Easy Leads

For any type of outbound lead generation it’s important to always start at the start – and that’s who you’re targeting your calls towards.

If you or your teams are spending valuable time contacting people who CAN’T use you, DON’T need you, or who WON’T see your worth – well, that’s a lot of time and energy wasted.

So how do you identify the best target market?

Well there is a LOT to consider, but not to worry – based on our years of experience & hundreds of successful campaigns, Easy Leads have put together what we feel are the best building blocks to follow to get you on the right track.

The first thing EVERYONE needs to know is who they can help, and why. So I want you, right now to ask yourself –

What frustration, challenge or problem does your service or product solve?

Example 1:

Let’s say you’re in the solar industry, selling solar panels to businesses. The people who purchase your products will be those suffering pain from high electricity costs.

They will be the individuals in the company who have the personal challenge of keeping the companies spending down as part of their job role.

The problem that your company can solve is budget and cash flow frustrations, and the person experiencing this frustration is going to be a Director of a small company or a CFO of a medium one.

Example 2:

Let’s say you’re in the Printing industry, selling banners, posters and marketing material. The people who purchase your products would be those suffering pain from low revenue from under exposure or lack of brand awareness, challenges with company growth etc.

They will be the individuals in the company who have the personal challenge of keeping the companies brand awareness top of mind for their prospects, clients and staff.

The problem that your company can solve is hitting growth and sales targets, and the person experiencing this frustration is going to be a Director of a small company or a Marketing/Sales manager of a medium one.

“Who, What, Why, When, Where, How”

Each of these sections needs to work seamlessly with one another. They need to be thought of more as a whole than as separate considerations because each choice will have a direct effect on the others, so they need to be perfectly aligned with each other.

I’m going to start by giving you a basic idea of what each one encompasses and then tell how you can use them to make well informed, collective decisions around your needs.

WHO (FOR B2B)

“Who” encompasses multiple areas:

• Industry of company, Size of company, Level of Decision Maker within the company/Individual Position of Decision Maker within the company, Area/location of the company you are calling, Area/location of the companies head office you are calling.

Industry of company: There are 17 major industry codes (ANZSIC codes) that a company can fall under, and from those 17 there is a breakdown of approximately 480 more specific codes, which actually again break down to a total list of 2,737 choices.

An example of this would be “Retail Trade” as a major code, then “Clothing Retailing” as a specific code, then “Baby Wear” as a further breakdown specification.

Size of company: This can be in either the amount of full time employed staff, or in revenue/turnover per year.

Example: From 10 to 300 employees, 50+ employees, 2 to 5 Million turnover per year, under 500k turnover per year.

Level of Decision Maker within the company: This refers to the person who will have the final say in purchasing your services or products. Is it the CEO, CFO, a Director, an operations manager, HR department, accounts department, IT department, etc.

Individual Position of Decision Maker within the company: Let’s say the answer to the above is the HR, or accounts – who in that team will be saying yes? Will it be the HR Director or the Learning and Development manager within the HR dept?

Area/location of the company you are calling: This is normally postcode based but depends on where staff are located. For example you don’t want to spend 2 hours driving to every appointment, or flying out to bookings when there are some to be made closer to your company’s home base. For those who don’t need a face to face meeting consider location as a cost – if you have to mail an item or shipping is required then where is cheaper for you to send it and the prospect to buy it?

Area/location of the companies head office you are calling: Don’t forget that often chains, franchises and larger global and international companies often have head offices that make most of the major business decisions. These head office are often based overseas too, so do your research.

Things to consider with “WHO”:

Some Industries are MORE targeted then others

Some sizes of companies are MORE targeted then others (SME’s)

Some Areas are MORE targeted then others – see WHERE

Some levels of Decision Makers have the same challenge for example right now IT departments are the one most hammered with cold calls

So for example calling IT managers in SME’s in the Sydney CDB would be a bad idea, even with an AMAZING product if you can’t speak to many Decision Makers due to the fact that they no longer will take cold calls, there is little chance of running a successful campaign.

WHAT (FOR B2C)

“Who” encompasses only the below areas:

• Homeowner/renter, age, single income, combined income, equity, employment status, Area/location, pool/no pool, education level, car ownership, credit card type, bank with, wine drinker, dog owner

WHAT (FOR B2B/B2C)

“What” is comprised of the below:

• Service offering – What do you have to offer the specific people and companies that you will be contacting. Why, when a need and/or want is discovered should they choose you – not a competitor? A service offering can include a deal (to get you in the door – NOT to get a sale) examples can be a free audit for their current set up, identifying gaps or unneeded cost that you could assist with/improve, a free consultation or training session to assist with one section of their businesses or frustration they might be experiencing etc. Use a service offering as a chance to demonstrate your value and knowledge in your field.

WHY  (FOR B2B/B2C)

“Why” is comprised of the below:

Why them? Finding the biggest opportunities via the smallest amount of effort

• If you are B2C targeting 1 appointment means 1 opportunity, but if you could target businesses, 1 appointment could mean hundreds or more opportunities with that same amount of effort being initially made to get in the door.

An example of this would be:

A bookkeeper/accountant that wants to be targeting tradies, where 1 booking would only mean 1 opportunity. Instead they could target associations of tradies – who have large member lists – making themselves a preferred or recommend provider to members, and turning a single appointment with the right person into much more than a single opportunity.

Another example of this could be:

A local yoga studio – targeting consumers for classes.

If instead they could contact local business and offer to run a FREE class or workshop just for their staff – again that turns a single opportunity into many.

WHEN (FOR B2B AND B2C)

“When” is comprised of the below:

When is the best time to contact the people you are targeting?

• Days, times, time of year etc.

Things to keep in mind are things like

• Budgets – when are the funds given and allocated to services.

• Time – are the Decision Makers more likely to work early or late? Try different times to establish the best ones.

• Is there a pickup in interest in your services at holiday times (can what you do be utilised as a Christmas gift for example) at EOFY, in the new year etc.

• Public holidays – Now it is actually Illegal to call a mobile or landline with a cold call on a public holiday – so make sure you check the state you are calling into before making any calls! Businesses are exempt from this but keep in mind most will be closed. The day before or after however – people are in good spirits and usually happier to talk.

WHERE (FOR B2B AND B2C)

“Where” is comprised of the below:

Some Areas are MORE targeted then others –

• Not just by your competitors but for any type of cold calling. For example Sydney is the most targeted for ANY type of cold call Australia wide with Melbourne at a close second.
• CDB and metro areas of each state are more called than their surrounding areas, but the more rural areas are rarely touched.
• Where are the companies that you need to reach located? How far are you willing to travel to meet with them before the expenditure outweigh the benefits?

HOW (FOR B2B AND B2C)

“How” is comprised of the below:

• When can you consistently dedicate the time for calls?
• When can you consistently dedicate the time for appointments?
• When can you consistently dedicate the time for following up meetings?
• When can you consistently dedicate the time for nurturing your prospects?

Outbound calls need consistency to build and keep momentum, develop a pipeline and nurture the colder records. We recommend no less than 4 hours (of consistent calling – not an hour here and there) per day Monday to Friday each week without any interruptions.

How will you manage your time and diary to allow for bookings, follow ups and new clients? Be prepared to be busy and have a plan on how to manage growth.