National Energy Control of Indiana specializes in creating turnkey energy efficiency solutions to help businesses reduce risk, cut costs, and improve operating efficiency and profitability.  Jeff Lackey, owner of the company, decided to outsource his appointment setting to LeadJen.

“I’ve owned other companies in the past and have typically utilized a traditional sales force approach. While this approach was effective, it required a substantial financial investment to create and nurture the account managers. After researching LeadJen, I decided to establish a go-to market strategy with National Energy Control of Indiana such that we will be able to more effectively utilize a dedicated, outsourced market research and lead generation solution to leverage our existing sales engineering and support group,” said Lackey.  “I am excited to work with the sales professionals at LeadJen for market research and appointment setting.”

Lackey also is excited that LeadJen uses the Jesubi salesforce automation platform, which he has used before and believes is the best tool to find and track opportunities.  “I think LeadJen, together with Jesubi, is the best of breed in lead generation.  Once I have an opportunity from LeadJen I can follow it easily with Jesubi.”

“We are happy to welcome National Energy Control of Indiana to our roster of clients, and are anxious to begin contributing to the company’s growth,” said Jenny Vance, president of LeadJen.  “Outsourced lead generation is a good choice for businesses for many different reasons.  We’re glad to be National Energy Control of Indiana’s partner.”

About LeadJen

LeadJen is a B2B lead generation company that uses unparalleled data and insight to drive prospect interactions that convert to sales.  The company’s committed team and proven, repeatable process benefit clients targeting industries including, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, financial services, life sciences and high tech. LeadJen is based in Indianapolis.  For more information go to www.leadjen.com.

As a business owner, you’re always selling. Here’s how you can find, nurture and close prospects.

On a sweltering hot afternoon last summer, Jon Crandall, founder of JC Landscaping , drove around Peabody, Mass., wearing a heavily insulated snowplow operator’s suit and boots and handing out ice cream while playfully reminding potential customers that the harsh Northeastern winter was just around the corner. He’ll do the same thing this year, only this time he’ll rent an ice cream truck and hand out snow cones, both of which will be emblazoned with the company’s logo.

But there’s method to Crandall’s fun-loving guerilla tactics. He could easily pay a local teenager a modest wage to wear the snowsuit and hand out snow cones. Doing so would free him to focus on other issues, while saving him a few pounds of perspiration in the process. Sometimes, however, a small business owner’s wisest move is to jump into the sales trenches himself, whether it’s to warm up prospects, nurture deals along or close a sale.

Donning the sales hat (or snowsuit, as the case may be) often makes strategic sense for business owners because they tend to have an edge in explaining their company’s value proposition, says Paul Binsfeld, founder and CEO of Company Nurse in Scottsdale, Ariz. “They’re the ones who had the idea for the business and the product in the first place, so they can get people to understand the ‘why,’ not just talk about the ‘what.’”

“What makes an entrepreneur a good salesperson is their passionate, unassailable, unshakeable belief inside that the prospect needs whatever they’re selling,” says Joel Goldstein of Goldstein Group Communications in Solon, Ohio. “No one other than the entrepreneur is able to communicate that same level of belief in the product or service. It’s just part of who they are.”However, because there’s much more to running a small company than just sales, it’s important that business owners pick their spots. “I think prospecting in particular is really tough [for a business owner] because it takes a lot of time,” observes Jared Reitzin, founder and CEO of Mobile Storm , an e-mail and text-message marketing firm in Los Angeles. “Also, I’m not sure you want the owner of a company making cold calls. That might not give the right impression. Maybe it’s better to hire a telemarketer instead and have the owner take the warm calls.”

Tactical Prospecting
That’s not to suggest small-business owners avoid prospecting altogether. They just need to go about it tactfully–and with more subtlety. A keen eye for opportunity is perhaps the owner’s best prospecting weapon. For many owners, that means keeping the radar on at all time. “Every connection, whether in a business or personal setting, could be the next business opportunity,” says Jenny Vance, president and founder of Leadjen , a sales and marketing firm in Indianapolis. “Small-business owners must be open to the opportunity and mindful of their business at all times, but not enter into a sales pitch with every single introduction.”

“Don’t take people for granted,” adds Reitzin. “You never know who you’re talking to, so withhold judgment. That guy in jeans and t-shirt sitting next to you on the plane might own a $100 million company.”

Fruitful prospecting often comes down to data quality. ” Invest in solid data ,” says Vance. “Buying lists might not always be the best strategy.” Instead, he says, “make a few good guesses as to the markets where your message will resonate best,” identify individual companies and people within those markets to target, then invest in a custom list.

Nurturing the Sale
With warm prospects in the pipeline, there’s plenty a small-business owner can do move them toward a commitment. However, rather than an owner spending valuable time with repetitive follow-up, Vance recommends outsourcing those kinds of responsibilities. The outsource organization makes the calls to get to conversations, then the business owner enters the picture as the strategic sales resource “to move the dialogue” along and help close if needed.

E-mail provides a multi-touch vehicle for pushing the sales process forward, with a minimal investment of time and resources, says Melanie Attia of the e-mail marketing firm Campaigner in Ottawa, Canada. From newsletters to product news to dynamic, custom content, automated e-mail communications that ostensibly originate from the owner give prospects and customers the impression “they have a direct line with the top influencer,” she says. Tracking how recipients handle those e-mail messages reveals the strongest leads and tells the owner when it’s time to place a direct phone call to especially hot prospects.

In a business not known for groundbreaking sales tactics, Crandall says he’s always looking for nontraditional ways to turn prospects into customers . Each proposal he sends out comes with a USB flash drive bearing his company’s logo and loaded with a short promotional video. The drive is the prospect’s to keep, regardless of whether a business relationship materializes. For his snowplowing operation, Crandall also subscribes to a meteorological service for customized weather reports. Regularly broadcasting those reports to prospects hasn’t just earned him good will, it’s brought him a wave of new customers.

Sometimes it takes an incentive or guarantee to warm up a prospect. “We’ve had situations,” says Binsfeld, “where the only way to get a deal is to guarantee results– to take the risk out of the equation for them, at least in the short term, with something like a pilot program, where they don’t have to pay for the service if the results aren’t there.”

Target a single industry or segment, then offer a product or service free or at a deep discount to several of the top companies in that industry or segment, suggests Reitzin. In exchange, ask their permission to issue a press release and add their logos to your website. “By bagging the guys at the top, the bottom will follow,” he says.

Sealing the Deal
Now comes the toughest part: the close. Once the internal (or outsourced) sales people have filled the pipeline and moved prospects through it, it’s time to bring the small-business owner’s passion and status to bear once again, says Attia. With the prospect on the brink of a decision, the owner steps in with a phone call or face-to-face visit at an opportune moment–”as close to closing the business as possible”–to seal the deal. As the “rock star” of the business, she points out, the owner has the power and passion to get commitments in cases where anyone else might come up empty. The true rock stars not only know they have that power, they also know how and when to wield it.

http://www.sales20book.com/wp/2010/02/inside-sales-managers-community-the-telebusiness-alliance/

http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/video.asp?itemCode=DkeTHZQ58Vje3oP5Qo87PL93GUS5NA6239EQ90L6239EQ90L&v=397&id=574

http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/listings.asp?action=TV

http://www.emarketingandcommerce.com/article/6-lead-generation-best-practices/1

That’s why PolicyStat was excited to embark on an interesting project with LeadJen, a B2B lead generation company. PolicyStat is a software company that enables hospitals and healthcare organizations to manage their policies and procedures. The company had secured its first customer, a hospital in Indiana. Funded by seed money contributed by the company founders, PolicyStat enlisted LeadJen to “test the waters” by calling other hospitals in Indiana to determine if there was a need for this type of solution.

Making every call count

Following the success of that project, PolicyStat hired LeadJen as a lead generation partner. It was a strategic decision to outsource appointment setting so sales reps can focus on making the sale, according to Steve Ehrlich, president of PolicyStat.

The strategy is working.

LeadJen started by cleaning and improving the lists that PolicyStat provided. Messages and scripted calls were developed and then refined based on information gathered during the calls.

LeadJen used a proven process that converts a higher proportion of conversations to appointments, and delivers insight that provides boardroom ready knowledge about the marketplace and performance of campaigns.

LeadJen initially targeted Indiana healthcare organizations but has since done market research to help the company expand into other states.

Appointments for new business

Rob Vaughan, vice president of business development at PolicyStat, estimates that 90-95 percent of PolicyStat’s new business started as a LeadJen appointment.

To reach that success, LeadJen made about 25,000 touches over three years. About 7.5 percent of the leads that LeadJen has spoken with converted to appointments, and roughly 10 percent of leads then converted to opportunities, defined as a prospect that will likely buy within a year or two. Interestingly, 34 percent of appointments have come from an in-bound response to voicemail, much higher than average, which shows that messaging is ontarget.

LeadJen added more than 1,100 contacts to the database through referrals. The company also discovered that while the highest number of appointments are set with the first contact, the highest conversion rate happens starting at call four and improving beyond call eight, proving that persistence pays off in healthcare.

“LeadJen brings a disciplined and methodical approach to lead generation,” said Vaughan.

http://www.ibj.com/article?articleId=20736

Did you know that tradeshow industry reports statistics like 80% of leads are not followed up on? “Thinking Outside the Booth”, from E2 shows an industry-based view of creative ways to increase tradeshow ROI. The original article is located on the International Association of Exhibitors and Events website by Kenya McCullen.

These are the questions we ask for our clients…

1.)    Targets:  How is the list of targets divided?  Is it divided in a way that will help me understand where I’ve had the most success?  Am I evaluating success not only by leads/appointments generated, but by sales wins, time-to-close, and average deal size?

2.)    Training:  Who on my team is having the most success?  Are they trying something different that is working for them?  Can I see the ‘no interest’ responses  and make changes quickly?  Do we need to learn how to handle a new objection or competitor?

3.)    Messaging:  Which message resonates the best with different audiences?  Can I adjust the message based on the most frequent ‘no interest’ responses and handle objections more proactively to ultimately set more appointments? 

4.)    Campaigns:  How many calls/emails does it to get the majority of my qualified sales leads/appointments?  Do I get more return phone calls or more return emails?  Does it make a different if I call more frequently or less frequently?  How do my lead nurturing campaigns compare to more aggressive calling campaigns? 

By working with our clients to answer these questions, the results get better and better.  The focus is to use this information to increase both the volume of sales leads and appointments as well as the quality of leads to get the best possible ROI.