069: Dan McDade on generating, qualifying and nurturing leads
Dan McDade is the owner of Point Clear, a company that has been doing lead generation and high-level strategy for other businesses, going on 20 years now.
He works with some pretty big clients, like Microsoft, and his company basically functions as an outsourced sales department for his client companies.
In this episode, Dan’s relates how he’s built his business and sheds light on his experiences, as well as the changing landscape of outbound sales.
Episode Highlights:
[3:30] Transitioning to a remote organization structure presented communication struggles. But now he mainly works outside the office—which his COO prefers!
[5:00] Point Clear provides lead generation, qualification and nurturing to nationwide clients, focused primarily in technology, business services, healthcare and finance.
[6:12] They stand out from the competition through their strategic communications with their clients’ sales team on the front-end, to really understand their values and what makes for a qualified lead.
[7:15] The 3 keys to generating leads are Market, Media and Messaging/Offer (3Ms or MOM).
[8:00] They use multi-touch, multi-cycle campaigns. They once made 42 touches in a quarter, and that client had sales of $1Billion that quarter!
[9:22] They want to be viewed as a virtual extension of the client’s sales force, with the objective of making ideal matches, as opposed to just setting meetings with whoever.
[10:38] If a prospect is not ready, don’t give them over to sales.
[11:30] They have an exacting, 4-week client on-boarding process.
[12:50] A key in the psychology of conversation is to ask the other party a question about something they are experts in, as a way to diffuse any nervousness.
[15:32] The discovery process is when you set expectations about success and troubleshooting.
[17:07] The 3 conditions of need are 1) fear of loss, 2) risk of deterioration and 3) opportunity to improve. Three, also called selling to the rainbow, is the hardest sell, so if you can’t frame it as either 2 or 3, it probably won’t succeed.
[18:00] You shouldn’t expect overnight success with this stuff.
[19:30] He typically works with larger companies, like Microsoft, or those with lots of VC. Sophisticated outbound is expensive, so they disqualify smaller companies right away.
[21:35] They get paid on a monthly retainer basis. As opposed to pay-per-performance lead generation companies who look for low hanging fruit, they play the long game to add real value through qualifying and nurturing.
[24:00] Cleaning up the mess made by a PPP company.
[27:25] Dan got in the business at the perfect time.
[29:37] Outbound marketing has made a resurgence.
[30:33] He’d focus more on account-based marketing if he had to do it over again.
[34:00] Most companies are unwilling to sign up for retainers over 90-days. Communication is the key to getting over that.
[36:15] They use a proprietary database system, because most CRMs aren’t complex enough.
[38:35] His biggest hurdle was recruiting and deploying salespeople.
[41:08] Having candid conversations with people about his strengths and weaknesses was hugely helpful for him.
[42:45] Their best clients understand and value the large strategic element of the business. They don’t sell training, because they haven’t peaked out on their current services.
[44:28] Dan’s company is viewed as old-fashioned. Partly, this is a marketing mistake, because account-based marketing is hot right now. Basically, focusing on fewer prospects and covering them better. If he had to do it again, he would branded it better.
Resources:
dan.mcdade@pointclear.com
(678)533-2722
News Sales Simplified, by Mike Weinberg
Sales Management Simplified, by Mike Weinberg
Solution Selling, by Michael Bosworth
Spin Selling, by Neil Rackham
This episode is sponsored by Outbound Creative
Outbound Creative helps agencies and consultancies win their dream clients through eye-catching outreach campaigns. Learn more at OutboundCreative.com.
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