You've purchased a list and are about to start a telephone campaign to generate sales leads.

Will the results be good enough to enable you to achieve the new business sales targets?
How many good quality sales leads can you expect from the campaign?
Will the return on investment be sufficient to continue with this marketing programme?

Answers to these questions are hard to come by without undertaking analysis and profiling of your customers and careful measurement of the campaign results.

The following is a three stage process which will help determine the answers

Stage 1:

Define a test project of 50 calling hours. Depending on the decision makers and companies targetted you should expect to speak to 100-200 decision makers.

Stage 2:

Decide on the profiling information that you need to assess the results
A typical profile for selling a software application would be as follows:

A. Targetting Profile (Obtained by list purchase and/or telephone research)

• Company size
  
• Company activity
  
• Company geographic location
  
• Main decision maker job title 
  
• Alternate decision maker job titles
  

• Purchase Decision Location
  
• Current Application (Brand Name and Model)
  
• When installed
  
• Main current constraints and issuesBenefits seen for your Unique Selling Point 1
  
• Benefits seen for your Unique Selling Point 2
  
• Note on New Initiatives or plans to review the situationTimescale (< 3 mths, 3-6 mths, > 6 mths, No plans, Won't say)
  
• Who involved in decision
  
• Budget set: (Yes, No, Won’t say)

Stage 3:

Categorise leads and analyse the final results under the following headings:
A class lead, Initiative identified, closing within 3 months

B class lead, Initiative identified, closing after 3 months

C class lead, Initiative embryonic, requires further qualification

Neutral ‘keep in touch’ Call or Newsletter subscribtion
Negative call, does not fit profile (No issues or needs)

Useful Tip:

Experiment with calling alternate decison makers as these may often give more useful information than can be obtained from the main decision maker. Once a lead has been qualified the main decision maker can then be contacted to take the next step

Case Study:

Client: Transport & Logistics Company

The project involved calling a carefully targeted list of export and import companies. The requirement was to generate qualifed sales leads. A total of 32 face-to-face sales appointments and 21 phone meetings were scheduled from peaking to 67 Decison Makers in 23 hours of calling.