This is the first in a two-part series on the role of call metrics to track the effectiveness of your outbound prospecting efforts.
The world of outbound prospecting continues to evolve. Though channels may change, outbound prospecting still follows basic principles that make a solid foundation for successful outreach.
Growing Role of Social Media
Today we use LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other sales intelligence tools for outbound prospecting. We can find people we know and learn about them before we connect with them. We want to gather some knowledge about our prospects before we begin our outbound prospecting initiative.
Though the sales tools we use today are more sophisticated, they are also more accessible and easier to use than in the past. (I’ve always supported the concept of what is now called a warm call: doing research on your customers and prospects before calling or emailing.) You want to find relevant information ahead of time to help your outbound prospecting efforts. Then you can better connect with customers and prospects and differentiate yourself from the many others who are attempting to connect with them.
We use social media to hear the voice of our customers and prospects. (Your customers and prospects may be present on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. You need to find them and engage with them for the optimum connection.)
Consider What You’re Measuring
For those calling and emailing only, do we stop measuring our efforts at call based metrics only? The answer is it depends. What you measure depends on the media you use to connect with a prospect. If a company is solely connecting with prospects and customers through calls and emails, then the number of calls, the number of emails, the number of conversations, the number of leads generated or the number of leads converted are the right metrics to use.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series on call metrics. It covers the best activities and result metrics to use to measure the role of LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook in outbound prospecting.