In Use ASPO To Boost Cold Call Success Rates, I’d introduced Account Specific Point Offering and touched upon how salespersons can use it to spark off the conversation with potential buyers at the top of the funnel.
In this post, I’ll describe ASPOs in greater detail and outline a methodology for developing them.
ASPO DEFINED
ASPO is a link between your product or service and your prospect’s strategic initiative.
Strategic initiatives are responses to internal or external events affecting the business. Examples of such “trigger events” are sharp increase in pilferage, expansion into a new geography, acquisition of a new company, winning a large contract, and so on. Respective strategic initiatives would be to contain pilferage, develop localizations, post merger integration, and reduce AR.
ASPOs have extreme degree of relevance and personalization.
An ASPO is developed from one out of the many products / services in your portfolio that is relevant to the specific prospect at whom you’re pitching it.
Two prospects might respond differently to the same trigger event. Therefore, the same ASPO won’t work with both of them.
EXAMPLES OF ASPO
Let me give a few examples of ASPOs created using the aforesaid methodology.
EXAMPLE-1: Access Control Product Targeted At A Prospect Facing Heavy Pilferage
Trigger Event: Sharp increase in pilferage from warehouses.
Strategic Initiative: Restrict access to warehouses.
ASPO: RFID-based access control technology.
Pitch: “I understand that you’re facing heavy losses due to pilferage. I’m calling since I thought you may be looking for a way to restrict access to your warehouses so that you can reduce these losses.”
EXAMPLE-2: IT Localization Solution Targeted At A Prospect That Is Expanding Into New Geographies
“I recently read about your plans to expand into new geographies. From our experience with other customers, the required country-specific localizations may delay your launch dates. I’m calling since I thought you may be looking for a way to curtail those delays and safeguard your launch dates.”
EXAMPLE-3: Post Merger Integration Service Targeted At A Prospect That Acquired A New Company
“I heard about your new company acquisition. This might cause incompatibilities in your IT landscape. I’m calling since I thought you may be looking for a way to integrate the IT systems of the two companies such that the incompatibilities are eliminated.”
CREATING ASPOs
The process of creating an ASPO is illustrated in the following exhibit:
It comprises the following steps:
- Track trigger events and strategic initiatives for each company on your Target Lead List. If you’re unable to find enough information to do this from the company’s website, you can subscribe to paid services like EDGAR Online, InsideView or our HEATMAP360 that provide news, stories and sentiment respectively.
- Create a strong link between strategic initiatives and your products / services. This link must be clear enough for the prospect to ‘get it’ in the first few seconds of the cold call. It should also be credible enough for him or her to continue the conversation instead of writing it off as a tall claim and bang the phone down.
To create ASPOs, your team needs a 360 degree knowledge of your offerings, a clear grasp of your case studies, the ability to “connect the dots” and, above all, the flair to “think on your feet”.
You also need oversight to ensure that your BD executives don’t spend too much time on research and too little on calling.
ASPOs are not everybody’s cup of tea but those who use it see a quantum leap in their business development outcomes.
Companies facing a shortfall of skills or lack of management bandwidth to pull off the development of ASPOs inhouse could always outsource this activity.