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Subscribing to Emap Glenigan can help you win new business
- but at Emap Glenigan we don't believe in just throwing
information at you and then leaving you to it. Our information
is only a successful if you win business with it.
That's why our marketing toolbox is designed specifically
to help you and your team get the most out of the services
we provide. It should give you some useful ideas and enable
you to enjoy greater success with our information.
Delivery
Unless you have full online access to
our database your leads will arrive once a week, you may
have chosen to receive them via this website on paper,
disk or via email. You will have selected the format that
best suits your way of working but if you'd like to discuss
these options please contact our customer support specialists.
Reading the leads
There is a lot of valuable information contained within
each individual lead. This website will assist you in
navigating your way quickly and effectively around this
data.
Once you know what to look for, you
should be able to pick out the projects with the best
potential for you and your company in just a few minutes.
Following up your leads
To make the most of your subscription
to Emap Glenigan, you need to act on those leads that
are relevant to your business as soon as possible.
Until you have made contact with the
decision maker on a particular job, you are leaving an
open door for one of your competitors to do so.
This section of the site give you guidance
on how to segment your leads into the most, and least
important; how to write a successful sales letter; how
to manage a direct mail campaign; and how to make effective
sales calls.
Putting some of these marketing initiatives
into practice will ensure that you make the most of your
investment.
Hot Tips
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Action your leads as
soon as possible. |
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Pick out the projects with the
best potential for your company. |
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Rank them according to importance. |
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Set aside a time each week/day
to deal with your leads and stick to it |
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Thoroughly research your prospect
before making contact with them |
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Track all your key projects, keeping
notes of all conversations with all contacts |
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Keep in touch with companies even
if they don't use you this time |
Emap Glenigan provides free consultancy
and advice on how to use your leads effectively. Contact
Client Support at any time.
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The information we gather ranges from the total project
value to the construction materials used and methods including
trade names where specified.
We specify the companies and individuals associated with
the development, together with their contact details including
phone, fax and email.
On the project is also a detailed description
of the works along with full material specification and
building programme. You will know when planning is approval
is granted, when tenders are invited, together with who's
bidding and you'll be the first to know who wins the contract.
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To make the most of your subscription
to Leads or Movers, you need to act on those leads that
are relevant to your business as soon as possible.
Until you have made contact with the
project manager or contract manager of a particular job,
you are leaving an open door for one of your competitors
to do so.
Having read through the leads, your
first priority should be to divide the leads up into “hot”,
“warm” and “cold” prospects. It
is up to you to decide how to grade your leads. The amount
of time your sales team have to follow up leads will dictate
how many go in each pile. “Hot” leads may
be those projects that are in your locality; or those
that will directly encompass your firm’s specific
product or skills.
Cold leads may include projects that
are situated too far away to be of relevance; or where
a contract for your side of the project has already been
awarded.
You should set aside the “hot”
leads for immediate phone calls. Useful phone techniques
and tips are included in this Toolbox, helping you
to make an effective sales pitch for business that is
most relevant to you.
The “warm” leads that you
have isolated are suitable for approach by letter if your
sales team are too busy to call each prospect individually.
Methods for writing successful sales letters are covered
in this Toolbox.
If you have time, “cold”
prospects may also benefit from a letter and information
about your company that they can keep in file for future
projects.
Every contact with a potential client
company will increase your chances of new business, whether
it is in the short, medium or long term.
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You have picked out the “hot”
leads that you feel offer the greatest potential for your
company. Now you or your sales team need to call them.
There are a number of ways of ensuring
that your sales call is effective. We have done the research
for you. You already know the scale of the project, who
the decision-makers are and how to reach them. Follow
some of the guidelines below to help make your telephone
call bring in results.
Before calling, think about the objective
of the telephone call. Do you want to set up a meeting,
make an immediate sale, or send a package of further information?
Prepare your pitch. Think in advance
of the precise ways in which your company could fulfil
the requirements of this project. Research examples of
your past work, if available. Anticipate objections and
prepare responses.
Write down your key points and practice
a few times with a colleague. When you are speaking to
the right person, you have very little time to make an
impression. Get the crucial first 30 seconds of your pitch
right.
Listen. Find out the current status of
the project, and ascertain what exactly they are looking
for.
Be careful to stress the business benefits
of what your company is offering, as well as presenting
the facts and figures. For example, rather than saying:
“Our fire doors meet the requirements of the Health
and Safety Act 2002”, say: “Installing these
fire doors will meet your legal obligations.”
Handle objections seriously. If you need
to check a point and come back to the customer, then do
so. If price is a factor, demonstrate the overall savings
that your product or service would bring, and explain
the full package you offer, including guarantees, after
sales service, and so on.
At the end of the call, agree actions,
and confirm these on writing, including timescale's.
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The best way to generate incoming
enquiries is to write to “warm” and even “cold”
prospects. This may be done through individual letters,
related to the project in questions, or may be through
broader direct mail shots. Either way, the letter is of
key importance. To maximise response from a sales letter,
consider the following points.
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The data you
receive from Leads or Movers includes the contact
name and address of the decision-makers you need to
reach. Take advantage of this, and make sure your
letters are accurately personalised and addressed. |
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You have just a few seconds to
convince the reader that your letter is worth reading.
Try and sum up your offer in the
first paragraph. |
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The bulk of the letter should explain
and amplify the first paragraph |
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Ensure that the text
of the letter is simple, direct and jargon-free,
even if you are writing to a technical audience. |
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If possible, relate the
letter to the construction or removal project
for which you are pitching. |
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In the final paragraph, make it
clear how the recipient can respond to the letter.
This is the “call to action”,
and may be a reply-paid card, a well designed fax-back
form, a telephone number or email address. |
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If possible, give your target an
incentive to reply to you promptly. This
may be an offer of 10% off your product or service,
a free consultation or a free estimate. |
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A final ‘PS’
is useful, to underline your offer. People usually
read and retain these. |
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Keep it short and to the
point. Letters should not be longer than
one page. |
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Sign the letter personally.
For large mailings, you can digitise and scan in your
signature. |
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Include more detailed information
as enclosures. Your corporate brochure will underline
your credibility. If you are selling products,
a catalogue or price list may be useful.
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You will receive a lot of leads from
Movers or Leads. While you may not have time to contact
them all personally, you should take full advantage of
your data, and make sure that all your prospects know
about you.
Having sifted out your hottest leads,
and those that require a very personalised approach, arrange
a mail shot to spread your sales message to the rest of
your potential clients. This is a cost-effective way to
get the best possible results from your subscription.
Direct mail can be very effective,
if you follow some simple guidelines
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Collate the data you wish to
mail from your Leads or Movers data. You
may also purchase additional, highly targeted data
from Direct. |
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Choose the best possible timing
for your mail shot. Do not leave leads dormant for
too long, as construction projects can change and
move forward very fast. Do not send out mail in holiday
periods. Aim for your letters to arrive mid-week,
rather than at the weekend. |
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The letter is the most important part of the mail
shot. Make it very clear why you are writing |
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Make responding as easy as possible.
Make sure you include an easy response mechanism,
such as a reply paid card or a fax-back form. |
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Large mailings can be outsourced to a mailing
house, saving you in-house time and resources.
Mailing houses offer different levels of service,
including mail merging, providing labels and envelopes,
stuffing, stamping and dispatch. Emap Glenigan can
carry out this service for you -
please see Glenigan Direct |
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Include a few ‘seed’ names
within the list that you send out. This could be your
employees, or your own home address. This will allow
you to tell when the mailing arrives, and to check
the letter and enclosures are correct |
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Brief your sales team about the
mailing, including its objective and contents. |
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Be ready to act when orders or
enquiries come in. Slow service may put your customers
off. |
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With so many leads arriving at your
company every week, it is essential to keep track of your
calls, to ensure that no lead remains unapproached.
Monitoring and tracking leads
does not need to be complicated. Simply adapt your existing
administrative systems to accommodate your sales activity.
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Set up a system for tracking
which leads you have called, which have been mailed,
and which put on hold. |
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Use your existing appointments schedule –
whether it is in Outlook, a CRM system or simply your
own diary - to note your calls, and to flag
up when contacts should be called again. |
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When you are recording the status of leads, note
the company name, the contact, the actions that were
promised and the status of those actions. It can be
useful to code or number the leads so that your colleagues
can easily gather information from your notes. |
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Meet your commitments. If you say
you are going to call back on a certain date, then
do so. |
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Movers or Leads may not be the only source of your
sales leads. You should always be aware of the source
of your leads. Recognise which leads are valuable,
and which do not generate response, and you will be
in a position to purchase the most effective leads
in the future. |
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Many sales people struggle with
objections, especially those that are new to the profession.
They don’t know how to handle them, they get flustered
when a customer or prospect states an objection, and some
simply fear even hearing them. Sometimes it prevents them
from contacting a customer at all…“oh, he’ll
just say our price is too high. Why should I call him?”
Objections take many forms: price concerns,
competitive concerns, people not interested in your company’s
products, etc. These “objections” are the
bumps in the road that prevent sales people from ultimately
winning a customers business. Without an effective strategy
to work through objections, salespeople find themselves
facing insurmountable obstacles assuring them of major
struggles and most likely, failure.
So, how should you handle objections?
There are many ways to handle objections, but here is
one very easy framework that sales people can use when
they encounter objections:
Step one - The first step is
for the salesperson to realize that objections are good.
Yes, that’s right, objections are positive, not
a negative outcome of a sales call. Most sales people
view objections as something they want to steer away from.
Great sales people know that it is not an objection that
is bad, but indifference that is the real killer. Customers
who take the time to tell you what they want are much
easier to close than those that don’t tell you anything
at all. Gaining information is one of the keys to closing
potential customers.
Think of it this way: customers that
have objections must be interested in your services. Otherwise,
wouldn’t they just hang-up the phone? Objections
allow sales people to engage in conversation about something
that the customer is interested in.
Step two - Acknowledge the objection.
Acknowledging the objection tells the customer a few things.
You listened to their concern.
Their concern is understood.
It’s o.k. for a customer to have concerns.
Concerns do not have to be confrontational.
Example:
Customer: "Your price is too high."
Sales Person: "I understand your concern about the
price of our product and your desire to get the best value
for every penny you spend."
Step three - Align with the
customer. This means you need to put yourself
in their shoes and relate to their concerns. Aligning
with a customer shows that you and the customer are more
alike than different. It shows that you would have the
same concerns if the tables were turned, and demonstrates
that you are looking out for their best interests. Aligning
with the customer focuses on creating a long term relationship,
not just trying to "push your product". Continuing
from our previous example:
Salesperson: "….In fact,
I am also very particular about getting the best value
for my money. It’s important that I’m not
over-paying for what I get."
Acknowledging and aligning with customers
does something very important, it allows for the customer
to put his gloves down and to listen to what you have
to say. So many sales people try to “overcome”
the objection by indirectly telling the customer he’s
wrong, or bullying him into agreement. This never works
effectively. In fact, it usually alienates the customer
and leaves a bad taste in his mouth for him to share with
other potential customers.
Something to think about, even if the
customer is wrong about his objection: would he concede
that to you if you didn’t “acknowledge and
align” first? Sometimes even if you realize you
are wrong during the course of an argument, you may not
concede that. Sometimes ego and the desire to win don’t
allow people to remain objective.
Step four - Counter proposal.
This is your counter proposal to the objection. There
are many different ways to counter objections. Some counters
are: clarifying the objection, presenting specific benefits,
probe for other objections/benefits, pre-closing, using
an example, and asking the customer for the solution.
The appropriate counter depends on the salesperson’s
style and the customer situation. Here are examples of
counters. Again, these counters are to be used after you
"acknowledge and align", not before, or on their
own:
Clarify - "You mentioned that our
price was too high. Can you give me a little more information
on that? Such as, is that because of what you’ve
paid in the past? Essentially, how did you arrive at that?"
Benefits - "Although our price
may be higher than the competition’s, our value
to our customers is also much higher. Let me explain..."
Probe for other Objections/Benefits
- "What are your other thoughts on our proposal?
Are you concerned about any other specifics in regards
to it?"
Pre-closing - "If we are able to
alleviate your concerns about our price to your satisfaction,
would you buy our product?"
Using an Example - "Mr. Customer,
what car do you drive? I’m sure that’s not
the cheapest car you could have bought. Why did you choose
to purchase that car instead of a cheaper car? Well, those
are the exact reasons our customers choose to buy our
product as opposed to our competitors. We believe the
key for all of our customers is the benefits and value
that our company brings to them."
Customer solution - "Mr. Customer,
do you have any possible solution in mind that might help
us alleviate this concern?"
The counters mentioned in step four can be used together
or separately. You can combine any of these depending
on the situation and the benefit you feel it will bring
to the conversation.
Step five - Reaffirm.
Ask the customer if you’ve answered his objection,
if he has further questions, if he understood your points,
and/or if he’s ready to move forward. This gives
you a true test of whether or not you were effective in
discussing his objection. It also allows you to plan your
next course of action with the customer. It’s really
easy to “feel” what the customer is thinking
when you ask him directly. Don’t be afraid to do
it.
Conclusion
Handling objections comes down
to having a strategy going into the conversation, remaining
confident, and being optimistic during the course of your
conversations with the customer. You’ll be amazed
at the results when you put all of these together.
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