Corporate Culture

JV/M is in the business of finding new business for our clients, which means that one of the things we do is cold-calling that gets their sales process started. The goal is also to have fun and make money -- for you, for us, and for our clients. But the key thing to keep in mind is that sales is a serious business, and that our clients are counting on you (and us,) for results.

Why We Exist

Extensive research, business literature, the experience of thousands of companies, and even our own observations have demonstrated that most salespeople simply don't like to make cold calls, even though cold calling is the most cost-effective method of finding new business. Most salespeople don't like to knock on doors, and even more don't like (and don't have the discipline,) to work the phones hour after hour, day after day.

Most salespeople just prefer to work on qualified leads, meaning that the prospect has already shown an interest in the product or service (whether by responding to an ad, a trade show, a Web site, or a referral, etc.,) before the salesperson makes his initial contact. These "warm leads" give the typical salesperson a safe window of opportunity in which to establish rapport, and the confidence to make his pitch without feeling overly vulnerable to rejection.

Most salespeople prefer not to have to create that opportunity themselves by going through the process of maneuvering past gatekeepers and getting the prospect's attention, introducing himself and his product, and creating initial interest. This is because these steps (surprisingly) require a set of skills and a personality that most salespeople either don't have (because they were hired for their "presentability" and product knowledge, not for their cold-calling abilities,) because they entail the risk of rejection, or because the cold calling process itself is self-defeating (that is, the more one cold calls, the more opportunities one uncovers - which then have to be followed up and closed, which prevents the sales rep from cold calling anymore, at least for a while.)

Even worse, for the companies involved, most firms don't like (or can't afford,) to send salespeople out into the field, or on an airplane, to make a very expensive sales call unless they know it's going to be worthwhile -- which, many times, it isn't. Many companies also find the lead generation process hard to manage: cold-callers are somewhat idiosyncratic, good ones are hird to find, turnover is high, and the process is mysterious. All in all, prospecting is a pretty big problem, and the traditional company is not equipped to solve it.

As a result, companies invest vast sums of money in a wide variety of products and services in order to "warm-up" the market for its salespeople, including advertising, exhibiting at trade shows, buying memberships at golf clubs, sending out direct mail, building e-commerce sites, and utilizing hundreds of other premiums, attention-getters and strategies, some of which work, but most of which don't. But ultimately, for the B2B marketer, growth still comes down to getting the attention of, making contact with, and stimulating the interest of a decision maker. And this can best be done by prospecting on the telephone -- if you can find someone who can do it.

And again, this doesn't mean to suggest that advertising doesn't help make the process more efficient, or that direct mail can't help educate the prospect. Quite the contrary, these are viable methods, and complements to, if not competitors with, what JV/M offers. But there is a serious economic issue with which businesses must contend, and that is that the return on investment of a B2B advertising (or a direct mail, or whatever,) campaign is generally very far lower than the return on investment on a cold-call telephone campaign -- because cold-calling works.

By and large, if businesses could get their salespeople to cold call, they would, simply because it works, and is the most cost effective method available. But they can't (and the businesses can't manage it either,) so they resort to those other methods. For proof, just consider the variety of ways that businesses try to encourage their salespeople to cold call, including contests, incentives and threats. Some of these work, if only temporarily, but their existence only reinforces the assertion that there is a huge problem that needs to be solved.

What We Do (And Don't Do)

JV/M's role in life (and your role, if you want,) is to provide this essential ingredient in our clients' sales strategies: To open the door with telemarketing so that the client can go in and make the sale. In other words, our job is to get the client the initial appointments with prospects who have a need for or an interest in their products.

JV/M uses a variety of tactics -- all centered around B2B telemarketing -- to uncover or create opportunities and make appointments for its clients, stimulate interest in their products or services, and initiate the sales process including research, pre-qualification, cold calling, and executive appointment-setting, supported occasionally by advertising, direct mail, PR, faxes, emails or taking the prospect to the client's Web site. The goal, however, is to fill the gap in the sales process, which means getting that first appointment. And whether it's a face-to-face appointment or a telephone appointment, finding potential customers and getting them to consider the client's solution is what we're all about.

JV/M does what most companies can't do for themselves, and that's how you should think of yourself. We'll make the hundreds of phone calls that it takes to find the dozen people who need their product. We'll take the six hours that are necessary to negotiate with an executive's assistant, and sell her on the idea of giving our client's rep a half hour with him to make his pitch. We'll research the 200 companies that might have a need for our client's products, identify all of the potential decision makers, call each one personally, and follow up with each one until we get enough appointments to fill up the outside sales rep's calendar with good, qualified prospects that he can close. And we'll do it over and over again, until the client gets the revenue and profitability that he needs.

It's also important to understand what we don't do. For example,

• We don't burn through lists. As you can imagine, if our job is to get a client in to meet with the CEOs of the Fortune 100, if you call them and can't get any appointments, you can't ask for another Fortune 100 list. You have to fix your pitch.
• We don't BS people. We understand that giving a vendor an appointment means that the prospect is spending his most valuable resource -- his time. And that business decisions to have both a rational and an emotional component. We give people sound business reasons to grant an appointment, while respecting his subjective criteria.
• We don't do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. And we don't keep calling just to book hours. Instead, we measure ourselves by our results, and ask for help as soon as we need it.
• We don't lie. We don't say we're friends with the decision-maker just to get him on the phone. And we don't bully people into granting appointments by misleading them.
• We don't disrespect gatekeepers. In B2B telemarketing, we sell (the appointment, or putting us through to the decision-maker,) to the gatekeeper, and to any other decision-influencer, just as we would sell the product to the decision-maker.
• We don't waste a single opportunity to give our pitch. Voice-mail is our friend -- it's just another chance to present your value proposition.
• We don't annoy people. We provide value on every call by asking questions that get the prospect to "get in touch" with their needs, and recognize the value of meeting. And if there isn't a legitimate need, we don't try to book the appointment anyway.
• We don't tell, we sell. No one ever sold anything of value by describing features. We try to find out what the prospect needs, and find a way to match it with what our client offers.

This is the heavy lifting of sales, and it is what we do and how we do it.

What Our People Are Like

In support of this, JV/M is simply looking for people who "love to sell, but hate to drive!"

We look for people who like to cold call and work the phones, who are results-oriented, responsible, and know how to make something out of nothing. We want people who don't mind making 60, 70 or 80 dials in a day, day after day. We look for people who know it's a game, and who like to play, but who also recognize that what we do is a vital part of our clients' success.

• We want people who aren't bothered by rejection, and who know that the next call is going to bring them that much closer to success.
• We want people who set goals (whether it's setting one solid appointment per day, or one per hour,) and who achieve them.
• We want people with good communications skills - who can talk as easily with senior executives at a Fortune 500 company as with a shop foreman or a receptionist with a bad attitude.
• We want people with discipline and a sense of responsibility, and who "get it," meaning that they know what the client is looking for, and can deliver.
• We want people who can make our clients feel comfortable, and confident in their skills.
• We want people who like the challenge of meeting new people over the phone, and who understand the power that voice communications has.
• We want people who can learn the essence of a client's business in three hours by reading a marketing plan and some collateral material, and be effective and professional in representing them and their value in concrete or subjective terms to the prospect.
• We want people who are self starters, who set personal goals for success, and who exceed them without being nagged.
• We want people who can learn new techniques from reading a book or attending a training course, on their own, or from participating in group coaching.
• We need people who can use a variety of techniques for getting in the door, learn new techniques when necessary, know how and when to ask for help -- and accept it when it's offered.
• We want people who don't need to be micromanaged, but who can put in an honest day's work, report their activity and results accurately and honestly every day (via fax, on our Web site or by email,) and come back and do it again the next day.
• We want people who will sound credible to the client, but who are comfortable leaving control of the project with JV/M.
• We want people who know how, and when, to ask for help.
• And finally, we need people who are motivated by the potential for personal, professional and financial success, but who understand that we test everything, and insist on a win for the client, a win for the Independent Contractor, and a win for JV/M in order to consider a project successful.

What's In It For You?

What's in it for our Independent Contractors? Certainly there is plently of work for us to do, and there are far more projects and clients than we could hope to satisfy. So as we grow, there is security in the knowledge that you won't suffer from a lack of opportunity, and you won't have to change jobs every six months. This has a direct bearing on your security and lifestyle, since if one project doesn't quite work out we usually have at least three or four others in the backlog to work on. Of course, we certainly want to keep our clients, and we want to make them successful, but the IC doesn't have to look for a new job every time a client, or JV/M, or even you, make a mistake. But most of all, there's good money in it if you're successful, because you're the one who's making it rain.

In general, as far as money is concerned, all projects start with a trial that is budgeted for a specific number of hours, and we will pay by the hour for the effort. (And we may even pay more than you're currently getting.) If the trial is successful in demonstrating that you (and we,) can do the job (i.e. get appointments, find leads, find business, or whatever the goal is,) and we and the client agree that we want to continue, then we will propose to the client a ramp-up of the program. This may add resources (i.e. more people or money,) to the project, but it may also entail a change in the compensation structure such as by adding incentives - some of which can pass through to you. So while hourly rates may continue, incentives may be negotiated that can be based on the number of appointments, the gross profit of closed business, revenue (i.e. a commission,) or any of a number of more complex structures, including quotas. The goal is generally to enhance your compensation as an incentive for producing excellent results, and as a cost-reduction for the client, assuming that as a result of the trial we know what works and how to manage it. As a result of a successful test and ramp-up though, compensation for an Independent Contractor can easily increase; and more work will be made available.

Summary

Our goal is to have a cadre of professional B2B telemarketers that business owners can turn to in order to grow their sales and profitability. We know that most companies can't do this job, and some don't even want to. But we can, and we do. As we prove ourselves, though, our value -- and therefore your compensation -- can go up. We can pick and choose our projects. And have even more fun and make even more money, for you, for us, and for our clients.

And we think that's what it's all about.