Is your company’s sales “Maserati” gathering dust?

 Why is your Maserati parked in the garage?

One would think that instead of parking a Maserati in the garage and letting it sit to collect dust, you would have it out on the highway maximizing your investment. This is similar to a company having a marketing database and not getting the most out of it. Your marketing database is your biggest asset, and your sales team is as only as strong as your database. I believe that information closes business, not sales representatives.

One key to building an efficient database is to make sure that all of the businesses in the database represent your current client base and target market. We suggest that you make “discovery cold calls “ with the intent to collect market intelligence. This is market intelligence that provides the knowledge to determine which businesses to pursue and penetrate.

On these discovery cold calls there is absolutely no selling, no marketing, no  branding and no promoting — just qualifying the appropriate executive decision maker. We simply use discovery questions that begin why, what, when, which, where , who and how. 

Here are five tips towards building a marketing database that is sure to help identify potential sales opportunities.

1. Profile the following demographics of suspect businesses. Industry ( S.I.C. Codes ), Geographics, Revenue and the Number of Employees.

2. Cross reference each company in the database with their website to confirm head quarters address, multiple locations and the name of executive decision makers.

3. Cold call into the company with the intent to identify minimally two executive decisions and their correct title, email address and direct phone number.

4. Engage with executive appropriate decision makers with the intent to make a Discovery Cold Call and qualify interest in purchasing products/ services.

5. Collect market intelligence by asking questions that begin with what, when, which, where, who, why and how.

Database enhancement is based on keeping the information current and correct. Another key to getting the most out of your marketing database is to be consistent in coding each company. For example, most companies will fall into the following five categories:

Interested. This group will fall into two subgroups: A.) Immediate Interest, B.) Future Interest

No Interest. This group will fall into two subgroups. A.) Permanent No Interest. B.) Temporary No Interest

No Contact. This group is made up of companies that you have identified the name of the decision maker, contact information but have not reached.

No information at all and no contact with the decision maker.

Wrong phone number, phone number is no longer in service, and phone ringing.

The only way to get the most out of your database is to use the telephone to make discovery cold calls to verify and confirm the market intelligence. There is an increased importance to know the difference between suspect sales opportunities that just have demonstrated an interest and those prospective sales opportunities that are ready to purchase.