Cold Calling Techniques

There are 100s of cold calling technique people use to impress upon their potential customer. Some of the most usable techniques are a) to introduce yourself and your organization from where you are calling, b) directly jumping into the product details or c) by asking questions if the customer is available to speak. In most of the cases the customer say immediate ‘No’ to the cold caller. So what one should do to at least have given enough time to speak with the customer? Some of the key elements of successful cold call - I have tried to bring it to light.

These days customers are informative. They have quick access to Google for research and colleagues/neighbors to speak with. One cannot force sell. No one wants to speak with an unknown vendor. So either you should be well known prior the cold call thru advertisement or by similar means. Or you should have online presence so that you can refer him immediately if he shows interest.

Before calling any potential customer one has to prepare well. Customer are often fussy about the way sale is pitched. So practice phone call. Record your voice and listen how you can improve your pitch, intonation and voice modulation. Study about the company/individual (in-depth) and map it with your offerings before making a call.

Knowing your prospect is key. Start with an introduction of your name and company. Have a capsule script ready if your customer is not aware of your organization. Put yourself in the customer shoes before making your call. Think if you are in his place what would you do if you get a call from an unknown. Identify who can buy your product. Prepare and pitch the question which the prospect may like. Then go to the crux quickly. Hit the requirement button at once with your question. For example: if he is interested in saving tax or want to utilize the tax rebate investment limit fully? If you get an affirmative answer then proceed with product details otherwise get-off and call another prospect. Your time is as important as your prospect.

Get yourself prepared beyond the ready-made call script. Your message should be clear and crisp. Refer your portal and send email immediately with details if you find that the customer is interested in your product and try to get an appointment for a face to face discussion. Do not forget to share your name and contact details clearly and book the meeting invite at your earliest convenience.

Majority outcome of the cold calls are often negative but one should not get demoralized. Most of them are result of poor research and incomplete prospecting. However there is no second way of achieving success in cold calling other than having perseverance and hunger of getting success. 

Samrat.Biswas@hotmail.com

Importance of Changing Job – From Growth Perspective

There is a famous terminology “Job Hopping” prevalent in the industry. Job hoppers are pariah for some of the companies however many see this as a boon for their bottom-line growth. You may think about how that is possible!! I have delved deeper into this to find a variety of reasons.

Avoid Repeated Work: In your current organization, you may find that you are doing repetitive work and you are not able to add value to it as the system and process are mature enough to accommodate changes. You are only continuing it because you are comfortable and do not want to take up new challenges. This makes it difficult for you to develop a skill of getting a job early. So if you join a new organization then you can add value to the current process by bringing in a new perspective.

Need to prove that you are among the best: Once you move to a new organization you have to prove your mettle by working smarter than others. As against your existing organization where everyone knows about you and your potential. In order to do this, you tend to implement all the productive things you have learned in your previous organization.

Get learning challenges: You undergo innumerable training specific to the new company and your role. You concentrate and learn new things at one go and become productive at the earliest. In your current organization for the same role, you may not get new or very few training to enhance your existing skills to the next level. No more challenges you find in your role within 3 years.

New people and processes: You get the opportunity to learn new processes and get to know new people as against your existing organization where you know the loopholes and intentionally avoid difficult corners and find the easy way out.

Learn new skills: No roles are the same in two different organizations. Somewhere or other you find a difference and you get the opportunity to learn the same thing in two-three different ways.

Eye on the higher ladder: You also move vertically up in the level when you switch one company to another which in general is very cumbersome in the same organization. This is more common in blue-chip companies as they have hundreds of employees and they cannot give promotions to their employees every alternate year.

Internal Politics and Apple of Eye syndrome: You may be a kind of “work smart and earn accolades guy” but you may become a victim of office politics and someone being manager’s apple of the eye. This hinders your career growth if you continue in an organization for quite long.

Monetary growth: This is one of the most important aspects of an individual’s career. It is found that people continuing in the same organization has lesser compensation than the one who changes for growth. Because they are ready to give more than 100% and prove that they are worth getting more remuneration because they bring fresh knowledge, enthusiasm, and overall, the hunger of getting success and move forward. Which improves the company’s efficiency, quality, and productivity and ultimately becomes a boon for companies for their bottom line growth.

So finally it’s the individuals choice to decide if he/she would like to either switch internally or explore outside. Either case you will get the benefit of “Importance of Changing Job – From Growth Perspective”!! 

Presales vs. Bid Management

Originally Published on https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/presales-vs-bid-management-samrat-biswas/

Often people think what is the difference between Presales and Bid Management? Recruiters often get confused whom to catch hold for Presales consultant and whom for Bid Management requirement. I being in the Bid Management functions for over a decade and interacted with many “presales consultant” closely, thought of bringing the difference between these two. Ideally there is a hair line difference between presales consultants and bid managers.

The job role of Presales consultants majorly covers solution architecting, deriving Rough order of Magnitude (ROM) pricing, show casing Proof of Concepts (POC) to customer and addressing their concern before they actually buy the product or services. They also contribute actively in responding to proactive and reactive proposals. Their role is specific to certain technologies or product. Although they are responsible for providing technical solution and responses to customer queries but they are not accountable for the submission and overall governance of the proposal.

On the other hand, Bid Managers are basically CEO of the bid. Managing the pursuit till the submission or hand over to delivery (in case of a win) is Bid Managers responsibility. This is not only limited to the bid governance. It covers a range of activities which starts from demand generation till closure of the deal. Be it opportunity qualification, competitive analysis, client solution strategy, solution and costing, they are actively involved in all phases of the pursuit. They act as a bridge between the different functions involved in the bid. Coordinating with solution architects, proposal managers, deal analysts and sales is key to success in this role. They may not write the solution but they know what is in the proposal and how to optimize the offerings by using productivity gains, resource pyramids and make it competitive among other bidders. These skills make a Bid Manager more effective during BAFO and contract negotiation stage. Responsibility and accountability of the overall bid governance lies on the Bid Managers.

In general, smaller companies do not afford to have both Presales Consultant and Bid Managers. In today’s cost concerned industry there are companies where you can find both of them together working on a bid or you can see only one working on the overall tasks. The final decision of having resources lies on the company. However both these roles are equally important in the success of the pursuit.