Marketing Direct

Test My Prospecting With Your Call List

by George Clay
Marketing Direct, Inc.

A simple call list can help you find new customers and make more sales.

That's how my prospecting began for a client in Minneapolis, MN. (NOTE: This story appears in PRO SALES MAGAZINE.) See article at right.

My client worked in construction supply sales. He called from Minneapolis and asked about my prospecting program.

He described his market...and explained what makes his company stand out from the competition. He then faxed me a list of prospects culled from his previous sales contacts.

With a script written specifically for these prospects, I began over-the- phone cold calls from my office here in San Diego.

From my initial prospecting I learned which prospects were unhappy with current vendors...and why. To each qualified prospect, my client mailed follow-up letters explaining benefits of doing business with him.

One week later, these prospects again were contacted by phone.

Face-to-face appointments were arranged...and from these appointments opening orders and repeat business were generated.

All without me ever leaving San Diego. Everything was done by phone. And my client got all the credit! The result: Ten new name customers for my client.

The key was my client's call list. Not a big list...perhaps fifty or sixty prospects. But each one selected because my client believed they were strong prospects for future business.

He was right!

return to PROSPECTING BY PHONE

Prospecting For Gold

December 2000

By Hilary Kanter, Managing Editor Pro Sales Magazine

Admit it. No one likes making cold calls. But if you're a salesperson with a lumberyard, there's no better way to acquire new customers — unless you can find someone to do it for you.

That's exactly what Kevin Kamerud found in marketing consultant George Clay, president of San Diego-based Marketing Direct. Kamerud is a sales rep with Bennett Lumber, a pro-oriented dealer in Minneapolis. In September 1999, Kamerud enlisted Clay's services to conduct over-the-phone cold calls to builders and remodelers in the Twin Cities market. "Cold calling takes away from the service that I need to provide to my contractors," Kamerud says. "And cold calling is something we hate, anyway."

Before getting started, Kamerud and a few of the other sales reps at Bennett provided Clay with the information he'd need to begin. "Clay had never done any work with anyone in the lumber industry before, so we gave him the lowdown on what this area is like," Kamerud says. "We told him about the market and a little bit about our company and about our competition."

Then Clay hit the phones. "He's very good at prequalifying and at getting an insight into what these people are like," Kamerud says. "So we've got a pretty good idea before we even make that second contact."

The second contact consists of a follow-up letter that Kamerud and Clay developed together. "Once the prospect is qualified on the phone, we send out a simple one-page letter that's signed by the salesperson at the lumberyard," Clay says. The success of the cold-calling program, Clay adds, "has a lot to do with the quality of the salespeople at the lumberyard. It works like a machine now. I usually don't get the sales rep involved until I feel the prospect is ready and serious about getting an estimate or filling out a credit application."

In the year or so since the effort began, Kamerud has acquired 10 new customers. "And we have another 10 who are real close," he adds. "This has really worked well for us."Ten, maybe 20 new customers in a year? That would certainly take the chill out of cold calls. —Hillary Kanter.