Prospecting Marvelous: 21% Explained

I've decided to title my inaugural post in honor of the ludicrously-named Nicholas Cage film Bangkok Dangerous. After watching the trailer 14 times, I still have no idea what the movie is about. Nicky, what happened to you?

In response to Renay Picard’s Sept 12th post about Open, Basho Community member Pat Wonder asked, “What do you define as response? - Reaching someone, the right someone, or securing an appointment with someone or the right someone?”

So, to answer Pat's question, here is a brief yet complete breakdown of the 21% response rate.

Simply put, we split “responses” into two types: meetings and referrals (and they are both pretty self-explanatory). A referral is generated when a sales rep using Basho Open connects live with their target and, after delivering an Opener, hangs up the phone with the name and contact info of the best person to speak with about their products or services. A meeting means the sales rep got their target live and closed for a 15 minute meeting (or 30 minutes or 60 minutes, etc.). And we can't forget about voice mails; people who leave Openers as voice mails do get call backs. We, of course, count these, too.

(What’s even better is when a salesperson delivers an Opener that is so compelling they actually get a meeting on the spot…that’s what I call “Open Magic.”)

That’s it. 21% of the time, sales and marketing reps using Basho Open get off the phone having made substantial, measurable progress. If they generate a referral, they know to contact that person and close for a meeting. If they used Basho Open to close for a meeting on the first call, they have then added a genuine opportunity to their pipeline. And that is what Basho Open is all about: filling the pipeline rapidly and consistently with genuine opportunities.

Time to craft some compelling content.