Beware the FAMTAM
We came up with “FAMTAM” as a quick way to identify a particular type of campaign – specifically an outbound campaign run by companies that aren’t concerned with the quality of the appointments they are scheduling for their clients. They care about quantity only – and we know this, because their commitment to their clients is a precise set number of meetings annually or monthly.
“FAMTAM” means “Fog A Mirror, Take A Meeting”
Put another way, if you’ve got a pulse, you’re a prospect.
I’ve always been skeptical of “FAMTAM” lead generation companies – how is it even remotely statistically possible that you could get the exact same number of appointments every year for an accounting company in St. Louis and an I.T. company in Detroit? Any experienced marketer would know that this is complete B.S.
Most MSPs aren’t experienced marketers – and guaranteed meetings sounds great – risk free? Why not try it?
There’s No Such Thing as Risk-Free
Let’s look at this idea through the lens of your I.T. firm. A prospect has 20 computers and 2 servers. Another prospect has 20 computers and 2 servers. Their spend and their results with your company will be identical! Right? Right?!?
There are a lot of different factors you would need to consider – including what kind of company they are and how dependent on technology their business is.
- Will a law firm need the same support as a landscaping business?
- Do they need 24/7 support or 8/5 support?
- Are they currently being managed by a competent competitor, or does the CEO’s college-aged kid come in on the weekends?
You’d need to know a lot about a business before you could confidently give the owner an idea of how long onboarding will take and how much they’re going to spend. And ultimately – you’re not going to promise anyone a 100% guarantee.
Wishing Doesn’t Make It So
Yet, competent I.T. business owners don’t think twice about a promise from a marketing vendor that they’ll get exactly what the company down the block will get – the same results, at the same price.
No two companies are the same (though many have the same problems), but when offered the idea of a risk-free, or guaranteed performance marketing program, MSPs are happy to believe that there’s a magical marketing strategy that ensures every single company that signs up with a marketing company, regardless of their size, industry, other marketing investments and reputation, will get the exact same number of sales appointments?
At Managed Sales Pros, we know what a high quality managed services opportunity looks like. You’ll never get a low-technology dependent, high-cost adverse prospect to convert. We know this. You know this. And the FAMTAM lead generation company knows this too – but they have a quota to hit. They promised you meetings, so they’re going to put the poorly qualified appointment on your calendar. And when you can’t close it (because it was never a good opportunity to begin with) a FAMTAM vendor will blame your sales team.
We only work with I.T. firms, and I can give you an expert opinion here: the number of qualified appointments available in a market vary wildly from the number of appointments available in a market.
Money Isn’t The Only Thing You’re Wasting
When a business owner accepts a sales meeting, they’re committing to spending hours of their time preparing, commuting, meeting, following up, writing proposals, presenting proposals and then following up some more. We estimate that you burn at least two hours on a virtual meeting that no-shows. You waste double that driving to a meeting where the prospect wasn’t expecting you or interested in talking to you. You waste even more time meeting with prospects who weren’t qualified for budget, timeline, contract end date and technology dependence. Just two poorly qualified meetings a month burns two full time work weeks annually. Imagine – you could have taken a two-week holiday instead of taking poorly-qualified sales meetings!
(Check out the return on investment that our clients receive with our qualified appointments!)
On my worst day as an SDR, I could still pressure disinterested and unqualified business owners into taking a sales appointment. I’m good at my job, I’m charming and disarming on the phone, and I know how to structure conversations that lead to a “yes”. Looking for a partner that understands your space, protects your valuable time and only schedules qualified sales appointments? We got you, fam(tam).
Learn more about how to qualify MSP sales appointments, learn when is a good time to outsource appointment scheduling, and learn more about our process for scheduling MSP sales appointments. Then, schedule some time to chat with us about growing your MSP!