Persistence Pays—How 42 Lead Qualification Touchpoints Won a $1 Billion Deal

Posted by Dan McDade

Find me on:
on Jun 9, 2017 9:41:32 AM

Lead Generation Featured Image

PointClear is known for its perseverance. While some sales people stop after placing one or two calls (if they don’t get the prospect on the phone or don’t get a call back, they deem the lead no good) our sales support associates keep trying.

We know that in the lead generation, lead qualification and lead nurturing business, it takes multiple tries, across multiple cycles, to fully work a lead.

Our success stories are attributed to this persistent (yet professional) approach to teleprospecting.

Case-in-Point

One opportunity we turned over to a client took 42 touchpoints across 3 months to nurture to sales-qualified status.

This engagement had our team reaching out to CFOs at the 50 largest utilities in the US, on behalf a technology solutions provider.

The CFO with the deal described above, who was with one of the top five largest utilities in the country, at one point called one of our associates back and left this message:

“Don’t stop calling me. You are my conscience. I have been extremely busy but I’ll be ready to talk to you soon.”

We didn’t stop.

We persevered—and then turned over a Sales Qualified Lead which closed for $1,000,000,000 five months later. Yes. One billion dollars.

Here’s What PointClear Persistence Looks Like

While the size of the deal described above is not typical, the “don’t give up too soon” success stories that lead to deals on the high side of the sales spectrum are. Here’s another one:

A services and technology company targeting the branding, design and advertising industry leverages PointClear’s account-based marketing services, including lead generation, qualification and nurture to keep their pipeline full of sales-qualified leads. Here’s an experience our associates had in delivering a particularly valuable opportunity:

  • The prospect was worked from Aug. – Dec. of 2016
  • There were 32 total touches from start to finish
  • Calls were split: 5 were make to decision-makers/influencers and 5 were made to executive assistants
  • We reached 3 decision-maker/influencers and 2 executive assistants
  • There were 7 voicemails left and 8 emails sent
  • The touch cycle resulted in 6 conversations … and 1 giant opportunity

The client wrote, after getting the SQL from their dedicated PointClear team:

"Our AE’s would never have been persistent enough to get this opportunity.”

A Keep-at-It Story Close to Home

I recently spoke with a PointClear prospect regarding the persistence of one of our associates (who supports PointClear’s sales team).

“Thank goodness Christine stayed on me and kept reaching out for me to take this conversation.”

After that conversation I sent our operations team this note:

“This was a nice thing for him to say. It also was a perfect way for me to actually show, versus evangelize, how our process works and how our people are different than what he has seen with other lead generation companies in the past … so thank you not only for the lead but the persistence and professionalism that epitomize what we do and that clearly impress prospects.”

Anecdotal Validation

I talked to a senior exec recently who said he was amazed at the number of sales calls he receives that are never followed up. Most of the time he does not pick up the telephone, but sometimes he has an interest once he hears the voicemail.

But then he gets busy and forgets to call back. He never hears from that company again; and even though he had interest, the person working the lead didn’t invest the number of touches required to earn a conversation and win his business.

It takes persistence and professionalism to drive big deals in complex selling environments. Read more about how we do it here.

Send me an email (dan.mcdade@pointclear.com). I have more stories like the ones you just read that I’d be happy to share with you.

(Ask me how we helped one client spend $49,000 on B2B lead generation, qualification and nurturing, instead of $172,000 – and doubled their return.)


Tell us what you think!

Topics: B2B Telemarketing, B2B Sales, Increase Sales


Revenue - Inbound - Nurturing = The GAP. We guarantee you'll be surprised by your actual metrics. Try our Lead Revenue Calculator
Get the Calculator

filter blog posts

  • Search

Top 5 posts

How Much Leads Cost

I review a lot of content on this topic and am amazed at what I find written about lead cost. For example:

Why Don’t Companies Want to Talk to Anyone?

It’s truly strange when companies enter the stealth mode. They hide phone numbers, dial-by-name directories, and employee names,..

What Should the Sales Close Rate Be?

I’ve read and heard (from a well-known industry analyst firm) that best-in-class companies close 30% of sales qualified leads..

Gold Calling vs. Cold Calling

I've written many blog posts on the fact that cold calling isn't dead. In fact, doing the right amount of research, adding a..