TA's Week-in-Review Email Newsletter Video Transcript for 6/12/9
This transcript goes with the video at this page.
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Here’s a multiple choice questions for all you telecom sales hot shots out there…
Let’s say you’ve identified a hot business prospect but they’re not responding to your phone calls or emails. How long should you pursue them?
Hi, this is Dan Baldwin, Telecom Association founder and executive director and this is your Week-in-review Email Newsletter video for Friday, June 12th 2009.
So what’s the “Best Sales Practice” for how long to follow up on a hot prospect?
The multiple choice answer is “D” of course – until the prospect asks you to stop contacting them – and even then you probably don’t want to permanently drop a great prospect.
Is that the right answer? Is that a TA “Best Sales Practice?” Well if you want to find out you should click on TA’s new “Best of TA” links and check out TA’s new “Best Sales & Marketing Practices” questions and answers.
Each week we’re going to take on a new question. This week it’s how long do you pursue non-responsive prospects. Next week the question is, “Does email marketing work to get new telecom customers?” We’ll be telling you the opinions of respected TA members who are also hot shot sellers, but what’s your opinion? Click on our “Best Sales & Marketing Practices” link, listen to the answers of your fellow TA members and then tell us your answers!
If you want to see and hear your answers published along side our other experts just call 951-200-4144, record your answers and then email TA your LinkedIn page so we can credit you as one of our “Best Practices” experts.
Our new Best Sales & Marketing Practices web page is part of our new “Best of TA” index.
Also released this week is TA’s “Best Toll Free RespOrg Service” providers. Sure, toll free RespOrg might seem like a boring service – but not if you run an inbound call center or not if you’re a telecom consultant who specializes in taking care of inbound call centers.
Which TA vendor is at the top of TA’s “Best Toll Free RespOrg” list? TMC with their “Be Your Own Resporg” service.
TMC is the only entity we know of that empowers toll free customers with the ability to directly access the SMS800 database so they can make their own changes to any or all their toll free numbers any time or all the time.
Even though TMC is a toll free services provider themselves, they rank higher than the independent RespOrgs on our list because with the independent RespOrgs the customer still does not have direct access to the SMS800 database to make their own changes.
So click on TA’s “Best Toll Free RespOrgs” list, read it yourself and then tell us what you think. Send us your recommended list upgrades as we’ll be tweaking this list to reflect reality as often as necessary.
We’ll be coming out with a new “Best of TA” practices or vendor list every week or so and will be constantly tweaking all the lists to make sure we’ve got them right.
If you’re a TA vendor that’s “Best at Something” please let us know what you’re the best at. We’re happy to start that list and put you on it but you’ve got to understand that all the other TA vendors may think they need to be on that list too.
Which vendors will be at the top? Those that are doing the best jobs as judged by TA members and their customers as measured by submitted testimonials as well as TA interviews conducted both on the phone and on-site.
You won’t find this information anywhere else, but you will find it here - The measured and published opinions of 3,500 TA members.
In other news, we finally figured out what to do with Twitter!
While no one really wants to know what I’m personally doing at any time, plenty of TA’s members are interested in whatsTAdoing – that is as far as what’s TA writing for the next newsletter and how they can get involved in the content TA’s about to publish.
If you’re interested in what TA is about to publish or how you can contribute content (or get quoted) please follow TA on Twitter. Our Twitter address is Twitter.com/whatsTAdoing We Tweet, you respond with content and everyone benefits and you get famous.
Last but not least, many members are asking, “Where’s all the video TA’s been shooting”. We’ll it’s about half processed and it’s all coming. The slow down has been how to sensibly present it to the TA audience. The question that’s slowed us down is, “Do we just barf all the video out at our members or do we present it in some sort of organized and sensible way?”
Well we’ve finally decided that organized and sensible is the best way and that’s how came up with presenting all the video through our “Best of TA” articles. It’s TA’s opinion that all the video we’ve collected represents one TA vendor or another doing “the best” at something. But the content is of little use unless it’s put into its proper place in the “big picture”.
While it’s somewhat useful to know that TMC has a “Be Your Own RespOrg” service the information becomes much more valuable when it’s placed in the proper context of being compared to all the other TA vendor members with similar services.
If TA can tell you “this is what you need to know about TMC’s RespOrg service” and tell you “and when compared to all the other services” TMC’s is the best, then the content becomes much more useful because you as the content consumer can act on it quicker if you trust the judgment of TA.”
So in the near term we’ll be privately sharing the vendor video with the vendors and then publically sharing the vendor video with all TA’s members as we publish the “Best of TA” lists that will feature the vendor video and present it in a useful context.
That’s it for now. Don’t forget that TA will be in Salt Lake City & Denver the week of June 22nd so if you want me to visit & video you in Utah or Denver so your video ends up on a future “Best of TA” list, please give me a call at 951-251-5155 or send me an email.
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Questions about this? Dan Baldwin, Dan@TelecomAssociation.com 951-251-5155 www.TelecomAssociation.com