My first real job out of college was as a supervisor at the front desk of a business hotel just outside of Boston. It was not the most glamorous position but it did teach me the importance of open communication from department to department, as this particular hotel was quite chaotic.
When I “stepped up” into my first Jr. Inside Sales role I thought things would be different, but within a week I was struck by the lack of communication I had with the sales team. My cube was placed smack dab in the middle of the marketing department with 5 other Jr. Inside Sales reps that were lacking as much direction as I was. We were tasked with following up on web hits, attendees to webinars and any other cold lists of target companies that marketing felt fit the profile of company we should be calling on. Anything that needed to be communicated to sales from the inside sales reps usually went through our sales operations manager or through marketing. Since our salaries were funded through marketing budgets, and we were perceived as "telemarketers", we were only allowed communication with marketing. Another challenge was that the sales team didn't have time to do any hand holding since they were too busy traveling and attempting to close business.
It seemed so foreign to me to not be allowed to communicate directly with the outside sales reps. At the hotel we would simply call or walk down to the department we needed answers from. Even if it wasn't the most pleasant conversation, we eventually found some common ground which allowed the team to work more seamlessly from that point forward.
Over the next few months we were able to pull down meetings with some of the low hanging fruit, but we struggled mightily to navigate through the target accounts. Having no direct access to the outside sales team, we were not provided with the subtle tips and compelling statements that could have increased our chances of uncovering a pain. The marketing material was always very helpful to send when we actually got a prospect live, but if we didn't define the pain we usually never sent the appropriate collateral to get them interested.
After a few quarters of banging ours heads against the wall, we were eventually able to convince management that we needed full access to the outside reps. We aligned 1 inside reps with 3 reps in the field and had regular weekly check-ins to review questions and progress made on our target list. This helped to accomplish a few goals for us:
1) Allowed the inside reps a much better sense of how to navigate through an organization
2) What to actually say when you do get a prospect live
3) The best collateral to be sending out post conversation
4) Outside reps developed more confidence in the opportunities the inside team uncovered
5) Allowed us to be more forward thinking about how to attack the territory quarter after quarter
Running an inside team I've found that I have become relatively adept at playing the role of peacemaker. It could have much to do with trying to corral the wide range of colorful personalities that I worked with in the hotel industry. While I know marketing and sales may not always have the best relationship, they need to put their egos aside and recognize that we are all working together toward a collective goal. Let us put down those egos, find some common ground and make the company a boatload of money working as a unit.
How about in your organization - do your Inside and Outside Sales teams communicate well? Would be interested to hear how others have helped bring these teams together.
Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you another guest entry from one of our BDRs, Jill Ryan.
We have discussed how sales success is augmented by closed loop approach to marketing and sales. We all know that an effective Inside Sales team follows a call plan specific to the prospect, qualifies the account, and passes them along for an introductory call. From there, the sales reps take over; given the contacts provided to move this prospect to pipeline.
Occasionally, when we follow up on our passed leads, the feedback is that they never occurred. Whether the Sales rep missed the call, the prospect never answered, or there was some crazy miscommunication, everyone loses. Now, instead of making fresh dials into new accounts, the business development reps (BDR's) are forced to play phone tag and re-engage these people to reschedule. How can we avoid this huge waste of time? For me, it has been by having great relationships with the Sales reps.
Working directly with the Sales reps has been the most helpful tool in enhancing my performance levels, and thus the amount of leads I commit to client pipeline. Several of the "young guns" I work with have also had success with this approach. They understand how difficult it can be to navigate around gate keepers, busy schedules and rejection. By encouraging an open relationship with the Sales reps, less intro calls are missed, and more calls move along to the next step.
So Sales reps, here are a few tips to drive your better results for you Inside Sales team:
- Give us your contact information. Whether it is your desk phone, cell or email, we are not going to stalk you. In more cases then not, I come across an interesting prospect that is on the fence on taking a call. If I can reach out to the Sales rep for a specific case study, or just a sentence of tailored information - the prospect is more prone to take that call next time around.
- Make sure to listening in on BDR's calls. There may be something we miss on a qualification call that you can identify, extracting more compelling information for the following steps. We can learn so much from you that will help us as we refine our qualification questions.
- Calendar invitations can be gold. Allow us to send the prospect a calendar invitation introducing you with the time, date and your contact information. This way, everyone is on the same page and a reschedule is easier to facilitate if required.
- Keep us informed. If there was a lead that was great, or if there was a lead that was just awful, let us know either way, if it is the latter we can readdress the list of the questions we are using to qualify. We do care about the job we do, and frankly are compensated on the quality we deliver based on your feedback.
By being an email or a phone call away we can minimize missed appointments and help reduce long drawn out sales cycles. If every Sales rep was more open to direct contact, I am convinced you would see the value. Also by having a good relationship with the Sales reps, I care even more about passing great opportunities along. So Sales reps, the Inside Sales team is there to help you - give us a call. By working more closely together, I am confident more calls will happen which will have a positive impact on your pipeline.
Today's Sales Prospecting Perspectives post is from Chris Lang, AG's Sales Director.
Remember the show "Kids say the Darndest Things"? Man I loved that show. I wasn't around during the Art Linkletter years to see the original version, but I used to watch the re-runs on Nick at Night with my parents and then the Bill Cosby version in the late 90's. The kids would say a couple of off colored, hilarious statements and often times by the end of the segment the adults would be thinking, "Wow we could really learn a lot from that child." The kids, without knowing any better, would teach us all a lesson with simple observations about life. For example an 8 year old named Manuel said you should do this for the person you are in love with, "Yell out that you love them at the top of your lungs...and don't worry if their parents are right there." Manuel is a genius! Here people are reading advice columns, watching awful romantic comedies (usually with Hugh Grant in them) and doing everything else under the sun to be a better spouse and Manuel broke it down to one statement: Love the person no matter what and don't be afraid to show them that.
I'm used to calling into my network and being set up with very warm leads from my inside team. I sometimes forget the nuances of how to get past gate keepers and deal with administrative assistants. I asked one of my fellow sales reps for some help on my emails a while ago. I hadn't been getting a good return rate, which used to be a strong point for me, and I was completely baffled. I tried every approach I knew, straightforward, information seeking, just trying to help, your boss told me to write you, I have your dog in my trunk, etc... Nothing was getting through. My co-worker Ed, O'Neil (there Ed I said your name in the blog, please stop asking me) gave me a great format which I tried over the course of the next week. The basic principle was to keep it simple, deliver the information needed and tell them what you want to do. The way he worded it made the prospect really want to get back to him. The return rate on my emails doubled in one week.
I asked Ed if he had anything else for me. It turns out Ed got that advice from someone else. Surely Ed had a friend that has written books on "email effectiveness", a colleague that ran a sales consultancy or at least that crazy cousin that was super smart until he got "caught up in the 70's". Turns out Ed was talking to one of our junior inside reps at AG that had only been here for about 6 months and this was the rep's first job right out of college. I started sharing information with all of our inside reps for tips on how to write emails, what scripting should be used on certain titles and what to say to the nasty admin that always answers the phone. (Call the executive at 8am, the admins don't get in the office until 8:30 - 9am so the contact will answer) Turns out the reps here are all geniuses! There was a huge amount of knowledge floating around the building and I wasn't tapping into it because I limited myself to asking superiors for advice. The inside reps have information sharing sessions every week to make each other better. This wasn't management mandated, they just knew that the better they did the more money they would make and if they shared a secret or two someone may share a few with them and both people would win. Everyone has their strong points and often times your strong point could be an area of weakness for someone else so why wouldn't we critique and give feedback on everyone's styles?
We meet on a weekly basis to go over what is working, share ideas and how to continually improve. Everyone goes to these meetings from the president of the company to the new person that started a week ago. Every person is encouraged to speak and bring a couple of good ideas to the table. Titles are left at the door and anyone can help someone else. A lot of times, as people get promoted into management they don't ask non-management for opinions and advice. Conversely, someone in an entry level role probably won't stroll up to senior management and tell them they have an idea that could help. It's silly really. If there is a more effective way to get something done you should want to know about it. Provide your team with a forum to openly share ideas with each other. You could even do it through an anonymous chat board if think it will encourage more discussion.
So don't limit yourself, everyone in your company has great ideas, leverage everyone's knowledge. It is the role of great leaders to find and use those ideas to help everyone in the company.