18 Apr

Binary Method to Prospecting Leads with Alex Berman

Alex Berman, currently the Business Development Manager at Vimbly, originally contacted me via oHours in hopes of discussing how to best enter the New York tech scene. After networking his way into Vimbly, a new activity finding service, we reconnected to discuss sales tactics which resulted in the following video discussion.

Alex asked me via email, “When you set a quota for yourself, how do you come up with the order to call leads in? Do you put the easy ones first? The hard ones? People likely to say no?”

If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Click here to download and view the example Excel document we reference in the video (or a larger image).

Using the binary method to prospect and qualify leads is dependent on both industry and product. In our example, we take on the role of a B2C discount network for the hospitality industry. A few of the attributes we reference when determining deal strength were number of locations, warm versus cold introductions, and whether the restaurant location used OpenTable for reservations – using competing or related products shows a propensity to testing new technologies.

To clarify, deal strength is quite different than deal probability. While a leads probability helps quantify the likelihood of it closing, deal strength represents the potential return generated if such a deal comes to fruition.

When initially formalizing your business’s sales process it is necessary to complete A/B testing on your communication methods, talking points, and other strategies. If you are unaware of previous, successful methods, you can reference published case studies.

Once you contact a qualified lead it is necessary to organize your communications in a centralized location for your entire team, if not company, to be able to access. I would highly recommend Pipedrive (affiliate link), but other services offer similar solutions (Nutshell, Salesforce, Highrise, etc.).

Alex and I will review how we both utilize Pipedrive for managing our personal networks in an upcoming video. If you want to be notified when published, just signup for my newsletter – thanks!
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Alex also blogs about marketing and customer development on his blog Following the Rules, check it out for strategies and scripts you can use to learn more about who your startup’s customer’s are.