Incredibly effective outbound sales
Our uniquely positive methodology delivers unprecedented results to micro and small B2B businesses who need to generate warm sales leads through cold outreach.
Our uniquely positive methodology delivers unprecedented results to micro and small B2B businesses who need to generate warm sales leads through cold outreach.
Outbound business development using the Wonder Leads methodology is proven in real-life situations to generate up to 16x more responses and over 18x more leads per approach than the most commonly used alternatives.
The results for Wonder Leads have been recorded from 120 B2B approaches to cold prospects made using our uniquely positive approach between 30/1/2019 and 15/4/2019. They have not been modified in anyway. Our approaches were made to senior level executives within the UK Engineering, Manufacturing and Industrial sectors. Targets included Senior Managers, Managing Directors and CEO’s. A redacted list of our results can be viewed here.
Figures for e-marketing are taken from the industry leading Mailchimp benchmarking report March. Results for e-marketing campaigns within the report vary significantly across market sectors, with open (reach) rates ranging from a minimum of 17% to a maximum of 27%. We have used their average data figures for the sake of argument, although the figures in our nearest comparable categories are actually lower. Figures have been rounded up to the nearest half percentage point.
The authority in Direct Mail data is the Direct Mail Association (DMA). We used data from their 2017 Response Rate Report which surveyed 252 complete and 340 partial responses. Because Socialaser approaches were all to cold prospects, we used their prospect data, rather than the house list, which comprises of contacts that have already opted in to receive communications. Whilst there are ways to measure reach in direct mail (QR codes, tracking tags etc.), they are rare and do not reflect the majority of communications sent out. As a result we could not find any figures to show reach rate (which would be confirmed views by the correct person). Although no data has been supplied, we have been generous and assumed that all responses are genuine leads which is why the figures are the same.
Accessing reliable statistics for cold-calling is incredibly challenging. Reliable data seems to be very thin on the ground and the data that is available varies massively in the success rates that are reported. The largest and most significant study we found, was a report published by Gordon Tredgold on Entrepreneur.com. Gordon took part in an experiment to make 2000 B2B cold calls to CEOs, SVPs, VPs and directors of Fortune 500 companies over a 20 day period. Both reach and response rate reflect the number of calls required to successfully connect with the target (17). The lead generation rate is the number of those calls that resulted in an appointment being set. Figures have again been rounded up to the nearest whole percentage point.
Unlike most traditional methods of business development, the interests of the prospect are put front and centre of everything we do. Not only that, but every aspect of the Wonder Leads methodology has been designed to be measured. This allows us to accurately track the impact of every stage of the outbound sales process.
Wonder Leads reach rate is based on accurate data that tracks the number of approaches made and the number of times an approach has been viewed, which is tracked by standard web analytics techniques.
Emarketing mail has a widely measurable comparison, because some technologies permit tracking of email opens. This is technically an indication of how many people have viewed the approach you have sent
With direct mail, there is no way to tell if the communication has reached the correct person, so reach is almost impossible to quantify. QR codes and other offline to online measurmeent techniques can help to indicate reach, but they still don’t indicate who has been reached. this is especially problematic in larger organisations where mail is handled by gatekeepers.
Cold call reach is the same metric as cold calling response. This is because the cold caller attempts to reach a target by making a call and if they are successful, they can chalk up a response (whatever that may be). Therefore, response rate is the more accurate metric to track. Reach alone is pretty meaningless for cold calls, because it is very easy to connect with ‘someone’ when cold calling, but connecting with the target is not recorded per se.
The Wonder Leads response rate records the number of times that an approach has resulted in a reply from the target, as a percentage of all approaches made. Replies can be short acknowledgements, or detailed responses, but they are always sent directly by the target.
Emarketing responses are generally measured by click rate – the number of times a recipient clicks a link in the email from the total number of emails sent out. It is important to note that email clicks do not indicate a direct response from the recepient in the same way cold calling or Socialaser generates a direct response.
Direct Mail response rate is the amount of times that the mail piece has triggered a measurable action compared to the number of mail shots sent out. This is a very tough metric to track and requires senders to use techniques such as tracked destination urls and recording of inbound enquiries.
Cold calling response rate is the average number of calls a seller must make in order to successfully connect with the right target. What it does not measure is whether the target is happy to have a conversation when they do!
The lead generation rate for Wonder Leads records the amount of times that an approach generated a response that presented a genuine opportunity to do business, out of the total number of approaches sent out.
Not all email clicks will turn into a genuine lead, they may just be someone shopping around, or having clicked in error. As a result, lead generation rate will naturally be a percentage of the response rate. What the percentage is will vary from case to case, but is almost certainly to be less than 1% of all emails sent.
Not all direct mail responses can be counted as genuine leads, because some respondents may be digital ‘browsers’. As a result, lead generation rate for direct mail must be calculated in a similar way to emarketing – as a percentage of the overall response rate.
Measuring cold calling leads generated is relatively straight-forward, because the seller has been able to establish direct contact with the person, so it is usually clear whether there is a genuine opportunity to do business. However, the intrusive nature of cold calling means that prospects are put on the spot. As a result they will often engage in diversionary tactics to end a conversation, which can mean agreeing to things they have little intention of following through on.