Subscribe to our RSS FeedA recent American Marketing Association’s e-presentation offered some very interesting industry information.
- Quoting Sirius Decisions as its source, AMA notes that the average caller makes over 100 phone calls (obviously not to the same person!) to set up just one appointment1.
- 85% of Webinar registrations2 turned out to be no-shows. Further research revealed that the registrants were indeed interested in the content, but were simply too busy to attend.
The AMA presentation centered on the need for the marketing–sales alignment to be grounded in demand generation, sales effectiveness and customer messaging.
What was clearly obvious from the presentation was that the time needed to gain access to the correct decision maker(s) took far longer than expected. Some called it EXTREMELY challenging.
Do these numbers hold up in terms of appointment-setting? Let’s see.
If we assume that 100 calls equals 100 dial attempts - and 10% of these calls result in meaningful conversations – then 1 appointment (or 10%) is certainly a plausible result.
Webinar “attendance” was very poor – much to our surprise. For projects in which eti promotes attendance at Webinars (plus registration management) we have rarely managed to get fewer than 50% attendance. Moreover we’ve found that the non-attendees represent a very lucrative market for lead generation and appointment setting purposes!
Can these results be improved? Absolutely! Here are some eti pointers:
Lead Generation
- The list or target market is probably the most important element. It can affect results by as much as 400%!
- Market positioning and brand are extremely important. The stronger your company’s brand the easier it will be for your callers to access the decision makers you wish to engage with.
- Product and or solution elements are key. If the perception in the market is that whatever you’re selling is not good then no amount of calling will produce good results.
- The ability of the caller to relate and understand the needs of the decision makers is paramount. A consultative approach is essential.
- The more complex the solution and the larger the company being called, the higher the level of the decision makers. Consequently, the smarter your Business Developers must be.
- Appointment setting activities for companies selling complex products/services can only be achieved by effectively engaging prospects in a consultative dialog.
Webinar Registrations
- Prospect’s interest levels must be ascertained and documented.
- Personal phone calls are essential to confirm Webinar presence.
- All registrations to be confirmed within 24 hours of the event by phone (voice mail is OK.)
- Confirm all registrants via email 4 hours prior to the Webinar.
- Ensure 100% follow up of all persons who registered regardless of whether they attended or not. (The approach to non-attendees should naturally be different and structured accordingly.)
eti Sales Support provides comprehensive Webinar registration services and solutions daily for leading businesses in the America’s and EMEA. With measurable ROI.
1Source attributed to Sirius Decisions
2Source attributed to Marketing Sherpa
