Does a CRM get you better appointments?

I spent a very late night this week customizing a CRM, standardizing data, importing it and creating a new reports...in fact the whole process took about two weeks.  Somewhere around 2am I asked if it was really worth it.

The answer is yes.  Why?  Because in sales prospecting two elements have to be perfectly balanced:  efficiency and effectivenss.

You have to be efficient at making calls, printing letters and sending emails...the more efficient you are, the more prospects you contact and the more results you generate.  But you also have to be effective...contacting the right people, in the right industry and at the right size companies.

And the key to being both efficient and effective is having the right tools.  And that means the right tools which let you address the requests of prospects immediately and move on to the next.  In my experience, both small companies and large fail their staff in this area, but it's their obligation to provide the right tools if they are going to require results and compensate based on results (as they should!).

So yes, if you are a sales prospector/appointment setter, it's worth having a well-tuned CRM.  And if you are a manager or company owner, it's also in your best interests, so put in the time & money it takes to get it right!

The perfect cost per appointment

How much should you pay per appointment from a telemarketing firm?

Unfortunately, the answer is..."it depends". Primarily it depends on one piece of information: the value of a customer to your business. Of course there are many ways to calculate that value...net profit, gross margin, etc...but what really matter is that you just pick one, know why you did and then stick with it.

Here's an easy-to-use method for calculating customer value in this article.

Once you know your typical customer value, decide how much of that you are willing to spend acquiring a new customer. This is usually a percentage of the customer value and varies widely between industries, depending on typical gross margin and market maturity. We've had clients pay anywhere between $150 and $1,200 per appointment and in every case the number represented a reasonable percentage of customer value.

Most important, realize the cost per appointment will typically increase as your appointment-setting program matures. Your telemarketing firm should be able to explain when this will happen and what can be done to keep the cost from jumping substantially.

Keeping the leads coming...

When you're implementing a telephone prospecting program it's important to understand the effect of time.

What happens after you've called everyone once and landed appointments with all those interested? Will you get similar results by simply going back through the list again? Of course not! You've already plucked the low-hanging fruit.

Now you have two choices: 1) wait 6 months until everyone has forgotten your first call and call again, hoping a competitor didn't get to them first. 2) develop a plan for nurturing those with limited or no interest from the first call, until their situation changes and they accept your invitation for a conversation.

Obviously, the second option takes more work (and your results won't be as amazing as the first time the list was called), but you'll be there when the prospect recognizes their need. And get them signed up before your competition!

We, too, are seeing signs the economy is stabilizing.

It's not a change or return to growth by any means, but we're seeing two signs businesses are at least realizing that life is continuing and they better do something about it.

First, it is getting easier for us to get leads and appointments for our clients. Of course, "easier" is a relative term...it's not like every person we call is excited to hear about the next new thing, but we're also not getting the total don't-talk-to-me shut down of the last two quarters.

Second, we're seeing an increased number of clients talking with us and signing up to ramp up their prospecting efforts through out call center. It's as if business owners are finally sticking their head up out of the foxhole and realizing if they don't grab some market share now, someone else will!

We're all getting used to the new reality. It's like my sister the rock-climber used to say, "Once you've had your first fall, you're never really quite as afraid of falling again."