant articles I had to read during my experience that I hope you will find interesting and useful:
How to Find Leads Online
How to Set Up HubSpot CRM in 5 Days
How to Ask for a Referral to a Potential Client [+ Free Email Templates]
11 Clever Ways to Use the HubSpot Prospects Tool
How to Master the Connect Call
The Ultimate Guide to Confidence
Stimulate Your Customer's Lizard Brain to Make a Sale
Video Helps HubSpot Drive Global Sales Performance
16 of the Best Sales Techniques That Close More Deals (+ 4 That Fail)
8 Questions to Ask a Potential Customer About Their Business Pain Points
43 Questions to Create a Sense of Urgency
28 Questions to Ask on a Call During the Sales Discovery Process
Don't Blow It: 5 Steps to Making Your First Sales Hire
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