Email Marketing: The Latest Version of Cold Calling
Nowadays people are more resistance to the kind of traditional cold prospecting, therefore, the Cold calling 2.0 framework was introduced in the book of Aaron Ross, “Predictable Revenue”.
How this new framework differs from the traditional prospecting is, instead of cold calls, doing research before contacting people, making referral calls will gain you more leads.
Besides, sending short and sweet emails instead of long letters and emails will give the potential customers a better impression.
In addition, having more salesperson in the team will not definitely help growing the revenue. In fact, the training program a company provided to the sales reps is relatively more important.
When the sales are highly committed to the values and culture of the company, they could present the products in a more natural way during the business selling processes.
Salesforce.com’s business development strategy
One of the keys to the success of Salesforce.com is the ability to win customers from large organizations. To win over customers, companies must provide strong incentives and a reliable image.
In the beginning of the business, Benioff insisted on setting up a foundation for charity activities. He set up a 1:1:1 principle, that is –
- Donating 1 percent of the company’s shares
- One percent of the annual profits and
- One percent of the employees’ time to do charitable activities
With these activities, it gained good reputation for his company and also earned more support.
Benioff created his own strategic management method, with “V-2-Mom”, this tool created by Benioff, can show the road map of each of the Salesforce products. This is a combination of operational concepts and products.
For Benioff, “trust” from the customers is more than anything, even though you have a nice product, without the trust, customers do not stay long. The key to gain trust, is to first have employees who trusts themselves and the organization commitment that they are being an important part of the firm.
Some tips for the sales managers:
- Treat your team members like your customers
- Train the sales reps and give them time and opportunities to practice their presentation skills
- The quality is more important than the quantity
- Learn to listen and give the right support to your team members