“Of course you want more revenue, but what good is it if it isn’t predictable?”
- Predictable Revenue, page 2
"It doesn’t involve any cold calling. In fact, if you’re making cold calls, you are doing everything wrong."- Predictable Revenue, page 18
The authors define cold call as “calling someone who doesn’t know you and who isn’t expecting your call.” It’s not usually a pleasant experience for either the caller or the person who is called.
Cold Calling 2.0 is prospecting into cold accounts to generate new business without using “cold calls.” While it is a complex process, it involves reaching out to high value contacts and asking for an introduction to the best person to talk to. It requires minimal effort on the part of your contact, and allows you to make more meaningful connections.
Traditionally, the most difficult part of a funnel or a business system to be predictable is the prospecting. Cold Calling 2.0 is about having processes and a system of generating a new pipeline and leads predictably.
You’ll know that by putting ‘x effort’ you’ll get ‘y results,’ every single time.
It’s harder to make it profitable if your average customer is worth less than $5000.
"The most common mistake is lumping all the type of leads into one bucket of 'leads,’ and then making future projections based on past results."- Predictable Revenue, page 106
All leads are not equal. The leads are categorized into seeds, nets and spear leads. The difference is clear when you consider the varying answers to the following questions: What happens when you plant a seed? What happens when you cast a net into the sea? What happens when you throw a spear at a target?
Seeds take a lot of time to cultivate but when they are ready they give the highest conversion rates and close rates. These require nurturing.
Nets are classic marketing funnels where you are casting a wide net and see what you get.
Spears, like hunting, involves targeted outbound efforts by an individual human.
The goal is to make it easier for the prospect to choose their own adventure. They choose how they get to know a company and its products, one step at a time.
"You can be as aggressive as ever - except the tone has changed. Rather than being pushy, all about money, and often coming off as fake, it’s about being respectful, purposeful, and adding real value to prospects, even before they become customers. Salespeople should be “pleasantly persistent.”"- Predictable Revenue, page 142
To build your sales machine, you should separate the four core functions of a sales team. Form hyper-specialized teams to effectively grow results.
The four core functions are:
The predictability of revenue is predictability of each role of this team. This is the sales machine.
This book is about making your sales operations predictable. This includes making functions, such as prospecting, qualifying, closing, and nurturing predictable.
Aaron Ross is an author, speaker, and CEO PredictableRevenue.com, which helps companies double or triple new sales. He is also the founder of PebbleStorm.com.
