Page 126 - The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million - PDFDrive.com

not alter her approach. She calls the contact and leads with her generic elevator
pitch—the elevator pitch designed for the decision maker.

This approach is the kiss of death for an inbound lead. Here is what it sounds
like:

[Salesperson] “Hi, John. This is Susie from XYZ Company. Do you have a
moment?”

[John the Intern] “I guess.”

[Salesperson] “Great. John, we have state-of-the-art technology that helps
companies like yours decrease COGS by an average of 20 percent and
increase profit margins accordingly. I would love an opportunity to show
you how we have done this. Would you be free tomorrow for a chat?”

[John the Intern] “Huh?”

The classically trained salesperson hangs up the phone, yelling to her teammates,
“These leads suck.”

No, they don't. The salesperson is simply approaching the lead incorrectly.

The company is a perfect fit for the business, but the initial contact is not a
decision maker. The initial contact is an intern.

So what?

Why do you think the intern is doing this research? A decision maker probably
told the intern to do the research because the related problem is important to the
business right now! So, this means your product can solve an issue that is top of
mind for a decision maker. Let's engage in the right way.

There are two strategies the salesperson can take. One strategy is to ignore the
initial contact from the inbound lead and instead call the decision maker directly.

“Hi, Mary. This is Mark from HubSpot. We have been receiving a number of
inquiries from your team about generating leads through social media. I actually
reviewed your Facebook page and had some ideas on how it can be a better lead
generator for you. I will send those to you now over email. Call me if you would
like to discuss.”

In this example, we leveraged the buyer context from the initial contact and
assumed the decision maker had a similar context. It is a reasonable bet.

The alternative strategy, which I prefer, is to call the contact from the lead first
and then call the decision maker as a follow-up. I call this strategy “call low,