Posted on

How To Get Appointments With Decision Makers

Here is a story that many salespeople would find familiar – You’ve done your research, found potential prospects for your company, got their contact details, but then you hit one of these scenarios:

  • Nobody is answering your calls.
  • You’re leaving voicemails and emails but not getting any callbacks or replies.
  • The gatekeeper is blocking you from the prospect.

These challenges are certainly not new, and have been the bane of many professional salespeople looking to land their first face-to-face meeting with the prospective clients.

While getting the opportunity to talk with CEOs may be difficult, here are some strategies to help you to successfully reach and connect with decision-makers.

Getting Through To The Decision Maker

1. Make Friends With The Gatekeeper

Gatekeepers are often receptionists, secretaries or assistants, and are usually the most trusted and closest individuals to the C-suite. As such, they are a valuable asset for you in reaching the decision maker and closing your deals.

  • Tip #1: Be respectful and polite

No matter how frustrated you get with the gatekeeper, remember that it’s their job to screen unwanted and irrelevant calls. As with any business meeting, first impressions are important. So make your first impression, and all ongoing impressions with the gatekeeper, be one that is polite, personable and professional.

Start by treating the gatekeeper with respect. Note their name and details, and use the information to engage with them on a personal level. Have a conversation and keep tracks of touchpoints to use in future contacts with them.

  • Tip #2: Be transparent

Gatekeepers screen hundreds, if not thousands, of sales calls so it’s common for them to be wary and skeptical of you. Differentiate yourself from the rest, and be upfront about your call. Give them your company name and a brief overview of the purpose of your call, if they ask. 

Full disclosure helps you sound professional and credible enough to pass through to the C-level executive. But avoid using the sales pitch and sales-related phrases on the gatekeeper to reach decision makers.

Even with these tips, you may not get through the gatekeeper on your first call, so work to establish a strong rapport with them. Set reminders to ensure that you constantly and consistently reconnect with them.

Pro-tip: Don’t view the gatekeeper as a blocker. Instead, see them as a door opener.

2. Adjust Your Call Timings

The time you choose to contact your prospects has a big effect on the possibility of getting past the gatekeeper and getting through to the decision maker. Whether you are calling their office line or you are fortunate enough to get the prospect’s direct number, try contacting your prospects during off-hours.

  • Tip #1: Call early in the morning

Unlike the gatekeepers, business leaders don’t follow the usual working hours. You have a better chance of bypassing the gatekeeper if you call before the office day starts, such as between 7:30 a.m. and 9 a.m., when the C-suites are planning for their day before their meetings.

  • Tip #2: Call later in the day

Another optimal time to get past the gatekeeper is after business hours when the gatekeeper has gone home for the day. However, a study by HubSpot shows that the best time to call is between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. after the decision makers have wrapped up their meetings and are catching up on their emails and paperwork.

Each C-suite has a different schedule and workday, and optimal calling times vary between the industries and businesses they are in. Try calling at different times of the day for different prospects. 

Pro-tip: Avoid calling on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons as businesses will be busy planning for the week ahead or wrapping up tasks for the week.

3. Leave Effective Voicemails And Emails

One of the most common decisions when calling prospects is deciding whether to leave a voicemail. If you do decide to leave a voicemail, what should you tell the decision maker? And even if you leave a voicemail, what are the chances the prospect would call you back? Try these tips below to raise your engagement rate.

  • Tip #1: Leave a brief and concise voicemail

Your voicemail should be less than 30 seconds and should contain your name, your company, your contact details and your valid business reason (VBR). Your message should not be a sales pitch, but should include your prospect’s pain point and enough information about your solution to pique their interest.

It’s also best if you had prior contact with the prospect before leaving a voicemail, such as connecting with them through LinkedIn or sending them an email. This gives you something to use as reference and increases the likelihood of engagement.

  • Tip #2: Send a targeted email

If you have done your research on the prospect, you would already know their pain points and their area of interest. Use the information to create a personalized email that reflect a deep understanding of the prospect, their core needs and how your company can help them with their business concerns.

However, sending one or two emails won’t be enough. You should maintain a regular and consistent email scheduling for higher chances of getting a reply.

Using a combination strategy of voicemail and email helps you to get on the prospect’s radar more effectively. However, some prospects may require more attempts before you are able to connect with them. The key is to ensure a strong first voicemail message, which you should refer to in your following voicemails, and to send a follow-up email right after leaving your message.

Pro-tip: Don’t be vague in your voicemail. Mention a real and specific project or solution that could provide a valuable business opportunity for your prospect.

4. Use Your Network And Referrals

An article by XANT, a sales engagement platform, mentioned that majority of C-suites prefer referrals over cold calls and emails. In fact, 84% of business decision makers initiate a purchase process with a referral.

  • Tip #1: Leverage on networking

A well-developed network helps greatly in getting face-to-face meetings with prospects, and social networking services, such as LinkedIn, speed up the process of reaching them. One way is to connect with your prospect on social platforms or join LinkedIn groups that match your product offerings to build your second-level connections.

Events, such as B2B networking events by Management Events, are great places to get closer to your prospects. Decision makers who are interested in a topic or event that corresponds with your product will be more responsive in listening to your offerings.

  • Tip #2: Ask for referrals

The people you are connected to will most likely know business leaders who would benefit from your products and services. Reach out to your friends, colleagues and network to introduce you to the prospect via email, phone or in person.

Make sure that you explain the business reason and impact of your solution to your referral sources. This way they are equipped with the right information when they speak to the decision makers, and are confident in using their relationship to connect you with the prospect.

Building an effective network requires continuous effort on your part. Even if a referred prospect is not doing business with you now, you should thank them and continue to stay in touch. After all, they could be a client later on or another source for referrals.

Pro-tip: Don’t skip the referral introduction. Ensure that you are properly introduced to the prospect before pitching your solutions.

Appointment-setting is a big yet time-consuming part of sales, and requires multiple and continuous effort to get  a response, and in turn connect with decision-maker.

Instead of fixating on securing a meeting or getting a deal, focus on providing value to the decision maker. By changing your mindset, you will feel less frustrated when encountering roadblocks in contacting the prospect. 

Patience, persistence and a consistent calling schedule are key points in getting those important face-to-face meetings with C-suites.

Posted on

Därför ska du digitalisera din verksamhet

Tekniken förändras precis som vi människor. Användandet av digitala tjänster har förändrat vårt sätt att driva affärer. Att automatisera och digitalisera din verksamhet är en förändring som kommer leda ditt företag i rätt riktning. Här är 5 anledningar till varför du ska digitalisera din verksamhet.

Sakernas internet (IoT)

Företag har aldrig varit så snabba på att anpassa sig till teknik relaterad till IoT som de är idag. I en undersökning utförd av Gartner Inc kan man se att hela 43 procent av alla bolag skulle använda sig av någon form av IoT relaterad teknik i slutet av 2016. Kanske är du en av de 43 procenten idag? Dock är vår spaning på att knappa 10 procent av bolagen har anpassat sig till sakernas internet. Oavsett om det handlar om 10 procent eller 43 procent är det här en trend att ha koll på. Det är en trend som verkar hålla i sig, i alla fall när man tittar på en rapport publicerad av McKinsey. Där lyfter man fram att IoT år 2025 kan ha ett värde på 10 biljoner dollar. Hur fort ett företag anpassar sig till tekniken är varierande beroende på bransch. Dock ser man en ökning för varje år när det kommer till företags anpassning av teknik.

Minskade driftskostnader

Vi slår ett extra slag för bankindustrin när det kommer till att ta vara på digitaliseringens fördelar. McKinseys rapport från 2016 berättar att driftkostnaderna för banker runt om i världen har minskat tack vare digitaliseringen. Bankerna kan förväntas reducera sina kostnader med 25% med hjälp av digitala metoder som automatisering av back-office, Big Data analyser och molninfrastrukturer. Självklart handlar inte detta enbart om banker utan även om andra branscher. Fler branscher kan snabbt och effektivt minska sina driftskostnader genom att leda vägen fram till att skapa möjligheten för låga kostnader.

Molninfrastruktur

Det handlar om att göra smarta val. Fysiska servrar är snart bara ett minne. Amazon Web Services, Google och Microsoft Azure ger företag möjligheten att välja smart och anpassa tekniken med tiden. Dropbox började på Amazons lagringstjänst S3, det hjälpte företaget att växa fort på kort tid. Företagets grundare menar att utan AWS hade företagets snabba tillväxt aldrig varit möjlig.

Customer relationship management

Idag har det första mötet mellan kund och företag flyttat till en ny arena. Hur kunden tar kontakt med företaget har förändrats. Det är inte längre vanligt att kunden tar kontakt via mail utan den första kundkontakten sker nu genom sociala kanaler som exempelvis Facebook eller Twitter. Det förändrade kundbeteendet har gjort att företag flyttat fokus och följt efter sin kunder till den nya arenan. Samtidigt som företaget får mer kolla på sina kunder minskar dessutom CRM kostnaden, framförallt eftersom allt fler väljer smarta Saas-lösningar som salesforce eller vårt svenska upsales. Ett exempel är American Express som använt salesforce sen år 2010. American Express har med hjälp av salesforce anpassat betalmetoder och utvecklat verksamheten för att kunna möta sina kunder på rätt sätt och på rätt ställen.

Ökad produktivitet

Digitaliseringen har öppnat dörrar för företag som gör det möjligt att nå resultat med färre anställda och mindre kostnader. I alla verksamheter, stora som små, gäller det att hitta de funktioner i verksamheten som går att göra digitala. Var gör du idag manuellt som går att digitalisera? Ett exempel är Siemens, de erbjuder tjänster över ett flertal områden, allt från maskintillverkning till livsmedel. De granskade sin verksamhet för att se vart man kunde hitta digitala lösningar på de tjänster som man då utförde manuellt. Efter att ha tittat närmare på området rörande förpackningar hittade man arbetsprocesser som var lämpliga att digitalisera. Idag har Siemens med hjälp av digitaliseringen och ny teknik ett automatiserat system inom sin verksamhet för förpackning. En bransch som många trodde skulle dö ut.

Posted on

Henrik Von Scheel: Knowing What it Takes For Businesses To Excel in Industry 4.0

Henrik von Scheel became a household when he introduced and originated the concept of the “4th Industrial Revolution” (Industry 4.0), in addition to his many works in triggers global themes, national economies practices, reset policies, influences in GDP growth, and shaping the performance of the fastest growing Fortune 100 companies.

Hailed by Financial Times as one of the leading authorities on strategy and competitiveness, von Scheel breaks down the different stages and focuses that organizations today need to be aware of to excel as a business in the fourth industrial revolution.

Knowing_What_It_Takes

The 3 Stages of Adoption To Deliver Business Value

Industry 4.0 has introduced a new age of disruption that’s rendering old methods and systems obsolete. At the same time, it has allowed different industries to carve a path towards innovations, new ways of thinking, and most importantly, new drivers to enhance business value for customers.

While different industries have different drivers, von Scheel believes that in Industry 4.0, there are three common stages of adoption that organizations should integrate into their business strategy to further drive productivity and excel in today’s competitive landscape.

Stage 1: Increasing Operational Excellence

To stay in business, organizations need to focus on Operation Excellence for non-core activities like Human Resources, Finance, and Procurement, to consistently perform and deliver.

Industry 4.0 pushes the development and integration of emerging technologies such as IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Advanced Analytics, and more. These technologies will be crucial for increasing productivity, lowering risks, cutting costs, and operational efficiency.

Stage 2: Improving Growth

“The essence of growth is that you are better than your competitors,” notes von Scheel. While most organization’s competitive competencies only constitute about 15% of their strategy, it’s still a key area to improve for organizations to further drive growth and productivity.

The advent of Industry 4.0 has introduced applicable systems such as Smart Supply Chain Management, Smart Products, Integrated Ecosystems (upstream/downstream), Smart Automation, and Smart Contracts (through Blockchains), to further streamline growth for a business.

Stage 3: Increasing Competitiveness

Differentiation will be the “X-Factor” for organizations to excel in an increasingly competitive landscape. For von Scheel, Differentiation is “what you do, every day, through repeatable activities to serve your customers better than the competition.”

The rarity and difficulty of this discipline mean it only constitutes 5% of an organization’s strategy as it can take months to develop and define an organization’s Differentiation. However, with Industry 4.0, early adopters can speed up the process through emerging service products or business models such as Bioinformatics, Nanotechnology, or Quantum Technology, to put themselves at a true competitive advantage.

Different Levels of Productivity Drivers For Manufacturers

While the stages of adoption can apply to different industries at different levels, the same can’t be said when it comes to applying key value drivers that can capture impact scale and streamline productivity in the age of Smart Manufacturing.

Von Scheel points out the different value drivers factors that can define the productivity imperative for manufacturers of different levels and ensure high-level productivity in Industry 4.0:

Small-lot (Focus on optimizing efficiency): Here, the key value drivers are an integrated product data model from engineering to commissioning, digital worker enablement, and data-driven Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) optimization.

Mass-customized production (Focus on certain degrees of product variance): To uphold high output and consistent quality while enabling a certain degree of product variance, organizations need to integrate closed control loops (enabled by sensor-based, in-line quality inspection), flexible routing, scheduling, load balancing and performance management, and the extension of automation to final assembly.

High-volume production (Focus on fully automated production and maximized OEE): Similar to mass-customized production, the key value drivers will still be on closed control loops through sensor-based in-line quality inspections and transitioning the remaining areas of manual labor through automation and traceability.

Scaling Up Business With 3 Key Principles of Industry 4.0

For businesses to scale up efficiently at the age of Industry 4.0, von Scheel highlights an organization’s need for “focusing on value, mobilizing the organization, and innovating the infrastructure.”

To capture value at scale, von Scheel outlines 3 key principles that organizations need to adhere to:

  1. Think value-backward, not technology-forward. Focusing on the key value drivers and establishing a compelling Industry 4.0 vision is crucial.
  2. Be people-centric, not tool-centric. Clear business leadership mindsets and top-management support should be a priority for Industry 4.0 transformations and capability building.
  3. Innovate the infrastructure towards integrated technology stack. Before an organization can scale globally, the infrastructure should enable local operations and establish as many use cases deliver value through on-premise infrastructure.

Establishing and integrating these key principles will help with scaling in the Industry 4.0 era and help build a solid foundation for consistent growth throughout the scale-up period of businesses.

As the 4th Industrial Revolution continues to take place, it’s becoming increasingly important for businesses to be fully prepared to adapt to the needs of the Smart Manufacturing age.

While this article only scratched the surface on what actions businesses should take, Henrik von Scheel will explore deeper insights and strategies for Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing with his workshop: Industry 4.0 Masterclass – Putting The Industry 4.0 Into Practice. Join von Scheel and more at the 2nd Annual Smart Manufacturing 2020, taking place on the 25th – 27th March at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Posted on

Mark Gallagher: Driving The Future Towards High-Performance Through Big Data

Mark_Gallagher_Driving_The_Future_Big_Data

The future of data-driven organizations has arrived and spearheading businesses towards operational excellence is the vision that Mark Gallagher, the founder and CEO of Performance Insights and Industry Analyst at Formula One, continues to advocate.

As organizations start to adopt more data-driven strategies, Gallagher shares with us the challenges and solutions in which Big Data presents, the opportunities in which disruptive technologies can provide in tandem with data and analytics, and the future it holds for businesses and beyond.

Mark_Gallagher_Driving_High_Performance_Through_Big_Data

The Challenges and Solutions of Data-Driven High Performance

Big Data and analytics have quickly become the key ingredient that businesses need to integrate to remain as a high-performing and agile organization in today’s modern industry. Nevertheless, there are challenges that businesses have to overcome before being able to transform into a data-driven organization.

One such challenge that Gallagher notes is the need for organizations to understand and find which data is most relevant to unlocking new opportunities and not rely on established systems.

“We may wish to gather data from the areas where we have some understanding,” notes Gallagher. “However, the real opportunity comes from questioning established systems and processes and examing data around the unknowns.”

While finding and utilizing data effectively is still a major challenge for most organizations, Gallagher believes the solution lies in organizations finding the right partners and using the right emerging technology to help improve performances.

“It is vital to work with the right partners to develop systems that can make rapid use of data”, Gallagher points out. “Real-time data encourages and facilitates real-time decision making, and this is where the power of AI kicks in.”

In the world of Formula One, Gallagher found that both the quality and speed of decision-making have improved dramatically with the help of partners and AI to help understand and utilize data. This enabled Gallagher to guarantee much higher levels of quality, reliability, risk management and performance, allowing them to “avoid negative outcomes and guarantee more positive ones.”

Utilizing The Power of Disruptive Technology

On its own, Big Data has proven to be a disruptive technology. However, Gallagher believes that several emerging technologies can be “game-changers” for the traditional business processes.

“The opportunities afforded by AI and Blockchain technology are only just being realized, and far from dehumanizing businesses”. Gallagher continues, “these tools will enable more people and organizations to work together seamlessly to drive improved outcomes for their customers, businesses and supply chains.”

The benefits of emerging technologies go beyond organizational efficiency and Gallagher points out how Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence have helped build a more connected and data-driven environment in Formula One.

“We operate a fully connected environment so that we can manage our assets remotely, monitoring performance, quality, gathering diagnostic information and ultimate managing the product life cycle better than ever”, Gallagher remarked on the usage of IoT and artificial intelligence platforms.

Gallagher sees the innovation that IoT and artificial intelligence brings to Formula One, providing information to make better use of their resources and dramatically improve their manufacturing systems. “In creating a digital twin of our product, we have moved to an environment where we can manufacture and manage much more efficiently.”

The Big Future of Big Data and Analytics

Focusing on the data that matters should be the priority for organizations, and as vast amounts of data become increasingly available, Gallagher and Formula One needs to work with solutions that cut to the core of the issues and opportunities that are affecting businesses.

Gallagher points out how Big Data and analytics can be utilized in new ways for businesses and society as a whole in the future, noting that in “a data-rich world, we can mine more opportunities to add value.”

Beyond the profit margins, Big Data has the opportunity to develop innovative solutions and Gallagher shares this enthusiasm saying that he is ”very optimistic that many of the problems facing the world today will find their solutions in technology that develops as the result of having the data to understand issues properly.”

At the end of the day, data is just information and when businesses can access a better quality of information, they can expect to improve outcomes across all areas of operations.