by Tim Guleri
General Partner, Sierra Ventures
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For most companies lead generation is a critical element to generating new business. But, the endless ineffective efforts to cold call into an account
provide poor results. Even with a company backgrounder and list of executive contacts, sales teams still have little success penetrating their targeted
accounts and prospects.
Cold Calls Equal Lost Deals
Sales development teams are often tasked with making upwards of 50 cold calls a day. This process lengthens the sales cycle as teams wait for call backs and
sift through suspects trying to find a lead. Most cold call efforts result in trying to get past the gate keeper to deliver the message. Given the number of
sales pitch calls an executive gets per day, it's no wonder none rise above the noise. While your sales team is blindly cold calling into an account to try
to locate an interested champion to set up a briefing, it's very likely your competitor already is in the account with a solid introduction and is moving
the sales process forward. In general, the cold call is unproductive and unprofitable.
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Tap Your Relationships
The most effective way to build a solid pipeline, gain entry into targeted accounts, and find the key decision maker is to tap into your relationship
network. By leveraging your existing business relationships, sales teams can get a warm introduction to a targeted account. But it's not just the contacts
you personally know that can help, more importantly it's the expanded network you are linked to through these relationships that truly adds value. The
Strength of Weak Ties, Mark Granovetter's now famous 1973 paper, demonstrates what might appear to be counter-intuitive: our "weak social links"
are more important sources of new information than the more cherished, strong, relationships.
Technologies that were unavailable in 1973 but are now becoming ingrained in today's business world further expand this concept. For instance, heightened use
of email within the business environment can greatly expand your relationship network. Imagine being able to go beyond connecting to your own personal
relationships by accessing and leveraging the relationships of everyone else that is linked through your communications. The people you regularly communicate
with and the people they know become your warm introduction into virtually every lead, creating new business relationships. Through this extended relationship
network you can now effectively gain access to key decision makers and drive your sales process faster. Studies have proven that this approach can improve
the sales process by 20–30%. But, the real proof comes from companies that are using technology to leverage their relationship networks. As Michael
Cleland, Vice President, CGE&Y states in Business 2.0, November 2003, The Technology of the Year 2003: Social Network Applications
"Without the software, I would never have known about that connection inside the company."
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