Client: You want answers?

CFO: I think I’m entitled.

Client: *You want answers?*

CFO: *I want the truth!*

Client: *You can’t handle the truth!*

Client: Son, we live in a world where companies need to make money, and that money has to be made by salesmen with phones. Whose gonna do it? You? You, CFO? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Purchasing and Accounting, and you curse the demand generation soldiers. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That going around your rules and process, while tragic, probably makes money. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, makes money. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about in boardrooms, you want me on those phones, you need me on those phones. We use words like sales, revenue, profit. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent driving revenue. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very income that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a phone, and talk to a customer. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.

Over a decade ago, one of the largest players in the demand generation space began touting integrated sales and marketing programs. They claimed they had List Acquisition, Creative, Call Center, Event Management—literally everything to do with marketing—under one roof. The reality was that they were a multi-billion dollar conglomerate with a bunch of companies working completely independent of each other.

Pipeline sells integrated services and delivers on this commitment. Our Account Executives and Account Managers are consultative and must understand all components of an integrated sales and marketing program, from developing a strategy to tracking leads through the entire sales funnel.

My point? We’ve bolstered our team with Peter Gum who will be responsible for Strategic Accounts and continuing our tradition of selling integrated programs. Pete is an experienced sales and marketing executive familiar with working for Fortune 500 Enterprises and comes with a strong rolodex. He joins us from Connect Direct (a San Francisco-based full service interactive agency specializing in analytics-based lead generation for B2B technology companies) where he spent 8 years managing accounts like BEA, Borland, Cisco, Covad, HP, Juniper, Pillar Data Systems & SUN.

To the untrained eye, not much has changed to the look and feel of Pipelinenow.com—maybe a little touch-up paint and shiny new rims—but under the hood our development team has dropped in an entirely new engine.

• CMS Drupal. Thousands of websites including WhiteHouse.gov leverage Drupal, which enables keyword search and makes it easy for any administrative user to update and post content.
• SEO. The site is optimized with keyword-rich page URLs, relevant Meta tags on every page and more search-engine accessible HTML source code.
• Usability. Access has improved with the addition of breadcrumbs, the blog now matches the look and feel of the other sections, and code is now Section 508 Compliant HTML Code.
  

With regard to our “shiny new rims,” our Multimedia Director re-architected a few areas to ensure visitors are viewing a consistent brand and accessing collateral quickly and easily.

We say it until we’re blue in the face, so, let me share the comments of our Partner, WaveLength. Is it better to send 500 general interest leads to a partner to follow-up on, or 10 with a high probability of closing? I’ll let them explain.

It never feels good being brushed off—regardless of whether it’s in a social setting, or on the phone. The difference is that at a party, you simply grab a drink and move on. But as a telemarketer, it’s your job to persist and convert brush offs into opportunities. While Pipeline reps discuss daily how to address campaign specific objections, The Ultimate Cold Calling Tool (by BNET) is great if you’re looking for ways to overcome typical brush offs. If nothing else, you can use this guide to test the proficiency of the next telemarketer calling you during a family dinner!

We couldn’t have written it better! Everyone instantly knows whether or not they like a website, but rarely can they articulate the reasons swaying them in either direction. We ask our clients to not rely on their personal design inclinations–rather consider what the client is looking for. Most of the time it has nothing to do with design at all, but instant access to relevant content.

Watch documentary now!

http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/?p=6382&tag=nl.e808

Next time you’re considering an inside telesales representative, consider the Total Cost of Employment (TCE). On average, a representative earns a salary of $65K annually. Add the 30% for overhead and you’re pushing $85,000. Factor in the typically high turnover—resulting in ongoing recruiting, repetitive training, employee on- and off-boarding and tedious management—and your TCE begins creeping towards six figures. And, then they only make 30 dials a day. Outsourcing provides for:

1. Increased Efficiency. 80 – 100 dials a day, rigid call guides, call monitoring, detailed reporting and ongoing training, equates to higher efficiency and productivity.
2. Lowered Labor Costs. Lead generation, event recruitment and survey marketing can be turned on and off quickly without hiring or retaining employees. Outsourcing enables flexibility and scalability.
3. Reduced Capital Expenses. Agencies invest in leading VoIP technology and software (Salesforce.com, CRM fusion, Marketbright, etc.) so you don’t need to. For the cost of a representative, you’re receiving an entire infrastructure.
4. Slashed Risk. Every dollar spent on a new employee carries inherent risk. Outsourcing places the risk in the agency’s court.

Your focus should be on your core business, which probably is not telemarketing.